Hi everyone. Dave here again. Thanks for the words of encouragement. To answer some questions I saw above, my tumor is on the right side of my tongue on the posterior, but completely visible if I stick my tongue out far enough. So it hasn't really slid back into the throaty area of the tongue at this point.

Also the first surgeon I saw did say no to surgery, so it was the 2nd opinion that actually said surgery was a possibility, a UCSF surgeon to be exact. With the size of my tumor I believe I would lose about 25-35% of my visible tongue, replaced with a flap. To me that seems like a lot to sacrifice.

I'm scheduled to start chemo on Monday and radiation Tuesday unless I opt for the surgery instead. This is probably the hardest decision I'll ever make. At the same time, I don't want to delay action any longer because of the obvious risks involved in putting things off.

I'd be interested to know more specifics about peoples experiences with the surgery and how exactly they've been effected. Maybe some can direct me to a thread where that was already discussed.

Also, though Erbitux is a newer drug some of the clinical trials I've read seem to suggest that it definitely adds to the effectiveness of the overall treatment in head & neck cancer. While I know it can be risky going with newer drugs, it seems like a good idea and my oncologist seems to think so as well, though it wouldn't be hard to find an oncologist who disagreed with that synopsis.

Thanks again for all the info and words of encouragement!