office visit lesion and knew something was wrong, but nobody was aware that it was oral cancer. I have a lot of local friends who were key in posting a locum position for me, and eventually I was lucky enough to find a great dentist I'd worked with before and trusted. How will your practice run while you're in recovery? How did you come to this decision? Probably the only blessing of this whole ordeal is that it has taught me to let go, which is hard for most dentists. I was lucky in that not only do I trust my staff but also my locum is a friend and his work is exemplary, so that allows me to sleep at night. I tried to do the bookkeeping and payroll at the hospital and mostly just do a little admin work as I heal. I didn't really have too many choices, so I did the best I could do and let fate take care of the rest. What does the road to recovery look like? When do you plan to return to practicing full time? The surgery was difficult. They took out half my tongue and transplanted skin and the radial artery from my left hand to my left tongue. They then grafted skin from my thigh to cover my arm. The good news is that I am recovering well, and I retained most of my speech. My left arm still gives me sharp pains and discomfort from the graft, but I am working through physical therapy for that. The biggest factor will be my ability to eat and get my range of motion in my neck back after the neck dissection. I am hoping to take about two months off and then slowly ease into things. ■ dentaltownuk.com \\ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 23https://yapiapp.com http://www.dentaltownuk.com