Welcome, Dan. You sound like you have a positive attitude, and that will help you immensely along the way. As far as recovery, I didn't have anything done to my tongue, but had a tumor removed from the back of my mouth and a modified radical neck dissection. I was in the hospital for 8 days only because they were monitoring a graft. Two days after I got home, I was out doing yard work. The swelling took a while to go down, but I felt terrific. Everyone here will pretty much agree that the neck surgery is a piece of cake compared to other treatments. I am not aware of chemo being done without radiation, although radiation is often done without chemo. In either case you can get through it. Just look at it as a small price to pay for being alive (grin). There are lots of people here who have had tongue involvement who can help you, and if you do a search I am sure you can find information. Let us know how your CT scans come out.
Joanna