Kimberly, I am not a trained medical expert but it seems to me that there are possibly 3 or 4 words that she might have heard and perhaps mixed up or shuffled together.

Neck Dissection or Radical Neck Dissection or some doctors use the word Resection instead of Dissection,
which could result in an ear to ear incision, it is done to allow surgical access to lymph nodes for removal. If they cut ear to ear it seems to me they likely would remove more than 4 nodes. While this surgery sounds bad, (and sometimes looks bad) recovery is usually pretty quick. This is a common procedure in oral cancer treatment.

Glossectomy or Partial Glossectomy,
surgical removal of part or all of the tongue. since it sounds like his cancer was tongue, he may have had a partial glossectomy. The larger the cancer, the greater the portion of tongue might be removed.

Tracheostomy,
Surgery to create a small hole in the throat to allow for breathing if his surgery was more complex. This is usually temporary and will be allowed to heal up.

You can find a lot more information here in the main OCF web site by clicking on the HOME PAGE button at the bottom of this page.

I hope this helps you.