March/April Checkups

On March 17 Curt had his annual checkup with his Corvallis doctor (Wirth) and then had lab work (including an EKG) done a couple days later. After 3 weeks we finally had to go to the Clinic to get the printed results of that. They said everything was okay (i.e. cholesterol of 159).
On Sunday (April 13) we stayed with Bakers' overnight so Curt could get to his PET scan at OHSU at 9 AM on Monday. After that we had an enjoyable lunch with some "old" friends (Jack and Sue Hufford) from Michigan who were in Portland visiting their son. They came to OHSU and we took the Tram down and then hopped on the Max train to downtown for lunch and came back the same way. Curt had appointments with Drs. Wax and Gross at 2 PM. Curt's eye is still bothering him (watering (which requires eye drops) and a little blockage of vision). He had a little trouble at first hitting the softball at practice on Sunday. Dr. Wax also noted the displacement of his jaw and left lip. The removal of part of his jawbone is a big factor. This makes it very difficult for Curt to chew and bite. He also has not regained much (if any) feeling in that side of his face (I guess Dr. Wax grafted a nerve there). I guess one good thing is that the radiation has permanently removed his whiskers on the left side (no shaving). His weight is down to 154 lbs. now. Dr. Wax doesn't want to do any more corrective surgery for awhile. Another "problem" is the hernia in his stomach caused by the removal of some muscle there to be used as filler in his jaw. This could be corrected in Corvallis at a later time.
The biggest concern raised was when Dr. Gross noted a "hot spot" on the PET scan that is near the removed tumor. Dr. Gross pointed above his ear and said it was at the base of his skull. He wanted Curt to have an MRI soon. We could not get in that afternoon, so we returned today at 11 AM for that. While they were doing the MRI, the machine broke down. So it took over 2 hours to get this done. We now have to wait to hear from Dr. Gross. Curt has also had been lightheaded at times - especially while playing tennis or other activities. He quit playing a singles match about a week ago because of this. Right now he is hauling bark mulch for our yard.