Ear Pain and Dr. Gross

Curt has been having pain and clogging of his left ear. He e-mailed Dr. Gross a week ago Sunday about a thick yellow drainage. Dr. Gross said it was probably from the tumor, but to let him know if he had a temperature (for an infection). For the past several days it had been getting more painful and bothering Curt more (he was taking Excedrin everyday for the pain), so he e-mailed Dr. Gross again last Sunday and told him we were coming to Lake Oswego from Wednesday to Friday. Dr. Gross said he could see Curt on Tuesday, so Curt called for an appointment. He saw Dr. Gross' new Resident doctor first this afternoon. The Resident couldn't see very far into his ear and had to clean it out first. He commented about his crooked ear canal. It took him a little while to get it cleaned out so he could see the drainage tube. He said the tube looked good, but there was "debris". They prescribed ear drops ($83 worth for 3 weeks - 4 drops twice a day). The drops have both a steroid for swelling and an antibiotic. They also looked with their "snake" in his nose and saw a polyp that didn't seem to bother them. Dr. Gross also looked at his MRI and its results. He thinks the ear pain is from the tumor. The tumor is not just one lump. It branches out. Some of it has been destroyed, but not all of it. The tumor is deep inside where his ear is. He also said there are other chemo treatments that might work. It will be up to Dr. Chui to decide what to do (Curt sees him on December 7). Dr. Gross said the MRI can't tell you everything. They also have to go on how Curt feels, etc.

Good or Bad News?

Curt saw Dr. Chui this morning. His weight was good (161.1 lbs.), but his blood pressure was up a little (143/82). He first saw another Resident Doctor who asked questions and examined him (briefly). Curt told her all his "problems". One of his two biggest complaints are runny nose (that causes congestion - especially at night), ear, & eye (with a little pain above his eye a couple times where he took some Excedrin, and some blurry eyes for reading). The second biggest complaint is tiredness. He needs to rest while doing most things, like mowing the grass, and then take a nap afterwards. Some of his other complaints are tingling in his ankles and feet; feeling cold at times; nausea that lasted longer; and some minor memory problems. All of the symptoms can be from the chemotherapy or cancer. Dr. Chui said he didn't know what to say about the MRI. It showed some "enhancement" that could be caused by swelling from the treatments or by more cancer. We believe he said the "enhancement" is an enlargement of nerves around the large tumor that was at the base of his skull. One good thing is that this tumor is about the same or smaller. Dr. Chui said the only way he could tell if the enhancement was more cancer would be how Curt felt and looked. He thought Curt looked pretty good (especially after receiving doses 30% HIGHER than normal dosages). Dr. Chui said Curt was tough and a fighter. The Resident doctor wondered how much daytime Curt spent "resting". We thought it was over 50% of his time. He said Curt could drop the treatments for 4 weeks and then return to see Dr. Chui. If Curt continued to feel better, then the treatments were probably working. If Curt felt worse or had more pain, then it is possible the cancer has returned or spread. He won't have another MRI unless Dr. Chui thinks he needs one after his visit on Monday, December 7. If there is more cancer, we would have to discuss what to do next. He could possibly try another treatment, but it wouldn't be as good and could cause worse symptoms. He thought we should go to Illinois from December 17-28, and he could work around it.
Last Thursday is when Curt had his MRI at OHSU. Afterwards, we picked up Vega at school about 2:30. She was at school while Angie was doing some work from home. Later we celebrated Vega's 5th birthday at Build-a-Bear and McDonalds in the Mall with them and then went back to their place to open some presents. On Sunday we were going to go up to Vega's party at the Little Gym at 12:30. However, Vega had a temperature (102), so they postponed the party until next Sunday. Jef was cooking a big a turkey on the grill for his family and us after the party. So we drove up about 4:30. Jef's parents were also there. We tried to keep our distance from Vega. She feels better for awhile after some Tylenol and eating. When Angie e-mailed Vega's pre-kindergarten teacher about school today, the teacher e-mailed back that she only had 4 of her 10 students. Curt was able to get the seasonal flu vaccine last Friday. There isn't any H1N1 vaccine available around here yet.
So we wait and see how Curt feels during the next few weeks.