Diane

Thanks for the support. You are right that I am lucky to have such an emphatic ENT surgeon. Not only is she a woman in a field dominated by men, but her husband is a long term oral cancer survivor who uses the same cancer dentist as I do. It really helps a lot as her perspective is so different than the rest of my medical team. The RO and MO were pushing neck dissection but she held firm in supporting our decision to not have the surgery since the MRI was clear. While she can understand those patients who are ecstatic about having an amazing number of lymph nodes taken out that were perfectly healthy, she understands that would have horrified and depressed me. In an ironic comeuppance, I will now be one of those patients who has surgery (albeit minor) and will be overjoyed if it was totally unnecessary.