"Have you ever had a tongue trim?"

I have never had my tongue trimmed, with good reason. NEVER GET YOUR TONGUE TRIMMED. The reason is that if you get it trimmed once it grows back thicker, hence your cousin Vinny's having to get multiple trims over such a short time span. We used to take my dog Jiffy to get his tongue trimmed, and it was quite costly ($300,000 over the course of several years). Finally we just let it grow out, and it stopped at about 10' 7.5". We haven't had any problems since, and my father was able to build a set of wheels so Jiffy's tongue wouldn't drag. I reccommend letting Vinny's tongue grow out and perhaps having him wear it as a tie or such so it is less noticeable.

As far as taste, Jiffy complained that everything we fed him tasted like dog food. I'm not sure why it would, but you could ask your cousin if he has had a similar experience.

I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly, and then when you said "2 feet" I was more confused.

But my uncle had cancer several years ago and had to have a part of his tongue removed and have his palette rebuilt. They had to use some skin from his forearm to replace part of his tongue. (I'm not sure if that was a few operations or just the one.) But I remember this because he told me it was weird at first to have hair on his tongue.

Before he went in for the procedure they told him to make some video tapes for his then very young son just in case. Some people recover their speech better than others, apparently.

The last time I saw him was years ago and he'd recovered most of his speaking ability. One side of his tongue kind of sits there. He sounds like one side is a bit numb as if he's just been to the dentist. It just takes him extra effort to speak clearly, but he's totally understandable. He started wearing a beard for a while because the skin on each side of his jaw is uneven. I imagine he still does.

I think it's going on 10 years without the cancer coming back. So, that's the good news.

I hope this is not what your Cousin Vinny is going through.

Take care,

Cyndy