Still causing trouble out there Jim?

Man almost 2 1/2 years post Tx, how time flies!

Thank you stubborn ass Italian. My husband always tells the doctors that he is from the Bronx and so will ki k the sh-t out of this cancer. I hope he is right. I appreciate your thoughts

Thank you stubborn ass Italian. My husband always tells the doctors that he is from the Bronx and so will ki k the sh-t out of this cancer. I hope he is right. I appreciate your thoughts

Hi Ellen, martin had a modified radical neck dissection where they took a few nodes but left the muscle. There was only one positive node. The scar goes from the back of the ear down the neck and accross to the middle of the neck. After the operation Martin was fine.He was numb but had fairly good movement and no pain. But movement worsened after radiation as did the pain, as it scarred the muscle tissue we are told. Martin has learnt to manage the pain with medication. But not everyone is in pain after a ND. I think it depends a lot on the treatment with it, the aftercare you get (physio) and of course everyone is different. Good luck.

Thanks Cecilia. We are not sure at this point whether he will definitely need the ND so I am just getting as much information as I can.

I had my neck dissection 3 weeks ago today,in addition to surgery on my tongue tumour.I got the impression from my surgeon that a ND was standard practice concerning tumours such as mine under the tongue (mine was stage 2).
I had the CT and MRI scans and nothing untoward showed up on them.However, I had zones 1 to 4 removed during my dissection and 3 of the 30 nodes removed were found to be cancerous,one having burst throught the capsule.
The incision is large and slightly shocking when you first see it - but that 'shock' soon passes and my scar is now healing very well.It's a little tight in terms of movement but my Physio/excercise should alleviate that.I didn't endure much pain at all - so if an ND is needed,it's certainly manageable if that's any consolation.I had 2 drains in my neck for about 5/6 days and they do restrict your movement - removal of one of these made me wince a little,but that was momentary and as my wife says I'm probably getting a bit soft as the years pass.
I've got my 6 week stint of radiotherapy and chemotherapy starting in about a month, so my treatment seems to be the other way around.Doctors eh?

Good luck - I hope it all works out for you both.

Thanks Brendan. I wonder why ours might be in reverse. Good luck with treatment. It is good to know that some of the cancer hAs been removed.

Hope he doesn't need the neck dissection, but if he does, it's do-able.

I had my modified radical neck dissection nine months after chemo radiation ended. Like the others have said, it looks much more painful than it is. Docs did tell me that it would be "harder" because I already had radiation scarring in the area, and I found the pain involved to be very low level. For me, there are some long lasting side effects (firmness, numb spots, extra sensitive spots, altered range of motion for my right arm/shoulder and neck, etc.) Sounds very bad, but it's very manageable. I think with therapy, I might be able to elimate the limited motion issues. Most folks I think are out of the hosptial in three days. I really don't recall pain nearly as much as being irritated at not being able to roll over in bed until the drains came out (three or four days). Oh - and ask about using mouth spray - I was not permitted anything by mouth for the entire first day (surgery and recovery) - even that didn't phase me much (unconscious/groggy).

I had it all, tongue surgeries, modified radical neck dissection, chemo rad's....By far the easiest for me was the neck dissection. They took out 76 lymph nodes (don't have much left there) one was positive in first go round. There was little pain for me because of the nerves there. I do have numbness still in my upper arm and across my chest to midline and my face swells up periodically when I sleep on that side due to the lack of lymph nodes.

Ellen

From your other posts, I thought the neck dissection happened last month. didn't see any bad posts, so hope it all went well.
One aspect of OCF is that relatively new posters resurrect old posts in an attempt to be helpful. Still, it's the thought that counts. I just answered your current post
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