Oral Cancer Surgery / cont.

First surgery took 10 hrs., many teeth and some jaw bone!

After many consultations and all the pre-operation work my cancer surgery was scheduled for April 6th. 2009. The procedure would require a patch of skin to be grafted from my arm to cover the floor of my mouth after the tumor was cut away. A vein would have to be transplanted to the floor of my mouth.

The breathing tube and swelling
complicated things

When I awoke after the 10 hr. surgery, I panicked because of an tracheal tube (breathing tube) I wasn't prepared for, and I thought I was drowning! I began flayling around with my arms, tearing at the life support tubes.

I got so bad that the nurses wanted to have me restrained, to protect myself! But it didn't get to that, I managed to rip loose the vein the Doctors were trying to re-attach. I had to be sedated and go back into surgery for another 2 hrs. while the damage was repaired.

I recovered quickly, but endured great discomfort. The feeding tube was sewn into my nose and caused a painful laceration, it had a wire running through it that acted like a ballast, putting stress on the sore.

The most frustrating aspect of the first 4 days was that I could not speak because of the swelling in my throat and the breathing tube. I had to quickly write out answers (on a clipboard), to impatient Doctors and nurses who asked questions as if I was hard of hearing!