I had squamous cell carcinoma treated with surgery and tongue reconstruction with a radial forearm flap 3/8/04. I'm 59 in otherwise good health. This procedure is rarely done and only in Southern Cal. at UCLA. My doc has done over 500 of these surgeries. I found him with a recommendation from a patient on another board. I am out 5 months, I was able to eat solid food a week after surgery. I feel the surgery worth the trouble (week in hospital with traceostomy and Jtube, tongue still swollen, flap donor site still recovering) as I have a full albeit two tone tongue which will always be a bit numb. My advice is to find out how many surgeries your doc has done and what his success rate is. They also took out some neck nodes at the same time.
Howard