Not That Easy

So later that week, I go into the ENT, expecting to get a lymph node biopsy. Not so fast. I don't know what differentiates all the different acronym medical types I've been seeing, but this time I get an NP, Nurse Practitioner. She asks me why I'm there which is kind of surprising because I'm expecting her to just stick a needle in my neck and submit samples for testing. So we go through the whole case history again, she plays around with lymph nodes in my neck, finding another much smaller one on the right side, and then tells me that they won't do lymph node biopsy using just a needle, no one in town will. She said that 9 out of 10 times the results come back saying insufficient material to do the analysis and you just wind up wasting time and money. In order to get a definite answer, you need to pull a lymph node for biopsy which is a surgical procedure (ie expensive) and shouldn't be done unless necessary.

She says I need to get a CT scan of my neck and chest. That will show more detail of what is going on with the lymph nodes in those areas and if that dictates that a biopsy should be performed.  Great, more waiting. It'll be a few more days until I can get in for the CT scans.