I am astonished you can eat well but that is great! I could barely swallow a pill for the first 10 days. If they are not recommending radiation that means your staging was low from the pathology report and that is fantastic news. I got outside as much as possible and walked just to Breathe the air and look at clouds as strange as that seems. I would ask your Doctor about the NavDX blood test to monitor reoccurrence. It is not standard protocol yet but I think it will be in the future. I have read it is about 95% accurate. I assume you will have throat scopes/Ct Scan every 3 months for a few years and you can have the blood test done then.
Recovery.... As William said " The recovery from surgery is sooooo much easier than the recovery from radiation, which in most cases one never fully recovers. And it takes months to years before that settles out." That is 100% accurate. I recovered about 90% from the surgery within 30-45 days. However, The radiation really is 5 steps forward and 4 steps back from here on out. I don't expect to ever be 100% but Ill take 90% all day long. It sounds like without radiation you will have a much better outcome than most of us as far as the healing process. Hang in there a few weeks and I think you will be well on the road to recovery. Faith helped me and still does.