Partial glossectomy

was diagnosed with tongue cancer end of May had partial glossectomy and neck dissection on June 4th 2019, the bloody cancer had gone into 3 out of the 47 lymph nodes removed but from scans the cancer has been contained locally in the neck. I am due radiotherapy soon which I’m bricking!!! Also been reading that people are still struggling to eat months post op. I am not too bad but my appetite is Poor as my stomach shrunk and I lost 3 stone (was overweight so it’s not been all bad news and I have more energy ironically) , is it normal to have a tingling sensation on post operation site of tongue. Not painful in anyway I am assuming it’s healing. They don’t seem concerned at the hospital. 

I have been given some pretty sound advice on how to protect your mouth from severe ulceration during radiation treatment so I am following said advice also rehydration of skin  before during and after treatment. Has anyone else have it in the lymph nodes?

  • Hi there ..

    Sorry you've not had an answer to your post .. but maybe it's a rarer cancer so not so many on here with it .. I'm answering your post to say welcome to our chat room .. and this will take you back to the first page where hopefully someone will pick it up who can help you with info ...

    Chrissie x

  • Hi nicki

    I had the same back in 2017 and my tongue still tingles, not painful either but like ive burnt it on hot food

    Hope everything is healing well and that the rest of your treatment goes well. Its tough but you will get through it

    Nat :) 

  • How long did your swelling take to go down and  yeh mine is tingling loads atm. I had my surgery 5 weeks ago I’m hell of a jumpy worrying over everything I still have to undergo radiotherapy yet , did you have that? 

  • Hi nicki

    I cant remember how long the swelling took to go down but dont think it was very long as i was back at work 4 weeks after my op on my tongue and i worked speaking on a phone at that time.

    Yeah i had chemo-radiotherapy so 6 weeks radio and chemo once a week. It was really tough as it made me very sick but everyone is different and other people i met in treatment didnt have many issues with it at all so everyone will go through it differently.

  • 5 weeks and swelling is still there my talking isn’t that great but I’ve lost a significant part of my tongue and lymph nodes my only concern is  there’s swelling and tingling around the site where the tumour was. 

  • The tumor on my tongue was very small so thats probably why my recovery was a lot quicker. Do you have any appointments coming up so you can mention your concerns and they can check the healing.

    I didnt have my neck dissection at the same time as my tongue op as was given the all clear after tongue op then they found it had spread to my lymph nodes 3 months later after a check up so maybe that could be another reason yours is taking longer to heal.

  • Hi Nicki

    i had a partial glossectomy and free flap reconstruction, plus neck dissection on 11th June. I’m now one third way of the way through radiotherapy. It had not spread to my lymph nodes so RT is to my tongue only.

    my surgeon told me the tingly tongue at the point where they cut is nerve regeneration and I believe it can last a long time. Most of the swelling went down over the course of a few days and weeks, but they also said the flap will continue to reduce in size for months, as the skin becomes thinner. Did you have a reconstruction too?

     

    selinz 

  • My husband is due to have partial glossectomy, neck dissection and reconstruction from his arm in a few weeks, would really like to chat with anyone who has had the same operation to let me know how you now are and anything you can say to help me get my husband through this, he is so worried. Thank you 

  • Hi,

    Wishing him luck I am sure he is in excellent hands to get him through surgery.

    My dad is going through the same procedure next month. Would like to know if anyone knows what the recovery process is like and how much has it impacted on speech and eating.

     

  • I had this operation in December speech is fine but I struggle with the s sound