I had an appt. with Dr. Smith, the general surgeon today. The ENT (Dr. Sandler) wants Dr. Smith to do the thyroidectomy. Dr. Sandler was supposed to talk to Dr.
Smith about how he wanted to approach things-- if he wants to remove the mouth lesion, lymph node, and thyroid all himself, or if he wants Dr. Sandler to do the mouth lesion and lymph node and he'll do the thyroidectomy. I knew Dr. Sandler is undecided about whether to go through my mouth to get the mouth lesion (which is way in the back on the floor of my mouth) or go through the neck. I had been thinking no matter what it would all be done in one surgery, but today Dr. Smith explained that since the mouth is considered "dirty" he does not want that done at the same time as the thyroidectomy (considered a clean surgery). Those of you who have had an excisional biopsy of the floor of the mouth lesion-- was it done throught the mouth or the neck? It has occurred to me that Dr. Sandler may be thinking about going through the neck just to save me from two surgeries, but if it is better I would rather have two surgeries and let him go through the mouth. Of course Dr. Sandler was out of town today, so I am in limbo (again). I am also wondering if I have to have two separate surgeries which I should have first. We know the thyroid is cancer, but it is slow growing with a high success rate of treatment. On the other hand, we don't know what the mouth lesion is or if it is in the lymph node. Any thoughts?