Hi Viki,
My name is Minnie and I had similar surgery to yours. April 16th of 2003 I had the lower left side of my jaw removed and they used the bone from my lower left leg to make me a new jawbone. I also had a left neck dissection with 6 weeks of radiation. A year later I still have a small amount of swelling under my jaw, surgery side, and a bit left on the incision for my neck dissection. I had the trach for a few days but it was out long before I left the hospital. I also had a feeding tube placed when I had my surgery and had it until December 2003.
My jaw operates quite well and I am eating most anything I want just slower. Some of my saliva was saved do I am lucky for that.
Please ask me any other questions you may have about this surgery.
Take care,
Minnie

Minniea are you sure??? Because I have a ton of questions to ask? How much of your tongue did they remove if any?? That is the thing that is bothering the most. I only have a nickel size piece left. I do know that all my swelling is from the radiation I had prior to my surgery, just 4 months before, I had the implants and the hypothermia. This is why my throat is so swollen and the trache is still in tho I have hoping it will be removed my next visit.. Oh I am so jazzed for you,,I really am,,,how did you leg heal up? The bottome where the bone was taken is doing fine, looks awful,, but it is fine. The top of my leg where the skin graft was is taking forever to heal..Did you have this as well. Did they make u a flap.I cannot wait to hear back from you,,Oh thank you so so much for writing,,i want my honey to read this,, of course he says i will be back to my normal self, he always, always sees that glass half full, for this is the reason i am so crzy about this man...Always Vicki

Hi Vicki,
I did not have anything done to my tongue, the only place I had any cancer was under my tooth in my jaw bone. I went to have a regular cleaning and the dentist found my tooth to be really loose. He extracted it and that is how we found the cancer. My leg where they took the bone healed beautifully. It's sunken in a bit but if not for that it would be tough to know that anything had been done, as the incision (which runs the length of my lower leg) is almost invisible now. I did have trouble with my foot and two decubitus ulcers that formed while in the hospital, the cast was put on to tight and one formed on the top of my foot and one on the heel. I didn't have any type of skin graft.
The think I hated the most was the trach, I fought hard to get that thing taken out!! But, I had my radiation after surgery so didn't have as much swelling.
Did you have your entire jaw replaced? My new jaw on the left side works quite well, my speech is the same as before. I did lose feeling in my lower left lip due to a nerve being removed and lost some feeling on my neck and chin, but I'm so used to it now that I don't remember what it was like before! I can open my mouth as wide now as I did before the surgery and radiation and while I eat slower, I eat well! There are some things I just don't bother with any longer, such as chips, but I can LIVE with that. I went to Ruby Tuesdays last night with my husband and two youngest daughters and had the ribeye with french onion soup and it was delicious. I get my steaks with cheese melted on top of them, seems to help and tastes delicious.
Some advice for you. Keep opening your mouth as wide as you can, many times a day. Keep your neck mobile, keep moving it around and stretching it as much as possible.
I feel what your heart feels when you talk about your daughter. I have 7 of them, ages 23,21, 20, 18, 13, 11, and 10 and my heart literally hurts when I see the sadness in their eyes. This has affected them so much more then it has me. But, after one year life is pretty much back to normal for us but with a closeness we would not have had without this experience.
You can get through this, it's tough but it can be done. The radiation was MUCH tougher on me then the surgery. I didn't have the tongue issues you have so hopefully someone else can help you with that.
Did you get a live implant for the entire jaw bone? There is another member on here, Gnelson, that also had her jaw replaced, I believe back in 2000. She is doing just great now. Hopefully she will also respond to your posts.
Take care and let me know if I can help in any way.
Minnie

Minnie,I thank you so very much for all your input and advice..This is my third bout with Cancer. I have had all the radiation that I can ever have, the lifetime dose. Surgery was my last hope. Was you leg sunk in, because mine is, I just cannot believe that it will heal to where it will not be noticable, If I could I would e mail you a picture of my leg to see if you could tell if it looked like yours. The tongue is going to be a major problem,,hum, I guess I will know when I get to that point of all this. But I do thank you so very very much, you have given me some much to look forward to. This trache is not coming out until I can get the musous up my throat and out, kind of hard to do when I can barely open my mouth and my throat is so swollen, not as bad as it was tho..I needed to hear from you this morning,,,Thank you ,,you are my angel . Always, Vicki Lynn

Vicki,
My leg looked AWFUL for a few months after the surgery. I even had to go back to the ER the day after I came home because my leg became so swollen and just looked SO horrible. We were afraid it had an infection and we were right. Now, 13 months after the surgery, I can tell you that my leg is a bit sunk in but the incision is almost invisible, you have to be on top of my leg to see a very faint scar. My husband can't get over it.
Gotta go now, heading out to the bank and to return some clothes I bought at Old Navy............seems I've gained a few more pounds then I needed to!! I have never had to worry on my weight, I've always been real small and we worried about weight loss with the surgery and radiation. I lost under 20 pounds and have gained it all back..............and some of it went to different places then I remembered it being, lol. So, back to Old Navy we go to go "up" a size. No complaints from me!
Take care,
Minnie

Thanks Minnie, appreciate the come back,,,that is me, this time I have even gained some more extra weight...But this is okay, I am not complaining one bit. I needed to gain some, I am like you not very big in weight and height. Have fun , Always Vicki

Miss Vicki,

I wanted to take a moment and give you real loud HOWDY and welcome even though by the posts it seems you have already made yourself welcome. I am so glad you have found answers to those nagging questoins you have had. That's the real gift of this place...finding an answer to just about any question you have. This is the greatest bunch of folks I have ever come across!

Ed

Dallas Texas, I am from Oklahoma, go home every chance I can get,, matter of fact our anual family reunion is in july, first time in a long time I will miss it. This sadens me for it is so much fun. It is a week long and Duncan Lake, in Duncan Oklahoma. We have been having it for 38 years now..I have a huge family, it takes a week just to see them all..lol. Why yes I have made myself very welcome here. I am finding a lot of my questions that have been keeping me up at night answered thanks to my new buddies on this site. My daughter even joined last night I see her name,Til next posting, Always Vicki