Hi Sue,

Melbourne is a great city and unfortunately we only spent one day there before leaving for the outback. I wish we had spent another day or two there, but the itinerary didn't plan for that. Maybe someday, we will go back.

I can understand your concern about the neck disection. Again, I am not recommending anything, but just want you to have another point of view on the matter. The way it was explained to me is that my surgeon feels that in his opinion the only way for him to know if the nodes are involved, is to remove them and biopsy them. Although my MRI was clear (again he doesn't order them) he routinely will do the disection. Now, one might say "he's a surgeon, that's his job," but, I found it difficult to disagree with his reasoning. There are members here that had similar situations to ours, that had radiation and or chemo. Approaches to treatment depend on the surgeon's training and experiences and I have noticed, also are different, in different parts of the world.

If there is anything else I can help with, please don't hesitate to ask or send me an email, if you want.

Please keep us posted as to what you find out. I, of course, hope that this turns out to be nothing of concern.

Jerry