I am going to visit my brother in Toronto who is due to have a lateral forearm flap re his underneath of tongue cancer. I am planning to go for a month to get him over the worst. Can anyone tell me how long before his arm will be relatively good and also how big an impact this will have on his speech/eating. He has had about a 30 pc area of under his tongue removed and also a few laser treatments. Any more and his tongue will be even more tethered. I think he will not have to have salivary gland, lymph nodes or a tracheotomy will should speed up recovery. Other than that, his wife works full-time while he does all the chores, cooking and deal with 4 year old twins. He thinks 2 weeks should see him ok - I think I know better!
I am sure he will need a lot of support both physically and mentally. His wife is not very understanding of his situation and expects him just to carry on as normal.

Hi!

Welcome to the site. I'd read your profile earlier this evening and was tempted to PM you. I'll try to answer your question. The folks on this site are really helpful.

I had the operation your brother is facing. The incision on my right forearm (birthplace of my tongue flap) is about 6 inches long and goes down to nearly the tendons. It took a few weeks for it to heal, but he should be careful for a while not to lift anything too heavy. I found legal pads and a dry erase board to be phenomenally helpful because I didn't talk for nearly a month (my doc never said I shouldn't, but with such a large wound, talking just didn't seem like a good idea). I'd say my recovery time was about a month, but I don't think there are any hard-and-fast rules. People heal when they heal. Which arm are they using? My doc mistook me for a left hander; because my flap came from my right forearm and I drove a 5 speed at the time, my brother lent me one of his cars.

I had T2N0M0 SCC on the left side of my tongue, and my flap goes from the tip to my molars. I'd expected to sound like Cindy from the Brady Bunch, but I sound like I did before Flappy (yes, I named my flap) came along. I had a hemiglossectomy, part of the frenulum was also removed, but I still have excellent range of motion. Are your brother's doctors planning to attach his flap to the floor of his mouth?

His wife sounds like my parents before I had surgery. Heck, my mom figured I'd just leave the hospital and get back to life as I'd known it. Guess again. Unlike your brother, I did have a trach, a nasogastric tube, modified neck dissection--the whole nine yards. In my case, my sister was the helpful, level-headed one.

We'd been told that I'd be in the hospital for 10 days to 2 weeks. I was out in a week, probably because they didn't take a piece from my leg to cover the wound on my arm, which had been the initial plan. There was enough of me for the doctors simply to sew up the incision. Sure, it looks like I have a piece of cord sewn into my arm, but it will smooth out eventually. For once in my life, being fat worked in my favor! The only thing that slowed my recovery was having a cold while I was still trached. BLEUCK!

Best of luck to you and your brother. Let us know how everything turns out.

Julia

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