Hi Tina, I also had 50+% of my tongue removed and reconstructed. The first couple months after surgery, I felt like my flap was huge! i was constantly biting on it in my sleep, which turned into a whole different issue I won't bore you with at this time! Anyway, everyone kept telling me how good looking my flap was (which my family and I always liked to joke about, wondering what a bad flap would look like), but it still felt huge. Doctors kept telling me the flap would shrink once I had radiation, but I was skeptical.

Well, it ended up shrinking a ton! I wish I had a little more flap now, as I can't stick my tongue out past my teeth line.

One more positive thing to look forward to, is the color of it eventually changed to the color of my real tongue! If it wasn't for the crease down the middle of my tongue (which my surgeon has told me he can fix, but I am not ready for it yet), my tongue looks somewhat normal.

Good luck! Feel free to send me a PM if you want to talk about any specifics, since it seems your diagnosis and surgery were very similar to mine.