Rick,

What you are referring to is called "multi-disciplinary care", and you are lacking a "multi-disciplinary team". Communication is key, and you have the right to ask them about a cohesive team-oriented treatment plan... or why they do not have one.

In such a case, I really empathize with you, because you have to do footwork that it would be ideal for others to do for you. It was the same for my FIL in India, where I lived for four months.


My FIL had a neck dissection. Aside from the fact that doing so removes some cancerous tissue, the primary benefit of doing so was that the doctors then sent several samples from the tissue to a pathologist who looked to determine how prevalent the cancer is, and this is what determined the best course of treatment. This is based on statistical data of likely outcomes, where a careful balance between survival and quality of life are considered. The benefits of sampling as much of this tissue as possible far outweighs the risks in my FIL's case. In your case, I don't understand why you are considering a dissection when it appears you have undergone treatment; are you having a recurrence? This discussion should be had with your docs; demand to know. I'm sure there is a very good reason, I am no expert.


The side effects were that he took some time to heal from the surgery, had some stiffness in the area, and had a little fluid buildup in the area. TIme and exercise have vastly improved him in one year. The long term effect is mainly that he has a slighly visible difference in appearance and slight stiffness; nothing debilitating. I think the idea of it is what bothered me until we saw that it was not as if a vital organ was being removed or anything.

Do you have somebody helping you with the details? It can get complicated and I had to trust my FIL's doctors sometimes because they could only answer so many questions before they had more patients to see. But India is very different.


I can get more details for you, but it has been over a year now. Let me know.