I had a bilateral neck dissection on Jan 25th where they removed 22 lymph nodes from levels 1-3. I was wondering how many nodes are there total? Did they take them all? What about the lymph draining - if there are no nodes left - where does the fluid go? I still have a little swelling above the incision which extends upwards through my jaws. Wondering if that will be permanent or if it will eventually work it's way out.

Also- if they removed them all - does that reduce my chance of recurrence in the nodes to almost nothing? Or - does it remain the same - just would be in different nodes - or do the nodes "regrow" themselves?

Sorry for all the questions. I don't go back to the ENT for another 4 weeks and the oral surgeon didn't know for sure about those questions when I went today.