Hi
I'm from England too........I had a slightly different op from you I had the upper mouth cavity removed. It was a long op like yours but I didn't have any skin graphed just a prosthesis. David is right it's much worse in your head than it will be you will get through it and be fine! And yes eat plenty the radiotherapy is harder than the actual surgery...looking back the surgery was the easy part recovering takes a while longer. I had my op 18 months ago and it really wasn't so bad you will be fine.
Take care
Jayne x