Howard,
I second the congratulations. I am so glad it is a T1. You sound like you are doing very well. As far as not getting radiation, personally I would want at least 2 opinions on that. It's great news if you really don't need it, but you want to be as sure as possible that it really is T1 with absolutely no nodal involvement. I may be paranoid, though. Certainly Lisa is a good example that there really are some lucky T1's where surgery alone is a good solution. Take care.

Rainbows & hugs,
Rosie

Howard,
I just wanted to add that chemo is generally not very effective with head & neck cancer. The chemo we usually get is Cisplatin which is an adjunct to radiation. It works by oxygenating the tissues to enhance the performance of radiation. It's not the same kind of "poison" or toxic style of chemo that systemically kills the cancer. It is very toxic in its own right however. This is why radiation is typically given for a prophylactic measure and adjunct to the surgery. Rosie is absolutely correct -get well qualified second opinions on this - you don't even want a recurrence. Many feel that you are much better off killing this thing the first time through. Conversely to what Lisa said there are also some people here who started out with a T1 staging and ended in hospice care so be very careful. Press the doctors and your team for the what would give you the best possible outcome.