If it's anything like my husband's experience when he went for a second opinion at Hopkins, you will be asked to either send in advance or bring with you copies of everything that has been done so far -- CAT/PET/MRI scans, doctors' and hospital notes, biopsy results, etc. Hopkins also wanted an actual slice of the excisional biopsy for the pathologists there to examine and confirm the diagnosis. (Pathologists who deal only with head and neck cancers can often pick up on subtleties in the biopsy samples that others may miss.)

Check with Ohio State about what they want -- you can start pulling all that information together while waiting for your family doctor and insurance to process the referral.

All the best,
Leslie