another update

The second antibiotic did not work, it fact it make me sick. After a week of taking the antibiotic and a lot of throwing up I called the doctor and he told me to stop taking the antibiotic. There has been no improvement in my hearing/ear ringing at all. I have a follow up appointment with the ENT this Thursday so we'll see what else can be done. -Eric

hearing update

Followed up with the ENT yesterday. After a week on the ear drops, nothing has changed. I took the hearing test and I failed again. The doctor looked at me and said, "I have no idea what is wrong with you". Not exactly something you want to hear from your doctor. He put me on another type of antibiotic, and I will go back and see him again in two weeks. Take care. -Eric

pet scan update

The results from last weeks PET scan were good. No change. Which means no growth, and no shrinkage. I had more chemotherapy today. The doctor removed one of the chemotherapy drugs from my treatments, as he thought it might be the cause of my headaches. He said it could take 6-8 weeks to know for sure if this will work. That would be awesome if I could get rid of these headaches. My left ear is still ringing and I can't hear much out of it. We saw the ENT last week and he gave me a hearing test, which I failed, and some antibiotic ear drops for starters. I have been on the antibiotics for about a week and no progress. We have a follow up visit with the ENT this week to check on results of the antibiotics and I suppose talk about what to try next. The hearing loss has given me the opportunity to selectively hear what I want to hear. "What was that? I can't hear you, you want me what?...." Monica caught on to that trick really quick, but it doesn't stop me from trying:) This one actually worries me, if it's permanent and not repairable via surgery, hearing aide, or some other way it's going to suck. It's annoying at the least not being able to hear conversations, and asking people to repeat themselves. Take care. -Eric

Hey

I've been delinquent in updating my blog. I apologize. Lately I have been dealing with some pretty severe headaches. Sometimes the pain drugs work and sometimes they don't. I also recently starting getting some ringing and hearing loss in my left ear, this is very annoying. The right ear seems to be fine, but not being able to hear out of the left ear really throws things off and the ringing at times drowns out what I can hear. We did an MRI of the head to see if something was going on in my head, it came back clean. The doctor is going to remove one of the chemotherapy drugs I am taking. He think it may be causing the headaches. This will take time to see if it works. But the ringing and hearing loss are a mystery. I hope to get into the ENT this week to get a more thorough exam. My next PET scan is scheduled for later this week, so we'll get another look at the how the cancer is doing. My voice seems to be generally stronger lately, but it's very dependent on how I feel and tends to tire easily with a lot of use. I am working with a speech therapist on a regular basis to help with the voice. I guess that's about it for now, enough for me to deal with anway. I hope all is well with you. Take care. -Eric