More Labels

One my better (well, I think so) posts dealt with labels, and how they raise questions, but here I have another type of label in mind: the unfamiliar terms that professions use to describe what they do, and in particular the terms my surgeon is using to describe what he's planning to do:

Microlaryngoscopy with transoral C02 laser survery of the primary, left palatine tonsillectomy, left lingual tonsillectomy, and completion left neck dissection.

Taken from his assistant's email. OK, let's break it down.

Microlaryngoscopy

This is what he's planning to do with the microscope, that is, going down my throat and looking for the elusive primary cancer

with transoral C02 laser

and if he finds it, with a laser, conducting a

survery of the primary

What in the world is survery? A typo, probably, "v" and "g" aren't that far apart... so it certainly could be surgery. Or survey, which Google favors. As with most misspelled words, there are dozens of "survery" examples out there but they seem to mean survey.

left palatine tonsillectomy, left lingual tonsillectomy,

And I thought I'd done with my tonsils back in 1955. There are evidently little residual flaps of tonsil (OK, that's not for the squeamish) that he finds candidates for complete, 50+ year-later elimination

and completion left neck dissection.

Which is the part that was always going to happen. Taking out the lymph nodes and surrounding tissue. There is a history here, I heard about it a little from Doctor No. 1. This procedure was once pretty massive - they took out a whole lotta neck - and has since been scaled back so I get to keep things like nerves and arteries. It was developed in the early 20th century by a well-known Clevelander, Dr. Crile, who started the Cleveland Clinic. (And whose grandson was a terrific but controversial journalist.) They had a place out in Painesville, I think, called Little Mountain. Always thought it was a great name... or better yet, a great label.