Thanks you for all your kind messages. Here's an update as to where we are.

Mum has well recovered from the surgery, she had the flap freed last week and it is fine. Her speech isn't bad, in every conversation she does have write a couple of sentences but a lot we understand.
The peg was fiteed about 10 days ago now and she is finding it uncomfortable, in fact they discovered it was infected and have now reverted to a nasal gastro tube to allow the peg to heal. Is this common? On the feed she seems to get diarrhea which is worrying moving forward considering her paralysis, is this common? Does it take a while to find the right type of feed? There have been other infections from Lung to urine in the past couple of weeks and Mum is beginning to despair a little. The boredomn and monotony must be crucifying!
Visiting hours at the hospital have been reduced because of the swine flu alert.

Hi Dave,

Good to hear from you and glad your mum is making progress. I understand there can be problems with the peg and it does not help with all those infections. Sometimes on this journey it seems like you make one step forward and a couple backwards but you keep going. I did not have a peg fitted but I am sure others who did will respond later with more information and advice.

I will be in Dublin on Thursday at the Dublin Dental Hospital. If there is anything I can do to help let me know.

Best regards

Ken

Hi Dave, my daughter Dawn was diagnosed with SCC of the tongue on May 14th, the date is etched in my memory, this was after a prolonged period of suffering with Lichen Planus of the tongue and after previous biopsies proved negative. She was admitted to hospital 10 days later and had approx 1/3 of her tongue removed and a partial neck dissection with 28 lymph nodes removed, fortunately these were negative. She underwent a further surgery on her tongue because the first op did not provide clear enough margins of healthy tissue. The second results proved they had got it all, and we got the good news mid July. No RT or Chemo required.She goes back to work on Monday, albeit with a slight speech impediment and rather a large scar on her neck, she has got her life back and is really confident about the future. . . I recount this story to let you know that there is always hope and that this terrible disease can be beaten.
Best wishes to you and your Mum.
Regards, David.