Any of you that have had reconstruction of the tongue and now have a flap I could use some advice for my father.
He had the left half side of his tongue removed and to appropriately do reconstruction they took a piece of his thigh and reconstructed the tongue but had to attached it to the right side for blood flow because of his previous neck dissection.
He is one month out of surgery and we do not have a followup appointment with the surgeon until the 21st. He is asking me if his new flap will move and how it is attached.
I remember I think the surgeon saying it would not move.
Do any of you know how if it is attached to the floor of his mouth. If so his next question for me was what about my saliva gland on that side. Which of course because he has been previously radiated 7+ years ago he does not have much saliva but every bit helps. I realize we ultimately need to talk to the surgeon but any insights from those of you with flaps would be greatly appreciated. He has always been extremely diligent in his mouth/teeth care his whole life so he is wondering how it all will work now. He is not allowed anything by mouth as of yet. Too much swelling from surgery and Intraoperative radiation.
Thanks,
Kim

I don't have a tongue flap, but just responding since I have a pec flap in the cervical neck. Hopefully someone else can help.

Ive seen members with tongue flaps anchored to the floor of their mouths and others with it added to the side of their tongue. Its pretty much different for each individual patient as the tumor (and margins) could be located anywhere on the tongue. Im sure previous medical history also plays a role in this as well.

Best wishes to your father.

Okay I do have a flap - mine is not adhered to the floor of my mouth - so it looks a lot like my normal tongue. They rebuilt my tongue and put in a floor on the operative side. However I do know some surgeons adhere it. I know some patients go back to have it separated or redone, hope this helps.

Kris has a flap. As he had a total Glossectomy and now has absolutely no tongue, the surgeons fashioned an abdominal flap into a tongue and placed that in his mouth. It is adherrant and does not move an iota. But, it looks like a tongue. Just doesn't function like one.
Tammy

Mine (forearm flap) does move. It is anchored only at the back, and I have trained it to work with the "old" tongue. The flap is heavier than the tongue, so it has a tendency to "lean" to the left. I still work on tongue physio to try and correct that (I can feel a pull in the left jaw when I do it).

I have also seen people write of having the anchor released partially if there problems with mobility.

Saliva is definitely down. Immediately after surgery I drooled like Cujo, then the dry mouth hit, and has stuck around, although now (a year later) it is better than it was.