Nina,
Kris had his radiation and chemo as the first line of treatment. He sailed through with not too many side effects really.
However he had a recurrence of his tumour 11 months post treatment. This neccesitated the salvage surgery of total glossectomy etc. Following the surgery, Kris has had no further treatment of either chemo ( which I know he would never do again ), or radiation. I did ask about further radiation but the tumour board felt it was not required.
I am a bit suprised that the SLT's are not keen to get your husband swallowing. The swallowing muscles forget very quickly how to swallow and generally the "teams" encourage swallowing of at least some fluids on a daily basis. Kris managed to swallow all the way through his radiation treatment and only used his PEG as a backup. He still lost 20kgs.
However , I don't know your husbands circumstances so you have to be guided by your team. I would though, ask again about the swallowing. You will read many posts here from others who now have long term swallowing difficulties.
You will both get through this. One day at a time.
Tammy

Caregiver/advocate to Husband Kris age 59@ diagnosis
DX Dec '10 SCC BOT T4aN2bM0 HPV+ve.Cisplatin x3 35 IMRT.
PET 6/11 clear.
R) level 2-4 neck dissection 8/1/11 to remove residual node - necrotic with NED
Feb '12 Ca back.. 3/8/12 total glossectomy/laryngectomy/bilat neck dissection/partial pharyngectomy etc. clear margins. All nodes negative for disease. PEG in.
March 2017 - 5 years disease free. Woohoo!