Mica,

Hi there just thought I would chime in.

I had tonsil cancer stage IV and one node involved.

I had a selective neck disection. This is where they go in and remove the bad nodes (pluck them out is what my doctor said)and then they break the chain of Lymph drain.

The selective is what you must be talking about. If your doctor is talking about a radical neck disection then you are either sicker then you think, or you need to seek another opinion. Really.......

The selective was a breeze. No pain at all. The do the surgurey and leave a drain in there for a week. Easy to get use to. The scar is put on a fold or wrinkle in your neck. Cant even see mine unless you look hard.

Let me know what I can do to help.

Robert