Radiation, Tongue flap fail, Lost on what to do

My father in law had his first surgery on January 25 for oral cancer of the mandible.  He had over half of his lower jaw removed plus the lymph nodes.  However, he has had a hard time healing from it.  They were unable to use his shoulder or leg bone so they had to use the metal.  Unfortunately this has not been able to heal.  Surgery 2 was to resew the skin from his chest muscle back over the plate so it could heal.  Unfortunately it did not.  Surgery 3 was his choice and he chose to sew a cadaviar flap over the spot and see if it would heal.  Unfortunatley it would not.  So the next step the doctor wanted to try was chemo and radiation, however no one would take him with the plate being exposed.  The 4th surgery which we did on March 23 was for a tongue flap to be made and sewed over the metal plate.  However, we found out yesterday that when he was coughing the stitches came undone :(  Unfortuantely we do not know what to do at this point.  He is getting frustrated and so are we.  

Comments

  • bebo12249
    bebo12249 Member Posts: 181 Member
    Have you consulted a cancer

    Have you consulted a cancer center?