Hey Shawn
Good not to be alone! How did they get to a stage 4 for you..I was told I wasn't an advanced stage and sometimes the T staging for head and neck can put you in a four when in fact a prognosis is much more like a 1-3 stage. My T2 was due to the tonsil being 20mm in one direction but was still contained in capsule with no spread (lot of biopsies at time of operation around mouth and tongue) - consultant shrugged and said although it had started to grow quick, it hardly showed any growth a month earlier but was just pale, that being contained still was to him as good as a stage 1 as far as he was concerned. The node was quite big by comparison, 4mm and had just breached but tissue all around tested clear. That got me an N2a, I guess 2 for size and a for the breach. I was shocked when al taken together I fell to a stage IVa.
I have had really good care, but our NHS despite being very god has lots of patients so not always had long enough to talk t consultants.
DO let me know how your journey goes. Im in on Oct 14th for six weeks chemo radiotherapy.

All the best


John

Life long none smoker, social drinker. Age 46
25 July positive node. Primary in left tonsil.
Neck Disection 27 Aug 20+ nodes removed, bilateral tonsillectomy.
Tonsil primary, other mouth, throat, tongue biopsies showed clear. Node breached but no evidence of spread in surrounding tissues or any other nodes.
T2N2aM0
Wisdom Teeth (all 4) removed mid Sep and Peg fitted first week Oct.
Started six weeks, 30 rads, six chemos total, chemo on Mondays and rads Mon to Fri on Oct 14th.