Can someone define what "palpation" exam is?

I know for me, I'm thanking God that my ENT ordered a PET scan back for me in May. I went to see him on a whim back in late April (wasn't a scheduled appointment). He did a manual exam of my head and neck, and while I complained of some tenderness in some areas, he didn't feel anything abnormal (no lumps or enlargements).

I got a PET done at his insistence ("for your peace of mind"), and it lit up in one lymph node. He still didn't feel anything abnormal after the PET, though it was tender when he pressed in that area. Even a CT guided biopsy of the suspicious lymph node came back negative for cancer. It wasn't until my ENT went into my neck for an excision biopsy did he confirm all the suspicions that I had a recurrence... He said the tumor was the size of a quarter. Maybe it was too deep in my neck to feel?

So I guess, technically my docs manual exam is what triggered me discovering my recurrence (my complaints about tenderness in that area surely helped). But I think PETs, CTs and MRIs, while not always 100 percent accurate, are invaluable in the information gathering phase of fighting this disease... I can't see why the guidelines wouldn't be more stringent, especially as others have said, due to the risk of distant mets and second primaries...

If it weren't for my ENT's talking me into doing a PET, I would still be waiting for my regular six-month post-radiation followup with my oncologist (due in July) with a tumor still in my neck (and possibly on the move since it showed extra capsular spread when they took it out)... The guidelines should be as AGGRESSIVE as possible...