You guys are all awesome, thanks for the welcome and encouraging words.

DavidCPA - the treatment plan just changed today... during my second opinion got hooked-up with a very experienced Dr with a more aggressive plan than the original. He plans a 7/31 resection of my soft palate and into my hard palate until the margins are clear of cancer.

Then he will take muscle from the chewing muscle that runs under the scalp and deposit that under the skin to any sinus' he breaches, trying to prevent from making me lose any teeth.

This is all so surreal!

I'm going to be treated in the Charlotte CMC medical center by a Dr. with the following qualifications:

Additional Information:
CHARLOTTE EYE EAR NOSE & THROAT ASSOCIATES
EDUCATION:
Undergraduate: Summa cum laude, Yale University, 1978
Medical School: Harvard Medical School, 1982.
Internship: General surgery, Boston University Affiliated Surgical Program, 1983.
Residency: Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, a program consistently mentioned as one of the finest in the nation, 1987.
BOARD CERTIFICATION: American Board of Otolaryngology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.
MEMBERSHIPS: North Carolina Medical Society and the Mecklenburg Medical Society.
MEDICAL STAFF: Presbyterian Hospital and Carolinas Medical Center. Dr. Kamerer currently serves as Chief of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at Carolinas Medical Center and is the Surgical Director of the Multidisciplinary Clinic for Head and Neck Cancer at Carolinas Medical Center�s Blumenthal Cancer Center, where he participates in research related to the multidisciplinary approach to head and neck cancer. He sometimes serves as a surgical representative for Presbyterian Hospital�s Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Clinic.
EXPERTISE: Evaluation and treatment of head and neck tumors, diseases of the salivary glands, thyroid and parathyroid disorders, skullbase surgery, transseptal surgery for pituitary tumors, voice disorders, and endoscopic sinus surgery.

I call him the Cancer Terminator.

...Bill in NC, can you give me the names of your Duke Dr's in case I decide to go with 5th and 6th opinions?

...that may be overkill, but just want to do the right thing. Almost went with that first Dr. but after the second opinion Dr. was surprised that my first hadn't forwarded my case to the Cancer Terminator who's in his very same group, suspicions all started to arise.

The Cancer Terminator's nurse says every once in a while, a Dr. in the ENT group will decide they want to do a procedure on their own, but the Cancer Terminator seems much more qualified... just did the same procedure on a 16 year old girl last month.

Am I doing this right?