The Cancer is back

Recently my dad went in to have a PET scan done and they found another spot in the base of his mouth. He had a biopsy done on July 13 that showed cancer. We went to see the ENT surgeon last week and he said that surgery is the only option right now because he already had chemo and radiation and he had such a strong reaction to the radiation last time. They want to do surgery and just get in there and try to get it all. They'll do a neck dissection. Drs. Biel and Barth will be performing the surgery. They have to cut open from back by the ear all the way down to his chin, then up to the lip and then they have to actually remove the jaw so they can get at the tumor. They'll remove it and send to pathology to make sure they got it all. Once they know they got it all, they'll fill in the tissue with a skin graft from his arm then replace the jaw and close it up. A plastic surgeon will be helping with the surgery, so it should look pretty good after it heals. He'll have to have a trach and a feeding tube while he's in the hospital, but those should both be out before he goes home. We're expecting a hospital stay of 8-10 days and a recovery time of 3-4 weeks at the least, depending on how the surgery goes. It is going to be an all day surgery, at least 7 hours. We are all obviously very nervous about the surgery, but these doctors do this surgery a lot and feel very confident that they will be able to get all the cancer.
The surgery is scheduled for July 31st, early in the morning at Abbott. Please, everyone just keep my dad in your prayers that he'll have a good surgery and a quick recovery.