Ben, welcome to our little band. You've come to the right place for information and support.

I can't speak to the tongue issue. In my case I just had the neck dissection prior to RT and elected not to get a PEG. My RO told me that she thought if I was diligent that I could get through it. Which I did, although it was extremely difficult and if I had it to do over again would assuredly go with a PEG.

As anyone here will tell you, we all respond differently to treatment. So the fact that I developed large and extremely painful mouth lesions starting at about week 2 of RT and continuing until well after it ended is something that you very well might not have to deal with, or at any event not to that degree of severity.

I lost 30 pounds and was never, even with viscous lidocaine, able to get as much liquid nutrition in per day as was advised. I would recommend you think a lot about this and talk to as many people as you can - both in person and here on the board. There are folks who went without a PEG and don't regret the decision. They'll offer a balanced perspective to mine.

For me getting the stuff past the sores in my mouth was really the only issue. The 3 months of continual nausea actually didn't kick in until after the end of RT. And again, that was my own personal reaction.

Either way, best of luck with your treatment. I'm sure you'll do very well, and am glad to read that your tongue resection left you in such good shape.

Keep us posted, and courage!