Charm,
My ENT has given me what parameters he is comfortable with. I was standing next to him will he told his nurse what the OR orders were. The OR orders are writen in worse case. You know, just incase he gets in there and everything comes back with cancer, which it wont. I just wont know until the biopsies are done. Or I I should say I just wont know 'til I wake up. My RO is sure that nothing from "inside" my mouth will need to be removed. However, he is just a man and has no way to know for sure. The primary was my tonsils, they are gone. From what I have been told the rest is very responsive to radiation and chemo. So, I will cross my fingers and my toes.
Good luck to you also. I am hoping to read a post from you before my own surgery. Ours are 4 days apart I believe.(I don't post often, but I read a lot!)

David,
I smoked for 25 years, I tested positive for HPV. My doctors are certain that HPV caused my cancer due to my age. I believe this also. You stated that there millions of smokers that never develop OC, and that is correct. There are millions that will text postive to a cancer causing strain of HPV and never develop cancer either. As far as I know there is no way of knowing for sure that one or the other caused the cancer. My way of thinking is this. My cancer is "probably" caused my HPV 16. There is a "possiblity" that it may have been caused by my smoking.