Neck dissection to remove secondary cancer

Hi Morba and welcome to our community. Sorry you’ve had to find us but we are a friendly bunch with lots of sympathy tips and experience in what you’re going through. 
Tell us a bit more about yourself and what sort of cancer you are dealing with   

I’ll tag PFJTHS , Peter who has had a neck dissection snd is brilliant at explaining  it all. I’m sure he will be along soon to give you a hand. 
Best wishes 

Hi Morba

I'll respond ASAP as I'm currently using my mobile so it will be when I get to my PC (and this site sucks when on the mobile!) 

Morba I am finally on a semi reliable link with my PC :-)

I had 2 neck dissections. The first was to remove a cancerous level 2 lymph node and the second to remove all the lymph nodes on the right of my neck from Level 2 downwards.  

The operation sounds quite unpleasant and if you Google it (DON'T) you will see nasty scars and the like.  My scar is almost invisible and when I asked the surgeon why I did not have a scar like on Google he said they just don't work that way any longer. Recovery for me was reasonably quick.  10 days or so before I was really on top of things.  For one operation I had a drain, for the other I did not.

I can't say about how effective it will be on you, but if they are suggesting it then I imagine the expect it to make a significant improvement.  I have always opted for surgery over radiotherapy, preferring to keep the big guns in reserve.

In my case, because I am CUP, my follow-up regime is stricter than many with monthly checks for the foreseeable future in an attempt to locate the primary.  I would suspect that you will have check ups similar in frequency to after your previous treatment, especially if your histology is good.

There are possible side effects.  Discuss them with your surgeon.  In my case I have some surface nerve damage on the side of the scar.  Front of chest, ear, neck and shoulder.  None is particularly affecting my quality of life - just feels strange.  You adapt to it and do your physio to continue that adaptation.  I have a weak arm, but again physio helped greatly.

I hope that helps and feel free to ask any questions.

Hi PFJ, how wonderful to hear from you and thank you so much for telling me about your experience.

My story is similar, we were in Spain last September and I noticed a lump on my neck. Using our travel insurance we went through the Spanish health system, ultrasound, mri,PET scans and finally biopsy. Lump was diagnosed as secondary with CUP.

At which point we returned to the uk armed with cds with scans on and a slide with the biopsy. 

Back in the uk nhs did tonsillectomy and thankfully found primary. I hope they can find yours. Chemo and radiotherapy should have cleared the nasty secondary lump but the PET scan showed something still there, dead tissue or cancer. Hence the surgery.

Hopefully it is not cancer but if it is then it will be removed and can be analysed.

Like all these things you wonder if the cure is worse than the disease.

Rang hospital today and have fixed up another consultation for next Wednesday to ask more questions before op on 1st.

Once again thanks for taking time to respond it’s helped.