Petey
There is a tumor rating guide on the OCF site, can't remember exactly where. T3-4 indicates a fairly advanced tumor; n2 indicates nodal involvement, M0 means no known metastic spread ( a good thing)

The PET scan isn't a big deal. As Colleen said, it's not an MRI...different technology, used for different things.

The surgery is major; there's just no getting away from that. I underwent 17 hours of it, and you can probably expect something similar. The neck dissection will take care of the lymphatic invasion hopefully; they will take several dozen nodes from your neck, shoulder and upper chest.

That's done from the primary incision on the neck. You'll almost certainly wind up with a trach for at least a few days, as well as a gastric tube of some description, either a PEG or a nasal tube. Neither of those things are problematic.

The glossectomy is the removal of the affected portion of tongue. I lost a good bit of my jaw, not my tongue, so I can't speak to that, but the grafting (referred to as a free flap elevation) is amazing. In my case, it was fibula for the bone graft, and also tissue and blood supply from my forearm. I know they do flaps from a variety of locations for reconstruction of the tongue.

There was a guy in treatment when I went through rad who had 70% of his tongue removed, and they rebuilt it with tissue from his thigh. I was amazed at how well he was able to talk, and eat.

The radiation was rough; for me, far worse than the surgery. First things first, though. Get through the surgery and then worry about the next steps.

The oxycodone is stronger than percocets; percocet is 5mg of oxcodone and 325 mg acetominophen (sp??).

Hope that helps a bit. PM me if you want
Wayne