Well, made it through the ordeal of the 1st appointment at the CCC. They had a couple of emergencies, so everything was running really late -- arrived at 10:00 AM for a 10:30 appointment -- saw the doctor at 1:00, left at 3:15. Whew . . .

They scoped my tongue and throat, palpated my lymph node, reviewed CT Scan, Biopsy, etc. Primary is 2.1 cm on the right tongue base, just touching the midline. Lymph node is 3 cm today (really blew up after biopsy last week), so doc says technically I am a Stage IV, due to the size of the lymph node, even though the primary is a T2.

Friday I go for PET/CT combination and general medical evaluation. On 4/19, I will have bilateral neck dissection. He intends to preserve everything he can, but will be "aggressive" in terms of removing lymphatic tissue. Even though there is no CT evidence for lymphadenopathy on the left, he wants to play it safe. The dissection will be less extensive on the left He says that doing an early dissection enables a lower dose and more focused Rad/Chemo protocol, which reduces side effects without reducing effectiveness of treatment. He said no 100% guarantees, but the intent and expectation is to cure.

So, bottom line is I feel as good as can be expected at this stage of the proceedings. I would appreciate any input or comments on what transpired today.

Jeff