Another update - so I met with my surgeon late yesterday...
Turns out it's not actually my salivary gland, but a lymphnode, although it's still contained. The lymphnode swelled so much that it sorta fused around the salivary gland, hence why the ENT had thought that's what it was originally.

Nonetheless, the surgeon is going to do a left neck dissection and remove the salivary glands and all the left neck lymphnodes. Then after surgery he will present my case to the Mayo clinic tumor board and they will collectively decide if they think I need radiation. He says right now it's not definite, but a "probably". If I will need it, he says he always recommends 6 weeks of 5 days/week treatment.

I have two concerns at this point.

1. My surgeon is going out of town and so my surgery won't be until 11/11 or 11/12 (the scheduler is supposed to call me tomorrow morning). I just hate waiting that long. Who knows what this cancer will do in the meantime.

2. My left jaw has been aching off and on recently and I don't know if that's related or not. I sorta forgot to ask my surgeon about it yesterday because it wasn't hurting at the time and I had about a dozen other questions I was asking him.

My surgeon is supposedly one of the best in the nation, so I guess waiting for him to do the surgery is my best option. I just hate the waiting part....that is the worst part of this disease....the waiting and the unknown. *sigh*

At least now I am beginning to have a plan unfold before me.