Finally received a tentative date of Thursday, Nov. 29th for my surgery.  They’ll know how long it will be following tomorrow’s Ultrasound.  That’s going to tell them if the cancer has made it’s way over to the left side of my neck.  It’s most likely going to be an all-day surgery with a day or two afterwards in the hospital.  After that I’m in recovery mode for 2-3 weeks.
As mentioned before, I’m meeting with one of the surgeons (Dr. Stephen Bayles) tomorrow morning at which point I’ll get some more details from the Virginia Mason side of things regarding surgery prep, etc.  Apparently he was named one of the Seattle’s Top Doctors for ’09-’10.  Certainly reassuring to read that!  I’m unsure at this moment if the Group Health ENT Dr. (Dr. Steven Short) is assisting or going to be there at all.

November 29th, the day my life starts to get better.