Sally
So sorry to hear about your brother, the night before my surgery, thats what they said would happen to me, in my case after they got in there they found the tumor on my tongue was small so they save the tongue. I did talked to 2 people that had the same surgery before I had mine, one lost his tongue, 5 years ago, he is 72 years old, and is doing very well, The food tube is not bad, getting use to no slyiva glands, at first was hard, you get use to having the water bottle around, taste buds, its all hard to except.
I got a second opinion at Rochester Mayo, I felt good about going into it with someone that did this surgery, every week. I learned from my 72 year old freind that attidue is every thing, he works every day, still goes on fishing trips.
It is a rapid life style change, that was the hardest thing for me, to get use to living a different way, but we are living.
Good luck