Well, since my lymph nodes lit up on the PET scan, my family doctor referred me to a cancer doctor in our area. I went on Monday with my mom, but did not like him at all. First of all, I *always* ask my doctors (or vets for that matter) lots of questions. That's just what I do. My mom does also. The doctor did not seem like he was very into us asking all the questions. He was also very difficult to get clear information from. He was very wishy-washy once actually questioned, and that does not instill much confidence in a patient. Also, he seemed dismissive and a bit condescending, kind of treating me like I was this hysterical woman that was just completely over reacting and taking all this a bit too seriously. IDK, I just didn't like him.
Since the lymph nodes are in my chest and thus in a tricky location, he referred me to a cardio-thoracic surgeon for the biopsy (although he could not tell me what kind of biopsy he might do, or even if this surgeon did this sort of thing often or not). I went to a consultation with the sugeon yesterday. Apparently the kind of biopsy he wants to do involves cutting the lower part of my throat in front of my wind pipe and going down with a light and forceps to take a tissue sample from the offending lymph nodes. When discussing this surgery he basically gave me a list of horrible things that can happen--a collapsed lung, hitting an artery and me bleeding to death on the table, etc.
It also turns out that this same doctor did the same procedure on a coworker of mine. During the procedure the doctor hit a nerve and paralyzed his vocal cords. he now has a box in his throat to help with speech and also sounds like he has laryngitis. He is permanently damaged.
So, with that info combined with the fact that the biopsy procedure sounds so delicate and can damage lots of very important things if it goes wrong, I had my family doctor refer me to Northwestern in Chicago, which thankfully our insurance covers. I have to gather my films and am going in for a consultation on Wednesday....