Fr. Mike, Dan, I had what they said was 1/3 of one half of my tongue removed, they did the reconstruction, but after 7 days it turned out it didn't take, which after all wound up no big deal. Also following that had rad to the neck and part of the tongue.

Other than having an accent slightly like Homer Simpson for the first week after the surgery, my speech is as clear as ever. (maybe it wasn't all that clear to start with) After a long day my tongue gets tired and speach may be a little slured, but more like hard to pronounce words get more difficult. I've got one of those eastern european family names with a lot of letters and not a lot of vowels, so the worse is trying to pronounce that in late afternoons. But, my limited Chinese is still understandable.

So, hopefully the speach problem shouldn't be a big factor over time. Could be worse, Fr Mike, could still be doing the mass in Latin smile
Bob S.

SCC Tongue, stage IV diagnosed Sept, 2002, 1st radical neck dissection left side in Sept, followed by RAD/Chemo. Discovered spread to right side nodes March 2003, second radical neck dissection April, followed by more RAD/Chemo.