I am going to be having this same surgery myself within the next few weeks. I see the surgeon on January 7th for scheduling. It sounds like I'll be following the same path as your husband. The surgeon expects to remove most or all of my tongue, but should be able to preserve my larnyx.

Good luck to you and your husband. I hope all goes well in his treatments. It's good to know of someone else on the same journey.

Male, non-smoker, very light drinker, age 56 at diag.
9/18/12 - Diag. tongue cancer, left lateral border HPV 16+
9/24/12 - Partial glossectomy w/recon. Left side neck nodes removed
11/7/12 - Begin rads (30 treat.) and Cituximab (11 treat.)
12/26/12 - Rads compl.
1/18/13 - Cituximab compl.
3/13/13 - PET clear
12/19/13 - Positive PET
1/3/14 - Biopsy confirm cancer in tongue and 1 node (stage 4)
1/16/14 - Surgery - full glossectomy and and right neck dissect