Speech challenges following surgery

Woodz said:

my surgeon has implied this is my new normal and I am getting very upset about it

Hi Woodz. I would put this aside 

Your surgery is pretty recent. My advice would be to work in your exercises religiously, don’t push too hard 

My base of tongue cancer wasn’t lateralised so I had RT to both sides. This has drastically destroyed the back of my tongue, a picture that my oncologist seemed to delight in showing me at every review. My discharge letter says he is surprised that my swallow function is ok. 
It’s not just ok but good. I’ve worked at it. 
Gently gently and don’t expect miracles overnight. You will surprise yourself ( and your surgeon) at how well you do given time. 
Hugs 

I had surgery on base of tongue back in November and RT sneezing and coughing was very weird and speech was tricky. I’m a teacher so was in complete panic about all this. Annoying as it sounds it all takes time. You are in very early days.  When I look in my mouth it all looks a bit weird but ive made big improvements. Side of my tongue still feels weird but my speech is a lot better and im back at work 3 days a week having to do lots of talking.  Even on the last 3 weeks I’ve seen improvement. Keep with exercises and eating and drinking well.  You’ll get there 

Thank you. I’m still waiting to see a speech therapist- so hopefully I will be given some exercises then. At the moment the focus has been on eating, but that seems pretty OK. 

Good luck with the new term.