The neck dissection was not the hardest part of my surgery, so really the other issues obscured that part. Swallowing was a little hard but more due to the facial paralysis effects on my tongue than the neck dissection. I was eating soft food 3 days later, only delayed by my nausea from pain meds. I did a lot of treatment to the incision with scar meds afterward, like Mederma, and did some stretching exercises suggested. The dry mouth issue is the only ongoing one, and there are plenty of treatments for that to help. I am using Biotene xylitol tablets currently and that gets me through most nights.