Cheryl:
Yes, in June of 2014 when he was diagnosed we rushed and he got a partial glossectomy surgery by an ENT doctor. It was NOT at a NCCC. After the pathology report came out he suspected that it spread to the lymph nodes so he wanted to do a neck dissection.

After speaking with you and multiple members on this forum i found out that NCCC are much better and have much better knowledge.

So we then took him to two NCCC and they both recommended that he should do a Right neck dissection, tracheostomy, radial free flap, right tongue dissection surgery. We ended up going with one of the NCCC and the surgery occurred on 8/11/14.

Afterwards, the report revealed that there was 3 positive lymph nodes out of 13 and extranodal exntesion was present. he began IMRT and Cisplatin. This was all for the RIGHT side. HIs neck dissection was for the right side and the positive nodes were on the right side.

THe doctor told us that his left neck did get partial radiation but it wasnt targeted because he didnt have cancer on his left side. In September of 2014 there was no cancer on the left side (at least none that showed up on the scan) .

In March they found cancer on the LEFT side of the neck. He did another neck dissection and they also found positive nodes.

im not understainding this comment " If he has risk factors for recurrence - the amount of nodal involvement in this case would qualify - then they follow up with rads and chemo." im sorry can you please clarify for me?

I thank you for all of your help. I was going through all our olds emails and you have helped so much.

In our old email- I saw that we were chatting 2 days after he was diagnosed and you mentioned that most of the time a hemiglossectomy also needs a neck dissection at the same time. I am so mad at myself because i told the initial doctor everything you told me and he didnt do the neck dissection at the time. I told him that i wanted to go to more opinions and He also told me "well you have to cut the cancer out no matter what. Thats what all doctors will tell you" do you think from June 24,2014 to the August 11,2014 surgery was a lot of wasted time? I ask our doctors that everyday.