Donna -So glad your appointment was so much better. Sounds like your team at Rush is really awesome! Taking the extra margins around the tumor area is something my son's surgeon did. One of his interns told us that Paul's Surgeon was known to be very "aggressive" because he didn't want to see Paul back again. And that was almost 9 years ago! Paul does have some long term issues but that is better than another surgery. After the surgery, he told us that his tongue would spread out to fit the space it is in and it did! It's true - the body does compensate. And do stay with us. We all learn from each other's experiences.