GOOD NEWS!

Dr. Eisele called while we were both out today. He left a message that was cut off, but we were able to talk to him later (actually I talked to him while Curt was golfing). He said their tumor board was not sure the cancer had returned (without a biopsy). It could be an inflamation (Dr. Gross also mentioned that). Since Curt does not have any other symptoms, they did not recommend chemotherapy. They did recommend that Curt have another MRI in 4 to 6 months. We cancelled Curt's appointment with Dr. Chui tomorrow and have left a message with Dr. Gross. Dr. Eisele said he would try to contact Dr. Gross too (he tried to call him before he called us). We gave the wrong phone number for Dr. Gross to Dr. Eisele in the note we sent with the MRI. So we are feeling much better!

MRI

Everything went well today. We got to OHSU a little after 11 and checked in for the MRI. They gave us a pager and said they would call us if we could get in earlier than our appointment at 4 PM. They called about 2:45. It didn't take 3 hours - "just" a little less than 1 1/2 hours. We then went up to the film library to get a copy. That closed at 6, but we got there before 4:30. Their last FedEx pickup is at 3. The lady was nice and called a few places. She found out a Kinko's FedEx by Portland State University had a 7 PM pickup. That was just down the hill from OHSU. So we were able to get it shipped overnight to UCSF. Right now Curt is scheduled to see Dr. Chui this Thursday, June 26, at 1 PM. We hope to hear from Dr. Eisele at UCSF before that.

Appointments on June 23

We have a slight change of plans on Monday, June 23. Our morning appointment with Dr. Chui was cancelled until we hear from Dr. Eisele at UCSF. Dr. Gross scheduled 2 MRI's (one with contrast) at 4 PM that day (the earliest time they could get) that will take 3 hours. They suggested we come early to see if there are any cancellations. We hope we will have time to get copies sent to Dr. Eisele for their tumor board on June 25.

The weather has been great here. Any rains have been at night. This week the temperature during the day is in the 70's. Aaron's soccer game in Rockford on Father's Day was cancelled because the fields had been flooded. So far we have seen 3 of Sam's T-ball games and 1 of Aaron's traveling team baseball games (one game was forfeited when the other team did not show up). We have 2 more of Aaron's games to watch on Thursday and Friday evenings. Today we got to see my brother and his wife. They are heading back to Kansas tomorrow. Tomorrow Curt's older brother and wife are going to meet us at a Scandinavian Festival in Geneva, IL after the boys' baseball (Sam) and basketball (Aaron) camps in the morning. They will be here until we leave on Saturday. Curt's younger brother is coming Friday. Thursday morning we hope to visit Curt's aunt and uncle in Batavia, IL.

UCSF

Yesterday we had a good flight to Oakland. Since we had no time constraints, we decided to travel like we do in Europe and took the BART and a long, interesting city bus ride right to our hotel in SF (at the corner of Presidio and California Streets). This morning we took a short taxi ride to the UCSF Medical Center to see Dr. Eisele (who is the chairman of their Otolaryngology Department). His nurse and a Resident doctor met with Curt before Dr. Eisele. Dr. Eisele reminded us of the neurosurgeon (Dr. Delashaw) at OHSU - very personable and to the point. We have heard good things about him and saw a certificate on the waiting room wall saying he was selected as one of "The Best Doctors" in the U.S. by some magazine. He came in and after some initial banter said "Let us cut to the chase". He wanted Curt to tell about his symptoms and his two surgeries, etc. He said it is very rare for squamous carcinoma to first show up on the trigeminal nerve. It needs to start somewhere else. This is what the OHSU doctors find perplexing too. Dr. Eisele wants to see the pathology slides and the MRI scans, etc., from both surgeries. So after a few phone calls we were finally able to arrange for OHSU to send these things. We brought all the other medical records for them to look at later. Dr. Eisele knows Dr. Wax and said he did a good job on Curt. He thought Curt was healing very well. Dr. Eisele thought the PET scan in April could have occurred when things were still too unsettled and could give inconclusive results. Curt did have an MRI in April too. Dr. Eisele wants Curt to have another MRI as soon as we return to Oregon to see if there are any changes. He thinks it is good that Curt has maintained his weight (around 155 lbs.) for the past couple months and that Curt has no pain or other symptoms now. Like OHSU, UCSF also has a tumor board that meets once a week. Dr. Eisele will be gone next week, so his next meeting with them will be on June 25. If Curt can get his MRI on June 23, they could send it over night for them to look at before their board meeting. So it looks like we might have some answers after that and decide when and if to do chemo.
We were able to get a taxi to the airport after Curt's appointment and had a good flight to Chicago. The weather isn't too bad here (so far). It was beautiful in San Francisco. Tomorrow we see Sam play baseball. Curt pitched for our coed softball team on Sunday night and got 3 hits. It was a good game that we won in the last inning.

