Susan

Again, relax. While it's true this cancer is nasty, nothing in the DX sounds out of the ordinary and many many people here have had the same DX and bounced back quite nicely.
My tumor which was also at the base of the tongue was 3.6 cm and had spread to two lymph nodes on the same side (left). The base of the tongue is actually on the bottom of the floor of the mouth in the back. It's GOOD that it has not crossed the midline.
Just remember that PETscans have a very high rate of false positives (almost 40%) on base of tongue cancer so don't panic if the Petscan sounds omnious. According to my 4 Petscans, my cancer had spread to the entire right side of my tongue, yet two biopsies and massive surgery later, it turned out that not a single cancer cell was on the right side despite the very clear indications on the Petscan. We were worried sick needlessly as I had not discovered OCF the first time around. My ENT had to overrule my RO and MO and just say no more Petscans after the 4th false positive, just MRIs. But on the other hand, if the Petscan says no problem, it is very accurate that way and does not usually have a false negative since it is so sensitive to sugar uptake.
Good luck as you start on this journey
charm