After some scans, appointments, discussion since 01/15 it has been determined my suspicious parotid mass doesn't show up and is most likely loss of facial muscles causing backing up of saliva into a thick goo.

Of more concern is I noticed a lump under my chin the morning of my scan so I marked it for them. It turns out I have an enlarged submental node that showed up first back on 7/25/2011 but nobody mentioned it because it was so small and the radiologist overrode the doctor ordering an MRI and cancelled a subsequent scan with contrast so no scans with contrast from then until 2/4/2013. The node is not huge, 11 mm x 4 mm, but feels much like the lump in my throat as it started. I was thinking FNA when I thought it was new but leaning towards living life and rescan 4 months. My otolaryngologist is suggesting the same but more because he is not concerned at the size it is. My decision is based on my state of emaciation and doctors not even wanting to give me a feeding tube back in September because of how I looked.

I spent about 3 months under hospice care and after hearing so much about comfort care they shifted into a look at you time to die and loaded me up on meds and tried to convince me to lie down, get comfortable and medicate out for weeks in December. I self weaned off the methadone in 1/4 of the time they wanted after they overdosed me by mixing methadone and diflucan. I literally went from almost paralyzed from the waist down to walking almost a mile in 3 days, 20 laxatives a day to zero in 3 days with no bowel problems other than a bit of pain but regular ever day for 6 weeks! I spent weeks rebuilding the core and Friday I walked 3 miles in the am, went to the gym for 6 miles on the recumbent bike, light workout on machines for almost two hrs and another mile walk in the afternoon. First, BOOYAH hospice! I sent them away January 12! Second, thank you for reading so much. I just wanted to give some background with a little "never give up" thrown in for good measure.

I don't want to disturb the beast if it is there since 2011 and risk spreading since I would not be a candidate for salvage surgery, chemo or radiation because of the lower motor neuron disease progression. I would appreciate your input.

Ed