Vanessa

Like David, I wince when I see those posts about neck dissection and lymph nodes removed that turned out to be perfectly healthy.
With all that he is suffering through right now, you may wish to ask your new improved doctor about "watchful waiting" on taking out lymph nodes. I refused a neck dissection after my first TX and never regretted it. When the cancer did come back, it had nothing to do with leaving in the lymph nodes, and I was so scared that I caved in and agreed to a neck dissection since I was having such extensive surgery. Of course, there was zero cancer in the nodes removed but now I have constant neck pain and major scar tissue limiting my neck movement despite therapy and exercise. My rambling point is that I waited one year and six months to finally have the neck dissection with zero adverse consequences due to the wait and watch. I wish I had remained steadfast but the shock of recurrence and a misplaced desire to "do everything and anything" clouded my better judgement. FU5 may turn out like neck dissections: better in concept than execution and results.
Hang in there
Charm