JJ,
according to the NCCN practice guidelines radiation is a "toss up" for stage 1 & 2. But you have to decide whether to hit it with all of the tools or risk recurrence (not that there are any guarantees). Yes radiation sucks - recurrence sucks a whole lot more and can be fatal. The fact that the margins were not clear and they needed to perform further surgery could very well bump this up a class. Then it really won't be an option - most prudent doctors will recommend radiation.

Recent studies of breast cancer patients showed a greatly improved survival rate for those getting surgery and radiation vs. those with surgery alone.

As far as side effects go, I have no problems with trismus or swallowing and my saliva glands (except for the one in the immediate field) are recovering.

I wasn't on liquids that long -probably about 6 months or so.

IF you are a candidate for IMRT take it! It's your best chance at sparing healthy tissue and preserving salivary function.

I went through the whole deal without a PEG tube but talk to your doctor about this (we PEGless patients are an extreme minority).

I didn't have surgery so others will have to address the flap. There was a recent thread dealing with that very issue you may want to do a search on the site and see what you come up with.

It's great that you have a positive attitude, that goes a long way to get you through to the other side. Hold on to that.