Cancer Surgery & Rehabilitation

My mom was diagnosed with Head & Neck Oral cancer in October of 2016. She underwent a series of Radiation (35 doses: the max.) and she also underwent a series of chemo treatments. In March they did a cat scan realizing the  cancer went down a little bit but was still significantly there. Now flash forward to today, July 7th 2017, we are in the midst of scheduling and ultimately facing a huge surgery to finally get rid of this stubborn cancer. My mom will go into a 10-16 hour surgery where one surgeon will remove part of her tongue, anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3's of the tongue. They are also planning on removing the lymph nhodes because they had cancer cells in them as well. However, the surgeon doesn't know if part of the jaw will have to be removed as well, as the cancer has grown near the jaw. In this case, if the jaw bone has to be removed the surgery will be even more vigorous as they will have to take bone from either the leg or the foot to replace the jaw bone. After the surgeon is finished removing ALL cancer from her mouth, the plastic/ reconstructive surgeon will then start reconstructing her mouth back together. At this point, this is where things get tricky because they will have to make skin graphs and take veins/arteries from the wrist, or another free flap of the body and maticulously sew the new tissue and blood vessels into the existing ones in her mouth. As well as the possibility of having her jaw reconstructed. Once the surgery is finished, and shes all sewn back up she will spend weeks in the hospital recovering. She may also go into a rehab facility after the hospital stay to receive more 24/7 care for a while. Once she is able to go home and heal she will have an at home nurse visit once a day to clean her up and make sure she is healing properly once she is home. She is currently unable to go back to work, and due to this the school system will terminate her. She is filing for disability so she can have something to pay her bills, but it is going to be very tight. Anything will help her get through this time, and pay for the things that she needs. I appreciate you all taking the time to read this and listen to her story. Please if nothing else, each person who reads this, say a prayer for her. Please. She is weaker than when she started these treatments, and we need all of the prayers we can receive for a full recovery. God bless!