Ok, so Peter (T1, N0) had surgery May 27th to remove 1/2 of tongue, and 40 nodes from right side of neck. He was in the hospital for 8 days.

He's been home now for two weeks. Three days or so ago, we went to the emergency room. Seemed like an infection. Gave us antibiotics, drained it manually, took samples to lab.

We've been having to change dressing every 2 hours. So he went into the ENT doctor this morning to ask why it wasn't slowing down.

Doc says it is lymphatic fluid draining fat from his diet. Has put him on Zero-fat prescription liquid that tastes worse than Boost or Ensure, for one week. Says he has to do this for a week to see what changes. If nothing improves, well... he goes back into the hospital for more surgery.

1) Has anyone had this experience?

2) Can he truly not even eat zero-fat foods, like maybe an apple or something? He's put in a call to the ENT Nutritionist folks to ask for sure. It seems crazy to me that he wouldn't be able to at least eat something zero-fat...

He's so disheartened to hear he may have to go back into The Hospital....

Sigh,
Mary

My husband hand surgery to remove 10% of the base of his tongue and many lymph nodes on both sides of his neck. He had his surgery on June 5th and stayed in the hospital for 7 days. He came home with a trach and NG tube. 4 days later they removed the NG tube and trach. He had difficulty swallowing and 12 days post op I noticed pus draining from his incision site. A trip to the ER was required and he received antibiotic IV therapy. We now go to an ENT who packs the fistula that has devloped (fistula being a "tunnel" of infection) in order to stir up the tissue in the "tunnel" to promote drainage and healing. We go twice daily for these dressing changes. I'm an RN so for the next 5 days I will be able to do the dressing changes at home as the Dr. is on vacation. When we started this process it was discovered that he wasn't protecting his airway after the NG tube was removed so it was replaced and he is still on tube feeding. The trach however is almost closed.

Hi Cindy,

You mentioned FISTULA...this tunnel of infection...may we please talk about this....what the hell is it? I have heard so many different reasons why my sister developed this...one being the tumor needed a way out and made its way thru her incision on her neck. Second, fluids are not able to drain...so it found a way...in the meantime, she is cleaning it 24/7 this FISTULA...does it ever heal? It is getting bigger! My sister won't let us, the family, see it. I have had a peek. Are you kidding me with that? My poor sister. Any suggestions, any advice with fistula's anyone?...what they use to clean it, to keep it from getting worse anyone? Thanks, Flo XoX We are looking for a wound nurse, does that make any sense to anyone? Why can't they close it? They say they can't.

Sister 37, Advanced : Recurrence SCC Head and Neck Cancer...Diag. June 2000...