Hi nicki

I had the same back in 2017 and my tongue still tingles, not painful either but like ive burnt it on hot food

Hope everything is healing well and that the rest of your treatment goes well. Its tough but you will get through it

Nat :) 

Hi nicki

I had the same back in 2017 and my tongue still tingles, not painful either but like ive burnt it on hot food

Hope everything is healing well and that the rest of your treatment goes well. Its tough but you will get through it

Nat :) 

How long did your swelling take to go down and  yeh mine is tingling loads atm. I had my surgery 5 weeks ago I’m hell of a jumpy worrying over everything I still have to undergo radiotherapy yet , did you have that? 

Hi nicki

I cant remember how long the swelling took to go down but dont think it was very long as i was back at work 4 weeks after my op on my tongue and i worked speaking on a phone at that time.

Yeah i had chemo-radiotherapy so 6 weeks radio and chemo once a week. It was really tough as it made me very sick but everyone is different and other people i met in treatment didnt have many issues with it at all so everyone will go through it differently.

5 weeks and swelling is still there my talking isn’t that great but I’ve lost a significant part of my tongue and lymph nodes my only concern is  there’s swelling and tingling around the site where the tumour was. 

The tumor on my tongue was very small so thats probably why my recovery was a lot quicker. Do you have any appointments coming up so you can mention your concerns and they can check the healing.

I didnt have my neck dissection at the same time as my tongue op as was given the all clear after tongue op then they found it had spread to my lymph nodes 3 months later after a check up so maybe that could be another reason yours is taking longer to heal.

Hi Nicki

i had a partial glossectomy and free flap reconstruction, plus neck dissection on 11th June. I’m now one third way of the way through radiotherapy. It had not spread to my lymph nodes so RT is to my tongue only.

my surgeon told me the tingly tongue at the point where they cut is nerve regeneration and I believe it can last a long time. Most of the swelling went down over the course of a few days and weeks, but they also said the flap will continue to reduce in size for months, as the skin becomes thinner. Did you have a reconstruction too?

selinz 

My husband is due to have partial glossectomy, neck dissection and reconstruction from his arm in a few weeks, would really like to chat with anyone who has had the same operation to let me know how you now are and anything you can say to help me get my husband through this, he is so worried. Thank you 

Hi,

Wishing him luck I am sure he is in excellent hands to get him through surgery.

My dad is going through the same procedure next month. Would like to know if anyone knows what the recovery process is like and how much has it impacted on speech and eating.

I had this operation in December speech is fine but I struggle with the s sound

Sorry for my slow reply, I missed this. Has he had the surgery yet? The first few days and weeks were tough. I had radiotherapy after which definitely set back my recovery by several months. However my speech was about 80% normal once the swelling had gone down, and 90% within a few months. 19 months or so post surgery it's about 97% normal.

As for eating, I was on a liquid diet for a few weeks post surgery, and then post RT finishing, and then it slowly returned to normal. Now it's 95% - I can eat pretty much whatever I want, but spicy foods are more spicy (that's due to the RT), and certain foods I need to eat a bit more consciously - eg salad. I also eat more slowly - but that's not a bad thing!

It was tough at the time but there are no long term effects that I would say impact my quality of life. 

Thanks for your reply [@irate]‍ . That's great to hear you had no problems with speech.

Would you be able to share your experience of the post-recovery and anything which help the recovery process. We are very anxious as my father is 85 and feel his recovery might be slow.