Surgery Over

This is Stephanie. Posting for mom again.


Surgery is over, and mom is in ICU recovering. All went well. They clipped her mouth muscles and were able to replace the tissue so scar tissue shouldn't form again. That means she can open her mouth nice and wide. Hooray.

They removed several lymph nodes. They seem to think the one was definitely cancerous. They removed the others as a precaution.

The flap in the room of her mouth looks well. They took muscle and blood vessels from her forearm to reconstruct this. The incision on her arm is 8 X12 centimeters. Then they took skin from her thigh to cover her forearm. There is a lot of extra tissue in her mouth from the flap. The tissue will shrink as healing takes place.

She has a trachea and feeding tube. She will have a feeding tube for app. 7 days and the trachea for 5 to 6 days.

Although none of this is funny, I almost let out a chuckle when the doctor was talking to us after surgery. He mentioned they were doing a sponge and scalpel count. Good to know she'll still be able to walk through the airport metal detectors.

We are in the ICU waiting room. Hopefully we will get to see her soon.