I went to my family doctor plus others for 7 months to question a lymph node swollen the size of my thumb under my left jaw. I finally got a referral to a plastic surgeon because nobody else would remove it due to all the nerves in the neck and face. The plastic surgeon wanted and ENT workup for a second opinion and as luck had it, my wife was there, too. I asked her what she thought, she said...take it out. I said, there's your second opinion. Everything fell in place and two days later I woke up...with the darn thing still in there. It was so puss-filled and infected the doctor thought it was tuberculosis so he took some out and stitched me back up because it was hard to see where the chain really ended. I went home Friday thinking I was going to prepare myself for a year of antibiotic cocktails to treat TB. Monday I got a phone call that I had metastatic SCC in the lymph node. I have now learned that 90% of the time you have a swollen lymph node for very long, it is cancer. I lived through the treatment and 6 months out...cancer free. The ENT did not do the neck dissection because he believes my stage of cancer does not indicate an automatic neck dissection and the operation is my last defense because of the amount of radiation I had. Is a second opinion worthwhile? You bet it is and I wish I had pushed harder for 7 months than I did, even though the cancer is probably 1-2 years building in my body. I got three opinions before the treatment and one told me he uses my doctor for his second opinions and one said he could take care of it on an outpatient visit. We'll never know which one was right but I know which one I believed in!

Ed