Hello Fish1969, 

I am so sorry to hear that your mum has stage 4 throat cancer and that she has to make a difficult decision about having surgery and I can imagine that the prospect of the 12 hour operation and 3 weeks in hospital is daunting for her. We have some information on our website on throat cancer which you can access here and you can also find out more about the laryngectomy on this page. 

I hope you will meet others here who have been affected by throat cancer and have had the operation and that they will be here shortly to answer questions you may have. We have a couple of very active threads on our forum which may be of interest to you so if you have time have a look at [@Jimbo81]‍ 's thread here and also on this long thread where you will see [@RadioactiveRaz]‍ 's interesting posts on the subject. 

Feel free also to give our nurses a call on this free number 0808 800 4040 - their line is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and they may be able to answer some of the questions you may have on what to expect from the surgery and how it might affect eating habits. 

Best wishes to you and your mum. Do come back here if you can and let us know how she gets on. 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Fish and sorry you are here under the circumstances you describe.
I was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer last July and am into my 12 week post recovery and side effects still there.
Non of us are really medically qualified to offer advice re operation and would probably be best talked through with consultant and/or support team.

I have written a blog that details, warts and all, my journey from pre diagnosis through treatment and post treatment and is up to date. Please see the link below and I hope that helps a little more of understanding of treatment /side effects etc.
I never had a PEG fitted but i'm sure others could help with advice re tube and feeding.

Please feel free to ask any further questions and let me know if I can help further

radiotherapythroat.home.blog

kind regards

ian