Raymond, Glad to hear you won't have to go through any surgery. I can tell you this has got to be the toughest aspect for my husband so far. He did have the neck dissection surgery this past February, and he is having an extremely hard time with the after-effects. As bad as going through radiation was for him - this surgery has been far worse. I'm at the point where I'm wondering if this surgery was really necessary after all. The surgeon said it was (of course)...but the radiation did such a great job at the tumor, I wonder if he should have waited with this surgery. Anyways - everyone being different, I know most people didn't have such an ordeal with it - but if you can certainly avoid having this done - be THANKFUL.