Hi Ann,
My husband had a modified radical neck dissection. Actually what they did was remove 30 lymph nodes on the left side of his neck. At the time of the operation we didn't know where the primary cancer was. Our surgeon had suspected that it was in the base of his tongue on the left side, because of the lymph nodes that had tested positive. He did some more biospies while he was in there and he actually found it where he thought it was. It is my understanding that base of tongue is somewhat down your neck and it's not a good place to operate. Our doc said he would have to basically take my husband's neck apart to get to the cancer and the side effects of the operation are not something you want to have to deal with. I believe this is different from the tongue and the floor of the mouth. His operation went well and the pathology report showed no cancer in any of the nodes they removed. He did not have a trach or feeding tube. We are going to start radiation very soon and it's my understanding that he may have to have a feeding tube depending on how he handles the radiation. Did you have radaition before?