Hi Everyone,

We are new here, and looking for some opinions. My husband had his tonsils out in Aug.,the right one came back with a 2.5 cm tumor, along with a positive 2 cm lymph node.

He had 39 IMRT radiation sessions, and chemo. He had an initial treatment of chemo consisting of Taxotere and Cisplatin, and then had weekly treatments for 6 weeks of Cisplatin only. We were told the chemo was to assist the radiation, and hopefully he would not need a neck dissection.

He went through the treatment amazingly well. He only ever used Motrin and Excedrin for pain. He did not have a feeding tube, although toward the end eating was painful. He worked throughout the entire treatment, only missing work on the chemo days.

We were so excited how well he had done. Both the radiation and the chemo doctors told us they do not see many patients respond this well. The chemo doctor told him he needed to wait until he was better healed to do any testing to make sure everything was gone.

Now here is our problem. We had to go to the ENT doctor. She walked in her office and told us she needed to schedule a neck dissection. We were shocked. We asked her how did she know he needed this, since he had not even had any type of follow up tests done. She said it didn't matter, that there could be microscopic cells in there, and he needed the dissection. We also told her we thought that since he had the chemo, this was to hopefully prevent the dissection. She again said no. She told us it had to be done within 6 weeks of ending radiation. We asked if it couldn't wait until after Christmas, and she told us by waiting until after Christmas might mean he might not be here next Christmas. She did finally agree to get a CT scan done. We did this the same day, and the report came back that everything was within normal limits, or unremarkable. The only finding was 2 calcified lymph nodes.

We went home and could barely talk. We decided we should get a second opinion at Moffit Cancer Hospital. Upon calling, I found out that we would have to wait until the end of December just for the initial appointment.

What we need to find out is

1. If he is to have the neck dissection, does it have to be done within the 6 weeks of ending radiation, or can it be longer so we can get a second opinion.

2. We cannot find any info. on what a calcified lymph node is, and because these are present, does it definitely mean he needs the neck dissection anyway, and we really don't need a second opinion.

Any info. anyone can give us would be greatly appreciated. We are meeting with the ENT doctor tomorrow, so she can tell us when she wants to schedule the dissection. The only good thing is that she says it should be a selective dissection, and he may only be in the hospital overnight. We would also have peace of mind knowing everything was gone.

Thanks for any help.

Sharon