Weight Loss

When Curt went for his MRI on Friday, they could not do the contrast dye portion because his CRE was up (an indication of kidney malfunction). Because he was dehydrated, they had him get another bag of fluid. We had hoped to leave for the coast in the early or middle afternoon, but didn't leave until after 5. Jef drove our car with Curt and I rode with Angie and the girls. We took Hwy. 30 and got to Seaside about 8. We had the best unit (a penthouse on the corner of the 8th floor) with beautiful views of the beach and ocean. It was a little rainy on Angie's birthday (Saturday) and beautiful and on Sunday and Monday. The girls had a great time on the beach and swimming in the heated outdoor pool. Curt did not do well. He ate and drank very little and was in bed or resting most of the time. Most of his pain was in his tongue. I called a doctor on call at OHSU on Sunday, and she recommended Curt be checked out when we returned to Corvallis on Monday. When we went to our car at WorldMark to leave, Curt rode in a wheelchair (it was a long walk). I took him straight to our Immediate Care in Corvallis on our return around 2 PM. He weighed 143.5 lbs. (a loss of about 4 pounds over the weekend). His blood pressure was really low (106/70 lying down and 98/64 standing). The OHSU doctor implied Curt might need more hydration. The Clinic doctor also thought he needed hydration, so Curt had another bag of fluid. It was a slow drip and took over 2 hours. The Clinic doctor said this was just a temporary fix, and he should probably go to the hospital for intravenous feeding and fluid if he continues like this. Last night we sent an e-mail to Drs. Chui and Gross. I will print Dr. Gross' reply this morning.

"Sorry to hear that you have been having so much pain. It sounds like you have been quite dehydrated. I think we should seriously consider a feeding tube for you. We can discuss more but I am concerned about your trouble eating and drinking.
Unfortunately, there is no easy remedy for this [tongue pain] because it is almost certainly a referred pain. You feel it in your tongue even though the source of the pain is really at the skull base [where the tumor is]. Numbing the tongue probably wouldn't touch the pain."

We finally got ahold of a nurse with Dr. Chui this afternoon. She said he agreed with the feeding tube and would like to have the contrasting MRI. Curt is scheduled for a shot at OHSU at 8:30 AM on Wednesday. This contains an element (iron?) that is okay with kidney failure. It takes 24 hours for it to get in his system. Evidently this is an unusual situation for "parotid tumors". He will then have the MRI at 8:30 AM on Thursday and see Dr. Chui at 10:30. We are headed to Angie's later this afternoon to spend the night (8:30 AM is pretty early to drive from Corvallis).
Curt did eat his usual Cream of Rice cereal this morning and has actually drunk one Ensure so far today.