Jim --

Sorry for the bluntness here, but I have to concur with the others -- get to a CCC NOW!

Though your tumor may have been small enough to be characterized as Stage I, the spread to a lymph node makes it Stage III at best. When you say that there were "signs of it starting to spread" in pathology, I suspect that the report would refer to extracapsular extension, which increases the risk for distant spread.

Your opportunities to knock this beast out once and for all are not unlimited. I have side effects from radiation and the neck dissection, but I am alive, a full participant in life, and grateful to be able to say that. Don't let some misguided allegiance to your ENT lead you down the wrong path here. You are young, but this disease does not care -- it is just as lethal to you as it is to someone like me 20+ years older than you.

Don't play Russian Roulette with this thing. Get some doctors who know to guide you. After getting all of the options and being fully informed, you can make your own decisions. However, making decisions on less than full information on something this serious is pure folly.