So here's an update...we saw his oral surgeon yesterday .The fibula flap wasn't done initially because the cancer needed to come out immediately and the plastic surgeon for the flap procedure was not available . We will see both surgeons in January and the flap procedure will be done as soon after that as the plastic surgeon can schedule it . He will do 20 HBO treatments before surgery and 10 after . The reasoning for doing it , is that the titanium will eventually fail and surgery is much more successful when the existing bone is not compromised by a screw coming loose or some other malfunction . Also, radiation "damage" or whatever it is called increases over time , so sooner is better than later . We both feel a lot better now that most of our questions have been answered . Thank you all for your valuable input ; I used a lot of your experiences to develop my lengthy list of questions for the surgeon.