Your epiglottis question is one that will have to be answered by your Doc's office.

PEG is sort of optional when the treatment is just radiation because the swelling is not extreme and all the parts are there -- Things become quickly different when surgery is involved because the swelling is extreme and swallowing just can't happen -- Either a PEG or a naso-gastric tube is required to bypass the blocked areas.

In your case, they are apparently going to remove a key swallowing component, the one that blocks your lungs from taking in food particles and developing things like pneumonia. I'm not a medical person, just another victim, but unless they are going to replace your epiglottis with something, it looks like you will need something like a PEG...