Please remember that if there is a cancer in the cervical nodes, that lymph system is connected to the rest of your body. The lymph system is one of the primary pathways for this cancer to metastasize to other parts of your body and invade vital organs, usually with dire results. Putting this off till after the end of the year so a trip to Hawaii can be sqeezed in sounds like Russian roulette in my book. It has been posted here many tiimes regarding the 30% of stage one and two cancers that have occult mets to the cervical nodes not visible on any convnetional scanning technology. If she has a neck dissection now, she will be well healed up in time for a February trip to the islands. A carotid ultrasound reveals much, it is an inexpensive and simple, non invasive procedure that will take less than half an hour. There is no down side to having one if a patient wants it.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.