Hello

Hi Aethos. Welcome. First thing. Now you’ve found us through Google leave it alone. You’ll frighten yourself needlessly finding stuff that’s alarming and inaccurate. 
Where abouts are you? 

If the tongue lump is small and 6mm is then perhaps your surgeon plans an excisionsal biopsy where the whole thing plus a surrounding margin of normal looking tissue is removed. There are quite a few folk here who have had something similar and recovered quite quickly. 
Biopsy results usually take around 2 weeks. 
Are there any scans planned in your treatment ?

Let us know how you get on. 

Hi Atheos. Like Dani says now you’ve found us keep away from google it will  only scare you more. H p v driven tumours respond well to treatment l. Try to keep busy these next few weeks. Take heart there’s plenty of us on here that’s been through the treatment.Next stage will depend  if they can get clear margins 6 mm is quite small mine was on my tonsil snd was 2 cm.
pop back on will try to help where we can. 
Hazel 

HI Aethos and welcome.  Your biopsy/removal of the lump will be under general anaesthetic and recovery should be quick.  I had one done as day surgery and another was scheduled for a longer stay, but also ended up as day surgery.  I found recovery was quick and relatively pain free. I was eating a reasonable amount of solid food within a week, but have some "liquid calories" to hand for those first few days.  Almost one year since the last operation on my tongue it is totally normal.  I did not go onto radio or chemo post the operation.  There was no need in my case.

If they have to remove significant amounts of your tongue then it may be different, but they were scheduled to remove a 5x5 cm piece of mine and were not planning on any reconstruction saying that I would cope well with it "as is".  In the end they did not need to go that far so I've no personal experience of that aspect.

Waiting for the results post surgery is always a worry period.  Normally around 2 weeks.  Only advice I can offer is keep busy!

Take heart that there are many on here leading a "new normal" life that is fulfilling and long.  Almost certainly you will be joining them.

Hi Aethos and welcome.

I had robotic surgery to remove a tumour from the base of my tongue.  The operation was in conjunction with a neck dissection to remove lymph nodes from my neck so in my case the surgery was quite involved and lengthy.  This probably had an affect on the recovery time from the operation.

With regards the tongue surgery, I was fed via a naso gastric tube for the first few days.  The surgery site was extremely painful but you should have adequate pain relief to help manage this.  Together with various pain killers, including medications to anaesthtise my mouth and throat,   I was also prescribed high calorie milk shakes (Scandishakes) to supplement the small amount I was able to eat.  My consultant advised me my throat would be extremely painful for 4 weeks and she was absolutely right.  Almost to the day I found I could eat a small amount of fish and chips and things improved from there.

From being in touch with others that have had a similar procedure, they have had a quicker recovery and don't appear to have any problems with the surgery site.  I can still feel the area as I have developed scar tissue which has been compounded by the fact I went on to have radiotherapy to the area.

Do you have a contact number for the doctor so you can address any of your questions?  I think it would be beneficial for you.

All the best.

Linda x

Hi thanks for the reply’s there is no planned scans booked as of yet.

I’ve just received my operation date for the 9th of February the whole family have to isolate for 3 days before my operation and they recommend taking the week of work as everyone recovers differently 

You'll be fine. Just a little sore. Make sure they give you some decent pain relief like Cocodomol. I was a little sore after mine and cocodomol did the trick. Aspiring gargles are useful too but don't swallow.

Oh,      and if you are going to take cocodomol for a few days add some laxative like Laxido or Movicol

Best of luck

We’ll update first op got cancelled now booked for tomorrow so far no call to not tell me to go in so all being well I’ll have had the op so gonna have a pizza tonight as no food after midnight what sort of timescale is it before being able to eat normally I guess it’s a liquid diet for a few days first 

Hi and fingers crossed for tomorrow going ahead.  I think my earlier post covered quite a bit.  I had a liquid diet for the first few days - soups etc.  By around day 5 I was on shepherd's pie and by day 10 back to normal.  Just keep up with the painkillers and all should be OK.

Hi thanks for the update. Heavens, you've had a bit of a wait. I can't really comment on post op eating. I guess it depends how much is excised. I know if you have tonsils out they get you eating toast before you are discharged.....so I'm told!

BUT have a look at Linda's post above

Good luck

Hi Good  luck i only had tonsil biopsy but had to eat and drink before I was allowed home. Make sure you leave with strong painkillers and either movicol or laxido as co codomol can cause constipation. 
Hazel