My husband (51 years old now) was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the vocal cords 3 years ago. He had radiation and chemo off and on for 9 weeks. We live in Florida and that was the year of THE HURRRICANES which caused the treatment center to close and made driving impossible on some days. After treatments, he was cancer free for 2 years. Last August he was having difficulty with his speech again (hoarse voice) - a CT scan showed something and a biopsy confirmed cancer again in the same place. In September he had a total laryngectomy and radical neck disection. He adjusted very well to breathing through and having to take care of his stoma (a hole in his neck that is what he breaths through now), loss of smell, and his new "voice." He has a great attitude and did not let it bring him down. In April, the cancer was back again (same place, minus the vocal cords). He is doing radiation and chemo again to reduce and hopefully kill the cancer, but also to buy him more time. They are going to do surgery on him in late July. I believe it is called a radial forearm flap. The way it was explained to us is they will remove as much of the twice radiated tissue that they can and anything else they need to remove that may have cancer. They don't know how much they will need to remove until they get inside. They will then take a flap from his forearm to reconstruct his esophagus, the surrounding tissue and skin they remove from his neck. Has anyone out there had any experience with this? The doctor was very positive and gave us a lot of hope, but I am very frightened by all of this. Any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated!!! My husband says he is not scared, he just wants to get it done. He is so positive and has such a great attitude that I can't bear to share with him how scared I am of losing him! I don't want him to be worried about me right now. Thanks you for any help or information you can offer! Debbie