Thanks girls.

In response to Annie's questions ~~
I've been seeing the oncologists at the Foley Cancer Center affiliated with Rutland Regional Medical Center in Vermont, but I don't see them listed in the NIH index. (I didn't mean to imply that I had 3 individual opinions. These doctors have been involved in pre-treatment diagnosis and testing and have formulated the plan for treatment, as a group.)

The tumor is about the size of a nickel at the base (left side, toward the back, if that's what "base" means), and there is no lymph node involvement. I had a slight swelling of the left lymph node on my first examination by an ENT, who did a needle biopsy and that came out clean for cancer, so the assumption (confirmed by CT scan) was that the swelling was not primarily lymphatic which in turn caused the tongue tumor, but the other way around, and the lymph node's swelling resulted from bacteria buildup because of its proximity to the tongue tumor. And, by the way, in addition to going on Day 3 now of no pain, that swelling (which was minor in the first place) has now disappeared too.

As for being a "young 70" because I use the Internet for research, well, what can I say!! I've been using computers since they took up an entire room of their own and have watched and participated as IT progressed at light speed since the 1960's. Ironically, even after I retired, I taught classes on a volunteer basis to train "seniors" in computer/Internet basics.

In response to Cheryl's comments ~~
"it take one month of recovery fir every week of rads," that's what bothers me the most. Because using that formula, I'm scheduled for 8 weeks, so that's 8 months just for treatment alone. And from reading hundreds of comments, people who undergo that length and amount of radiation in the mouth do not regain their taste until much later, often not at all.

I've also considered my current health problems, COPD, which is well maintained by Spiriva, but which apparently caused some blips in the EKG I had which was a pre-surgical procedure for putting in the PEG. I have not met nor spoken with that surgeon regarding that, but my guess is that the combination of COPD and stress would make me a poor candidate for anesthesia.

I understand that everyone is different, and each person reacts differently to treatment, but I must also consider my personal quality of life, which means if I can remain relatively pain free by at least putting off treatment that guarantees I'll feel even worse for at least six months, as well as possibly not ever regaining the pleasures of eating, then this is the route I will take. If it becomes worse, spreads, or becomes unbearable, then of course I will rethink everything. And at least I will have all the knowledge I need.

Even the American Cancer Society advises to "Know Your Options: [At first diagnosis] Don't try to decide which choice is best at this point--just identify as many options as you can, even if some seem far-fetched.../different doctors might recommend different chemotherapy combinations at different intervals or different combinations of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Then again, the best treatment may be no treatment at all. Patients diagnosed with slow-growing cancers are often given the option of 'watchful waiting' if there are no serious symptoms."

Since I've gone several days now with "no serious symptoms" reappearing or becoming worse, call me a procrastinator, but I've also never been known to jump right into strange bodies of water before I've tested it for what may lie beneath!

I do plan to leave a voice mail for the primary oncologist tomorrow, relating my feelings on this, and ask him to call me when he has a few moments to discuss it. So stay tuned. And thanks much for your input!