ENT Visit

So yesterday, I had my ENT appointment.

The good news is that they were able to do the needle biopsy then and there. I should have the results in about a week.

The doctor made no comment as to what he thought the enlarged lymph node was caused by. He did think it was very important to find out what this was--esp. considering my past medical history. (This doc was in the same office as the ENT doc I saw a year ago, but was a different doc).

So here's the deal: The doc says the needle biopsy can give a false negative, but not a false positive. So a couple of things could happen. A) There may not be enough sample and I may have to have it done again, b) the test could come back as cancer, which would mean I have cancer again, or C) the test comes back negative, which means it could or could not be cancer.

The bottom line is the new ENT doc thinks that I should have the lymph node surgically removed just to play it on the safe side. If it is removed, it can be fully tested and I will know what it is. (Although if it is benign, I may never know what caused it).

The physicians assistant that helped with the procedure said that she agreed with my oncology--the lump did not look like a typical cancer tumor. It moved around and was soft instead of being hard.

The waiting game begins.... but it looks like I will be having neck surgery in a few weeks... hopefully chemotheraphy will not follow.