My husband had radical throat surgery in Feb.,2003. He had the base of the right tongue, tonsill,half of the soft palate removed (a skin flap was made), part of his right jaw bone removed and reconstructed with bone from his hip. The surgeons felt that they got it all, after the tissues were examined during surgery. He followed up with 33 sessions of Radiation which he finished 3 weeks ago. He still has a minor surgery scheduled in 3 or 4 weeks to uncover a tooth that was covered up during surgery and discovered through xray, as the doctor felt something hard on the floor of his mouth. How this happened, who knows???? He was in surgery for 14 hours.
I think other than being cured from this monster disease,we are wondering from past survivors with a similar surgery and treatments is there a good chance that he can regain some normalcy in eating again? I know it will take time but it is heavy on his mind. When is it the best time to go to a swallowing therapist? Wait until all the surgeries or over? It has been beyond scary for us and I do find relief in this wonderful forum. This is a long post but I will ask more questions later. Thanks for your help.
Becky

While I did not have any portion of my tongue removed, I did have my lover left jaw removed and replaced with a tray and bone marrow. After the initial healing process and spending 3 months in the hospital, I began eating soft foods. Two months later I was eating foods that required light chewing. Today, I can eat most anything.It took a while to learn how to chew and swallow certain foods, but your husband will probably learn by trial and error what he enjoys and is able to eat. Be prepared for him being frustrated while he is learning. Alot of times,I break up certain foods into smaller bites. For example, I would pull off bites of a sandwich rather than bite into a whole sandwich. Somethings are still difficult to eat and can be messy. So, I save the good messy stuff for home and eat easy stuff when out dining with friends.Hope this helps. Good luck !