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. 

I had a partial glossectomy (small tumour no reconstruction from arm muscle needed) with sentinal node biopsy in June 2020. The sentinal node biopsy showed up 3 positive nodes so had neck dissection as second op in July followed by radiotherepy Augist/Septebmber. 

Recovery from the surgery was not too bad at all. I had ice cream  within a couple of ours of waking up from the op, liquid diet for a few weeks - lots of homemade soup helped - then soft diet for a few weeks more eating was close to back to normal by the time the radiotherepy started.

Recovery  from radiotherepy was much tougher - started to have a really unpleasent taste in my mouth from about half way through which made food taste unpleasent lost quite a lot of weight, (was overweight before so not all bad) and eating very difficult for for latter half of radiotherepy treatment and about six weeks after - subsisted for a while mainly on hospital prescribed ensure drinks (mixed with coffee and suger helped with taste for me). had a feeding tube for a couple of weeks at the end of the radiotherpy - was quite opposed to the idea of  this beforehand but it was very temporary and actually really helped me.

Now, 4 and a half months after the end of radiotherepy I can eat and drink pretty much anything  though still can't really tolerate spicy food. 

Speech for me was close to back to normal by the time the radiotherepy started but them went backwards during ratiotherepy,  but is now close to back to normal again. The speech therepy and dietician team are a really important supportive part of the process following their advice and exercises to stretch mouth and tongue and preserve swallowing function are really important  s, l and r sounds were the ones i found most difficult -

I think recovery time probably  does depend  on the amount of the tongue they need to remove though mine was small and didn't need a reconstruction from arm muscle - I guess if the tumour is larger, recovery will probablly take longer. It  can feel really frustrating at times, communication and eating are such basic things to have impacted - and i do remember moments - particularly after the radiotherepy - of wondering if things would ever improve - but looking back now where i am 4 months after radiotherpy is a whole world better than where I was just a couple of months ago. 

Wishing your father best luck for the operation.

Hi thanks for your the response my husband had the op on Wednesday (17 hrs ) as the flap would t take fourth attempt it went ok, chest infection Friday and then Monday flap failed and had to have the op again and part of his breast used, he is still in ICU because of chest infection . It has been a horrendous week and he has been poorly, I have everything crossed he turns the corner soon he is so fed up.  It helps reading that you are ok because at the moment I am so worried 

I was in hospital a total of eight nights after removal of tumour on floor of mouth and partial glossectomy and neck dissection with removal of three lymph nodes.

Trying to eat as much as possible on a sloppy diet which I am still on  8 weeks later whilst under going radiotherapy.

Flap inserted under tongue taken from wrist is still swollen and with the removal of seven teeth eating very hard.

I had no issues that the district nurse could not solve my biggest issue being hungry all the time.

Coming home as soon as possible helped me as I got no rest or sleep in hospital

All the best

Hi - very new and this is my first post as my partial glossectomy and neck disection is this Thursday - gulp.

It's really heartening to be able to read about other experiences so I've half an idea what to expect.

Apparently my treatment plan is going to be really aggressive so I have one question - 

How long after surgery and getting home do they start the chemo/radiotherapy?

M husband has turned the corner and should be home soon. The operation part hasn't been the problem it has been pneumonia.  We won't know about radiotherapy until we get the results from pathology but have everything crossed he doesn't require it. My husband has been in hospital for 13 days now but that's because he's had two operations.

Mine was about five weeks

Hi Martin

They will start no later than 6 weeks, but they'll want to give you a few weeks for healing before they start and likely want to see the results of pathology. 
 

dejavu

glad to hear your husband is on the mend. RT was very painful but the surgery was by far the worst part for me.

Hi - thanks for all the responses. Been a tad busy past few days and have a really sore throat all of a sudden and a sore arm too which the extent of that was a surprise - the extent of 'work' on my arm  - I reckon they must have rebuilt someone else's tongue too!

So it seems like there was quite a long shallow resection right back to the root of my tongue. The graft seems to be pleasing all of the surgeons plus the doppler probe they've put in is still making a reassuring beat.

Tracheostomy is definately not my favourite part or being fed through a tube at the moment.

These people are absolute professionals - just wonder if there's a really effective way to say thank you to these people?