Welcome Dave
I am truly amazed at your positive spirit with all you have been through. I think your attitude will carry you to a much quicker recovery than your Dr's expect! My husband also had a feeding tube through his nose for the first month and he hated it too! It actually fell out one day on it's own, very gross looking. So he was happy to get a PEG when the time came to switch. He is still using a PEG as he is having a hard time moving his tongue to control food.

We also live an hour from the closest TX site and I could not imagine driving it each day, that had to be hard. Luckily in the USA we have places called HOPE LODGE where people in treatment can stay for free and also an added bonus is you are living with others going through simular treatments. (You have your own room but share living & kitchen rooms.) In our case there were 6-7 others with tongue cancer so it was a real community of support for my husband and for me his caregiver. I feel it was one of the best decision we made to pack up and move there even though we were far from family and friends. Wondered it you have them in Australia?

Take care. Karen

CG 2 Emmett,7/09 DX SCC rt tongue. T2N1M0, 1 node, marg neg.4/10 PET/CT clear, 9/10 C back. 10/10 Rad hemi, 2 tmrs mod diff. resec flr of mth. Flap 4 nodes/w/ext cap. 11/10 Peg, CX3 HD, 30 rad. 1/31 & 3/21 6/11/11 - PET/CT "activity" 9/11-all Clear. 12/11 peg out. 2/15 still all clear! 9/14 Prostate cancer treated with pencil beam proton therapy, best radiation experience. Keep it in mind as a treatment option for all tumors that can be seen including head and neck.