Hi there everything said above here is true. I had stage 2 tongue cancer. While I'm younger and the surgery was no walk in the park, within a month I was feeling good. At week 2 I went away to mexico. This was after a 14 hour surgery and a trache. I had a few bandages but I felt good enough to eat at the buffet. Mostly it was soft foods but it was okay. Now as I said I'm younger so it may take her longer to hit that point and train her tongue. But she could very well get here. After that sh should be okay - I had radiation and chemo, because I had a few things (ECE - of the 1 lymph node that was cancerous and peri neural involvement. ) but she Gould choose not to do that. 5 years is a good amount of time but she could very well hang on for 15 why allow your life to be cut short! And suffer a painful death? Hope she decides for he surgery! Hugs to you - take care!