Hi Connie, glad to hear you are on the road to recovery. My husband's BOT cancer wasn't picked up either, had symptoms of sore throat and ear pain for over a year, saw internist, dentist, oral surgeon and 2 ENTs.
My husband's speech has been affected too, he has speech therapy which has helped tremendously and has a tape cassette with words he is supposed to practice saying every day. Gets a new list every few weeks. He is very self conscious and is in court alot and does public speaking. I don't really notice it that much except he has a wet lisp. Lots of saliva still. If he is tired or dry his speech sounds worse, he is intelligible though. He doesn't like talking on the phone either but recently he has begun telling people up front that he had surgery on his tongue for cancer and might sound funny.
Is your taste back? His is only slightly. He is eating great and swallowing is not a problem anymore. It's amazing how the body recovers after a few months.
best of luck
Nancy