HI Jo

Michael Douglas did not undergo surgery. His treatment was either chemoradiation or radiation. My recollection is that it was chemoradiation.

The reason your ENT gave you a funny look is probably because she failed to recognise the misunderstanding (her problem - not yours).

So just to clarify something that you may not have been told: Radiation causes permanent damage to the area being irradiated. In particular, slowed healing is of concern so surgery becomes a little bit more risky and complicated (and painful). Surgery is often performed first to avoid potential issues.

So going back to your question of the ENT... what this means is that if surgery had been postponed until AFTER the radiation, it might actually have had a worse impact than doing it the other way round.

Does this make sense?