Hi Louise, and welcome! Sorry you had to join our group.

There is a whole bunch of information accessible from the main pages. Hit the main URL (http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/) and click around on the understanding tab and it's subgroups. Some of the other tabs also have relevant information. It is sometimes tough to figure out what is applicable to your own particular case, because there is a large amount of information there that addresses different types of oral cancer and different treatments.

I had a partial glossectomy, with the forearm flap taken from my left wrist. They filled in the hole on my wrist with a skin graft taken from my left thigh. They also close to perform a neck dissection, but thankfully none of the nodes were cancerous.

While the surgeon was 80% certain that they got everything out during surgery, they were recommending radiation treatments. I elected to trust their professional opinions, and had my radiation about six weeks after the surgery. In my case, I had a relatively easy time with the radiation treatments, compared to what I have read that others have gone through. I was still physically active and even went on a fairly strenuous hike about an hour after my second to last zap session. Yes, I had a nice sunburn and I was again on a mostly liquid diet towards the end, but I got through it. As far as longer term side effects, so far all I've really noticed is some movement with my teeth, but I haven't lost any of them so far. Everything else seems more or less normal (other than the scar on my wrist & some minor speech and tongue movement difficulties, but those are related to the surgery, not the rads).

There are others on this board who had a recurrence after skipping radiation the first time they were treated. Given what I was told, I'd be kicking myself if I decided 80% was good enough odds and skipped the supplemental radiation. But if it wasn't actually required, I certainly wouldn't want to go through it all!

Perhaps your husband's tumor is small enough not to require a full-on glossectomy and maybe radiation is indeed not warranted in his case. You might want to get a second opinion. It does not appear that you are lucky enough to have one of those fancy "Comprehensive Cancer Centers" right in your backyard, but if you're a nurse, perhaps you have a good feel for whether you can rely on the diagnosis and information you've been given.