if she had lesions on her tongue and it's now found in her lymph nodes, i would be shocked if some of those lesions that have been removed didn't have cancer in them.

I hope they get things figured out asap.
But I had stage 3 on my tongue and in one lymph node, i had to have a hemiglossectomy, which means the removed the right half of my tongue, and a neck dissection, plus 30 rad treatments. So it is entirely possible they will do surgery and adjunctive (rad or chemo) therapy. Haven't heard of a person yet who had tongue cancer that didn't have surgery first and then maybe rad or chemo. but hope whatever happens, they get it figured out. Second opinions never hurt when it comes to something as big as this and as life changing as surgery or treatment in general is.