Nate

It's with a heavy heart I welcome you to the DAMN, IT CAME BACK CLUB, otherwise known as recurrence. Your news makes the recent posts about remission being a temporary term all the more relevant. The only bright spot in all of this is you can finally quit worrying and obsessing about whether it's coming back. Not much consolation, I know from personal experience.
Take a look at this OCF poster's link
Kate Brown - More than a survivor
She is young like you and had to have her whole tongue taken yet she can eat, swallow and talk - albeit after working hard at her therapy. You can do this.
Print out this article though and show it to your doctors to see what they think about the new procedure for a thinner flap that Kate's doctors used.
If an senior citizen like myself can bounce back, you can and will also. Still this sucks big time and is so unfair.
Last but not least, here is an excerpt from the American Cancer Society about cancer coming back that I found comforting
[quote]Could I have done something to prevent the recurrence?

Although eating right, exercising, and seeing your doctor for follow-up visits are important, please understand that there probably was nothing you could do to keep your cancer from coming back. Many patients blame themselves for missing a doctor visit, not eating right, or putting off a CT scan for a family vacation. But even if you do everything just right, the cancer might still come back. [/quote]

Here's a link to the complete series of articles on recurrence
When your cancer comes back

Keep the Faith
Charm