UCSF Change

We had a call late this morning from UCSF. They said Dr. Wang had to perform emergency surgery on Monday afternoon and wanted to reschedule Curt for the following Monday. We told them we couldn't do that because we already had plane tickets. So they called back and said Curt could see the head of the department (Dr. Eisele, we think) at 9 on Tuesday morning. Our plane to Chicago leaves at 1:25 PM. They said Dr. Eisele is on time and Curt is his first appointment. We hope this works out.

Home (temporarily)

It feels good to be home and back in the USA. I forgot to mention one neat town (Les Baux) we visited in Provence, France on our way to Roussillon. This town sets way up high on a hill and has some interesting ruins of a castle. The views were spectacular. We did take the train to Heidelberg on Monday. That is a nice town with lots of tourists. Tuesday we took the train to Frankfurt and stayed with the family of one of Curt's former students. His former student took us to the airport on Wednesday. We had 2 meals and watched 2 movies on our flight to Portland (about 9 hrs. 45 min. - left Frankfurt about 10:15 AM and arrived in Portland about 11 AM). We took the shuttle to Corvallis and finally arrived home about 3 PM. We managed to stay awake until 9 and had a good nights sleep. We are still catching up. Curt saw his regular eye doctor yesterday. The doctor said he could only get Curt's left eye to 20/40. Curt needs to continue using eye drops in that eye. He will get his new lenses when we return from our next trip. Curt played tennis (singles) yesterday and will play doubles at noon today. He also hopes to play coed softball Sunday before we go to Angie's. Angie and the girls are coming down tonight and leaving tomorrow night. Angie has been able to pick up Curt's images on a CD and will pick up some more of his medical records from OHSU today. We will take them with us to UCSF on Monday. Curt has an appointment with a doctor there on Monday afternoon for a second opinion. On Tuesday we will fly from there to Chicago to see Beth's family, our brothers, etc. We are looking forward to seeing our grandsons play baseball and soccer. We return from Illinois on June 21. On June 23 Curt has an appointment with Dr. Chui at OHSU.

France to Germany

Here we are at the Schuessler's house in Bonfeld, Germany. We left off on our way to Roussillon (sp.), France. We spent the night in this town where there is a lot of red rock (ochre). It reminded us of Sedona, AZ, but more green. We spent the next 2 nights in Nice. There were a couple of accidents on the autobon that delayed us some. We had to change our plans for lunch on the way from Antibes (on the coast) to Grasse. William (our tour guide) gave us a good walking tour of Nice. Our hotel was right across the street from the beach and our room had a beautiful view. The next day Curt and I took a bus to Eze (a town high above Nice) and then on to Monaco (it takes about 45 minutes this way). We looked at the palace and cathedral there and then tried to get back to Nice. The bus back to Nice was full so we tried the train. The first train was also full and passed on. We finally caught a train for the about 15 minute ride back to Nice (however, it took about 2 hours to do this). That night was our final dinner with the group. Most of us had homemade pasta (Curt had veal). Our guide served us champagne on the promenade after dinner and we said our goodbyes. It was a nice group of 28 diverse people.
Saturday morning we flew to Stuttgart, Germany (a little over an hour). We had a little trouble connecting with our shuttle driver to our hotel in Bad Rappenau (about 3 miles from Bonfeld). The Schuesslers' came to our hotel and we walked to a big flower show in a big park nearby. It was warmer in Germany than in Nice (the weather was improving there though). This morning the Schuesslers picked us up and brought us to Bonfeld. We were able to go into the church where the Stutz ancestors were married, baptized, etc., after their church service. We met the Lutheran church's priest and even got to climb into the church tower. After lunch they drove us to Hochhausen (about 15 km) where Conrad Stutz married Katharina Helmstatt (the daughter of a Baron) in 1797. Anne S. had arranged to meet the town historian to let us in the church there. Katharina's father is buried inside the church. I have learned lots of things and hope I can remember them. Anne S. is giving me some written things too. Tomorrow Curt and I might take a train to Heidelburg to visit on our own. Tuesday we head to Frankfurt and home on Wednesday.