All the very best for tomorrow Lucinda.
I too looked at the youtube video's briefly and they are very graphic as Ray says.
The good thing is that you will not see any of this. Like many here I healed very well and most people would hardly notice the slight scaring on the neck.
Maybe you might like to keep your own photographic history of your recovery process? I have lot's of photo's starting 2 weeks after surgery of both wrist,thigh,neck but mostly ones I took of my own mouth.
Again all the very best and when able let us know how you are going.

My neck looked funny for awhile but it has all faded now 1.5 years later. I had some reconstructiveplastic surgery this summer to help with the uneveness of my face and to get rid of the trach scar which botherred me but I could have lived with it. My neck looks uneven but there isn't much they can do abotu that- It takes awhile but the body heals itself nicely. Its important to make sure you eat well and get lots of nourishment afterwards because your skin will heal much much better.

I can send you picsof before(if Ic an find them) and how I look now. Let me know

Kate

Hi all,
today is 2nd postop day, I'm having my husband take pictures, but he thinks it's a little wierd. So far I seem to be recovering well. The drainage tubes are still active so are waiting until tomorrow to pull those. I'm not quite as swollen as I thought I'd be, I think all the warnings from people had me expecting worse, which is good in my mind! Already got the pathology from then tongue and left nodes and those were all clear! Just waiting for the right nodes to come back, so keep praying! Thanks for the support, this is a great site!
Lucinda

Wow impressive I was so out of it with medication for a week after surgery that this is impressive two days and being lucid enough to be aware of what is happening is amazing and to be able to make posts Wow is all I can say. Cept maybe keep up the good work!!!

Congrats on getting the all clear so far! I remember all to well having the drainage tubes pulled - yuck! It felt like the tubes were 10 miles long and they just kept pulling them out! I had one out a day. Glad to hear you are doing so well!

How wonderful that you are already posting so soon Lucinda.
Great news that all is clear so far and fingers crossed that the news is just as good for the rest of the tests.
Congratulations
Gabriele

OK - You must be relieved to be on on the way to being a non-bionic person. I am hoping that you have a good report on the other side.

Well, not so good news on the right side, the regular stains didn't show any obvious cancer, but evidently didn't look quite normal either, so some special IHS stains were done and these were positive in all 3 nodes looked at, two level 1 nodes and 1 level 2 nodes. So the surgeon is suggesting we treat it as if it were negative since that's what it would be if the special stains hadn't been done. But I'm not comfortable with that, since the special stains were done and they were positive. So I guess we are off to get some different opinions from different people.
Lucinda

Lucifen,

Where are you being seen? Most, if not all, CCC's have a committee approach to evaluating test results which puts many minds into the equation which is usually better than just one opinion.

My latest cancer surgeon (ENT, Oral Surgeon and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at UWMC-CCC, aka Dr Haakenslash) called lymph nodes "collection points for cancer".