Hi.

I am sorry to hear you are going through this. I just had a neck dissection a few weeks ago. I also had my thyroid removed (6 years ago) but an ultra sound in the spring showed enlarged lymph nodes that turned out to be malignant.

There is pretty accurate information when you Google it, but I will give you some info about my experience. I had a lateral and central neck dissection. Initially it was supposed to just be a left lateral dissection but after the pre op CT scan they realized that the central lymph nodes were malignant as well. My incision starts about two inches under my ear and goes down and around to the front of my neck (pretty much where my scar was from having two hemithyroidectomies). There was definitely discomfort in the first ten days, but not enough for me to use any pain medication (including OTC like Tylenol). Now three and a half weeks out I still have areas of tenderness but nothing that impacts my day to day activities. The incision is healing well. I am in my early 50s. I think by the time it is fully healed it will look more like a wrinkle/sag in my neck skin.

There are rare complications that you can read about (shoulder, lip, tongue). I did not have any of those. Some lymph nodes had attached to my recurrent laryngeal nerve. The surgeon tested that the signals were traveling through my nerves throughout the surgery, so the nerve isn’t damaged, but due to being manipulated, it needs time to recover. The consequence of that is the paralysis of my left vocal cord. I currently have a very hoarse , breathy voice. Sometimes I cough and choke on drinks, but not often. There is an injection that plumps up the vocal cord so it stays closed so you can talk and eat comfortably. It wears off in about a year which is about the time the healing should happen. I will be getting the injection in 10 days. I could have had it sooner but I am having some more testing done and I wanted to get that done first.

All in all I had 32 lymph nodes removed (8 were malignant).

I hope that information helps. I wish you the best in your recovery!