Diagnosed mouth/lower jaw

Thanks. The one day at a time advice is good.

I’m just worried that my diagnosis, which was done privately because I didn’t get an NHS referral after weeks, will not get picked up quickly by NHS.

The failure to even get a first appointment on a suspected cancer referral (which I thought would be in two weeks) doesn’t inspire confidence, although I understand how everything is knocked by Covid.

Are you staying with the same  consultant? 

I don’t think I can. It would be someone else. 

Does your private consultant not practice in the NHS? 
Usually the hand over is fairly straightforward 

PFJTHS is the expert. Perhaps he can tell you. 

Sorry to hear of the diagnosis, but at least you know what your are dealing with now.

My experience before and during covid is that my hospitals have moved heaven and earth to ensure that my treatment was in the appropriate time scales and very Covid safe.  I am sure you will have the same experience. 

Thank you. That is reassuring.

I'm not claiming to be an expert 

That said, I'm sure the handover will be quite smooth, maybe even to the same surgeon you saw privately who also works in the NHS as is often the case. 

Good evening Cathy , sorry to hear about your cancer diagnoses , as the other guys and gals have said ,i have had 3 different surgeries in the head and neck my second operation was to remove about two thirds of my lower jaw bone and replace it with a bone taken from my plus skin a muscle for skin grafts and new skin. As i say mine was quite a big bit that was removed but i know some have only had a small section removed so it depends on what the scans etc. show up. It all sounds scary stuff but once it is explained it becomes a lot clearer and on the whole the operation is not to bad to recover from and the results are very good. If all goes well you should be able to do much the same as you are doing now although you might find you cant open the mouth as wide or the shape of the jaw has changed, but i must stress this is all dependant on how much cancerous bone/tissue they have to remove including teeth which will be replaced with implants/dentures once everything has knitted together. As i say mine was a bit more difficult as i had previous surgery on the floor of my mouth with skin grafts followed with radio and chemotherapy, but im happy with the results and lead a happy and fulfilled life. If you click on my name it will profile where it gives a rough outline of my journey with cancer. Im sorry i dont know what happens because you have gone private but i do know most consultants do work private and H.H.S  as they use the hospitals facilities. Normally once you are on the system things will move quick and you will get expert treatment from the N.H.S and great aftercare from very skilled consultants and their team of Drs and nurses. Please re-post if you require more help, advice or reassurance and we will try our best to help, good luck with the scan,x-rays ,etc , take care .

                                                                                     Chris x

Thank you, Chris. You seem to have had a hard road before reaching a satisfactory conclusion and I am pleased that life is now happy and fulfilled for you after your treatments.

Hi Cathy

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Hope the referral to the NHS does not take too long as the waiting can be a time of real anxiety.

I had a partial mandibulectomy and neck dissection in 2013 which meant that I had part of my lower right jaw removed and all my lower teeth on that side. I did not need a jaw reconstruction. At that stage I still had all the teeth on the left side of my mouth and I found that it did not greatly affect my eating and only a slight reduction in my mouth opening. It did alter the sensation on the right side of my mouth but it is something that you get used to after a while.

I had 6 weeks of radiotherapy after everything had healed. It did take a little while to recover from but then I got back to work after that and continued until I retired with no real issues.

I wish you all the best with your operation. I had a really good result and I am sure that you will too.

Lyn