My doctor has declared me to be cancer-free, and he has suggested that I would be a good candidate for reconstructive surgery on my maxilla and hard palate. The surgery would be very similar to that for reconstruction of the mandible, I think, with harvest of the fibula from the lower leg, along with blood supply, other tissue, and, in this case, some skin.....to be grafted into the area where the maxilla was removed. At this time, without my oral appliance.....my obturator....I have an opening in the roof of my mouth.

I would love to hear from people who have had this surgery....maxillary or mandibular......how did it turn out? did you have problems? are you glad you did it? do you have residual problems with your leg? ...anything that you could add.

Also....I would like to know the best place to get such surgery done. My surgeon did a fabulous job on my initial surgery, but he has done only 4-5 of these reconstructions, and I think that I want someone with more experience to do mine, if I decide to do it.

August,

My mom just had surgery because the radiation fried her jaw bone and then her jaw broke so they did remove her fibula from the lower leg along with the blood supply and other tissue. They connected the veins etc to the opposite side of her face that did not have radiation so she is going to be brand new and if the cancer ever recurred she would be able to have radiation again because everything in the radiated area is new. She is 2 1/2 weeks out of surgery and already feeling a lot better than she has since the completion of radiation over 2 1/2 years ago.
Her leg looks pretty yucky right now but she can already walk (with a limp) and it just needs to be covered for another month and then it will be able to go uncovered and heal. Her doctors say she will not be able to hop anymore but its a small price to pay for no more pain and suffering and infections because of the hole in her mouth that continuosly had problems. She had her surgery in Los Angeles at UCLA. Her doctors and the nurses and the reconstructive surgeon were awesome. Her face was cut into a lot but she looks really good all things considered. The reconstructive surgeon does many of these surgeries he came highly recommended and his sucess rate is very high...I think it's 98%. I know that Minnie has also had a similar surgery too. As far as quality of life goes I am definately for the surgery. My mom hated having to carry around a syringe to flush out the hole after everything she ate and drank. She is sooo much better now and I know that as time passes she will only continue to improve.

Take Care,
Dani

August,
6 months ago yesterday, I had the left mandible removed and replaced with fibula. Today, unless I point out the scars on my face and neck people don't even see them. Considering that there were over 400 visible stitches there, I find that amazing. Functionally it's fine other than a restriction in opening my mouth, but that's improving.

swallowing is fine...the radiation caused more issues with that than the surgery.

I have some residual problems with walking on the left leg, but I'm going to PT to address that

I was in hospital 12 days, had a trach for a week and a feeding tube for 8 days.
Wayne

Hi August

Great to here you