Hello
I am new to this site too but my husband had the same diagnosis 5 years ago. Very scary to say the least. We too had to wait a bit before everything started. My husband had radiation and chemo and had all the lymph nodes removed from his neck after the completion of the radiation and chemo. His treatment was at Shands in Jacksonville, Fl at the proton Therapy Institute.
We were told that the surgery might not be necessary if the radiation and chemo did the job but in the end the doctors felt it would give him the best outcome to be cancer free. This whole thing was so scary to me and we virtually lost it seemed a year with this treatment until we were in the recovery mode. I would be happy to answer any specific questions you might have as a caregiver who has been there.