What to expect with tongue base tumor and lymph node surgery for HPV+ cancer?

Surgery for this type of cancer often involves multiple steps, and many patients find it helpful to understand what recovery might look like in advance. The community here has shared experiences about managing post-surgical recovery, including dealing with temporary changes to swallowing and speech, as well as the healing process for neck surgery - perhaps others who have been through similar procedures will share their insights about what helped them during recovery.

🙏🙏🙏🙏

I had lots of oral secretions and mucous. Surgery recovery is slow. Buy a good quality lip balm. I was able to talk right after surgery. Sleep when you can.

Almost a month post surgery now. Definitely a rough surgery. Tongue is still trying to heal. The post surgical pathology report saw questionable cells at the margins of the excised tumor . They said it had only spread to one lymph node all the others they removed were negative. Due to the questionable margins they are going to do 6 weeks of Radiation on the left side of my neck aiming for the base of the tongue where the tumor was located. Start them at the end of this month.