I had "a nearly total hemiglossectomy", and had a radial forearm free flap reconstruction. My speech is pretty good. I have some speech defects speaking in languages other than English since they require more tongue involvement. English is very forgiving.

I had no peg either. I had NG tube for about 3 weeks (two of them while still in the hospital), and then managed without the tube. Not saying it was easy, but turned out to be manageable for me. I did lose quite a bit of weight though, but I'm pretty sure you'd lose weight even with peg tube. I eat pretty well now, and my only problems are stemming from lack of saliva (things like nuts, for example, are hard to clear out of your mouth if it's dry), but other than that I'm doing well in eating department.

The recovery process was a bit frustrating because I got so much better relatively quickly after surgery only to be knocked down hard by radiation. But now nearly 9 months after the end of treatment I don't have any major issues aside from dry mouth. My forearm is not pretty, but it looks infinitely better than before, and frankly, I don't care.