Hi Scribe,
I had exactly the same decision to make and I went with IMRT and Cisplatin. It was tough but so far so good. I am 108 days out from my last radiation treatment and slowly getting better. The doctors assured me that the odds were actually slightly better with the non surgical route in my case. I did have a fairly unusual tumor, in that it was a polyp and although fairly large, had remained "moderately well differentiated" and "focally invasive", which meant it was pretty much contained in one spot. You will need to weigh all of these things out with your radiation oncologist and head & neck surgeon. I would always recommend the path that will give you the best outcome. My Head & Neck surgeon was the one who made the recommedation to go with IMRT & chemo. One major difference was I had no lymph node involvement although certain lymph nodes were specifically targeted by the radiation oncologist (probably as a precautionary measure). Another factor that I had, was that if I had the surgery, I would have radiation anyway. Talk to your doctors again, take good notes, get second opinions. Pray for wisdom to make the right choices.

Like Karen, I didn't get a feeding tube either, but I lost 60 lbs. So in hindsite I will always second guess my wisdom of not doing so. Most folks say here that the feeding tube is not a big deal and can help you maintain your weight, facilitate taking meds and enhance the healing process.

I was pretty scared too (I passed out when I got the Dx - in the exam chair at the ENT!) I know how THAT is! They gave me a script for Zanax which helped a lot with the anxiety.