Alpaca, it took my husband approximately 9 mos after he finished radiation before his speech was pretty much back to "normal"
He still has a little lisp and has some trouble with a few words but overall his speech is intelligible and most people don't realize he lost half his tongue. If he is tired his speech is affected. His speech does sound different to those who know him He started speech therapy 2 weeks after surgery and had tongue and speech exercises and had tapes that he had to practice new words every week. He stopped therapy when going through radiation and then it resumed 6 weeks? after treatment.
She also followed him for swallowing evaluations which he has some trouble with though it has lessened significantly.
The speech therapist helped us tremendously with what foods to eat, avoid, consistency etc. So you should get a referral
asap. it is early for you and you are still healing, but as time goes by you should begin to see a difference.
Good luck
nancy