Hi everyone,

We went to the ENT doctor today. Since we had given her the CT scan, and she had something to base her opinion on, it was a much better visit today. What she told us today was that my husband, Joe's, lymph node (the one that she had biopsied) showed up on the current CT as the same size as before radiation. She told us she could also see that their were changes, that it looked like it had dead cells in it, but because it was not any smaller, she felt that it would be best to remove it. She said it could have just a few bad cells in it, and that would be all it would take to spread more.

So we now feel that he should have the dissection. I think that if she would have had the CT done, and seen the results before she told us she wanted to do the dissection, we would have understood a little more. Since it was never even discussed by her prior to the radiation, it just seemed strange that she walked in and just decided it was going to be done.

She can actually do the surgery next week, and he can have his port removed at the same time. I think if she had not had a good reason to do the surgery, we would definitely be getting a second opinion. If he needs the surgery anyway, we would like to have it done ASAP so it doesn't interfere with Christmas. We have a family vacation planned at Disney, and would like to still do that. She told us he should be fine to go by then. We would also like it done this year so we don't have to pay another $1000 deductible as soon as next year gets here.

If you think this sounds appropriate, let me know. I think as well as he has done with all the past treatments, including the tonsillectomy in August, hopefully this will be just as easy. We are just looking for it to all be over. She doesn't expect it to come back, so we can just hope that it doesn't.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Sharon