Hey Howard,
Welcome to the site. You can get so much information and support here. My husband was diagnosed in July with SCC left tongue. He had 1/3 tongue removal, skin graft from upper leg, modified neck dissections and also had a trach. Healed quickly and was back to work within 5 weeks. He developed some "suspicious" spots around his tongue graft and was biopsied. He has a rare disease, Proliverative Verrucous Leukoplakia, and had the spots removed. We were in the middle of trying to find some help for the PVL since there is no cure except to cut them out immediately because all his spots will turn to cancer, however, 4 months post surgery, he got a left swollen gland with turned out to be a very aggressive tumor. He had a radical left neck dissection on Christmas eve, but they could not get all the tumor. He began chemo/rad Jan 12, and has 4 treatments left. It's been a long, hard battle, but hopefully worth it all. I guess just be sure they take many nodes from each side. I believe from my husband's modified neck dissections, only 6 or 8 nodes were taken which were negative for cancer. Maybe if they would have taken more, they could have caught the neck mets then and started radiation much sooner. Who knows, just a thought!!
My husband has a very positive attitude and I know that helps him get through this.
Good luck and God bless,
Debbie