I wanted to take a moment to share my experience in early dianosis and treatment/Dr. selection decitions for anyone that would benefit from this.

I was diagnosed last Thursday with low grade mucoepidermoidal carcinoma of the minor salivary glands. Found by acident, dentist noticed it, forwarded to oral surgeon who did the biopsy, and his lab did the analysis.

Oral surgeon's lab returned the diagnosis above and that oral surgeon had already made an appointment for me at the nearest ENT.

After I broke down in my car pulling out of the oral surgron's office, I dused myself off and went into that ENT's office to fill out the typical new patient paperwork to make the next day's appointment go fast and so I could beg for an earlier appointment because I knew the 24hrs until that appointment would be torture.

The first doctor I saw made me feel great... great prognosis, good chemistry with the guy, really felt better and like things would be fine.

Upon arrival at the second opinion, expecting a rubber stamp duplication from the original doctor, I was horrified to find that my 2nd opinion Dr. knew of an expert on this sort of surgery... and that this Dr. was in the same group as the man I had seen for a 1st opinion.

Why would he fail to tell me about this doctor? Speaking with the new doctor's nurse she mentioned that they get about 90% of the group's cases but every once in a while, some ENTs in the group want to do the procedure themselves.

Moral of the story... the second opinion idea is not lip service and the presentation of a need for one isn't as obvious as one would think (bad chemistry with the Dr., perceived inexperience, etc weren't a factor here, we felt great with the guy).

Because of that I'm hitting my 3rd opinion Monday... not to make my head spin but as the best fact-finding I can do to ask around who's done these procedures the most.