Hi Patricia

The biting the tongue bit goes away after a while! I didn't have speech therapy as I met with the therapist after my op and she thought I was fine.

I was actually away from work for nearly six months altogether. First of all I had to wait nearly 8 weeks for my op (how stressful was that!), then I was in hospital for 8 days. I had a tracheostomy and a peg tube for feeding. When I got out of hospital it took a while for all these things to get sorted out, and then I didn't feel mentally ready for work for a bit. I was fortunate in that I work for the NHS so I got paid sick leave. I went back on the 22 January on a phased return - the first week I was so tired I could hardly drive myself home, which I found really surprising. Any way I am doing fine now and quite enjoying work, though still wondering whether to take early retirement.

Good news about your new job, but rather unfortunate timing if you do go for further surgery!

Love
Gwyn xx

hello gwyn and patricia
it seems that we all had similar surgery. what a nightmare that was! the time for recovery is varied and i like you both have a numb tongue and at times it feels very swollen especially when tired the lisping and slurring ect is at its worst when i am tired. i am just starting to get over the psychological scaring with the help from some lovely nurses at the local hospice.sadly i have had to give up my job as a maternity support worker where i have worked for fourteen years i really enjoyed my work but the physical demands are too much and i have been left with a weekness in my right arm due to nerve dammmage from dissection .cancer can be so soul destroying it is not just the cancer it is all the physical limitations after surgery that we have to deal with . anyway i have had my moan now and i want to wish you both good health for the future
big hugs bev x

Hi Bev and Gwyn

Well today I saw the surgeon and quizzed him about the neck dissection. He said that he reviewed me with the tem at Mount Vernon and they all feel that watch and wait is the right treatment because of how small and early the tumour was (1.8mm) and that was a "thin" tumour hence not likely to have spread to the nodes.
He also said that the nodes always get involved in the same fashion ie in similar order like a waterfall thus if the L1 nodes are infiltrated and dealt with quickly and there is no L4 involvement then distant spread is not likely.
He also said that if it was his own treatment he would do the same as he is advising me.

Of course this has me thinking again as I was convinced before I went in that I would ask for a neck dissection but now I am not sure again.

what to do?
Well Bev thats my whinge over; and I wish us all good health, mental and physical, as we beat this thing together.