ear tube

The hearing in my left ear has still not improved, we've tried two different antibiotics and and a punching a hole in my eardrum, none have helped. The ENT doctor decided to put a tube in my ear and leave it for a few months to see it would help drain any fluids that might be there, and consequently help with my hearing. They had to to poke two holes in my eardrum to put the tube in and then then install a tube that's about the size of a ..... well something very very small. If anyone ever tells you that poking a hole in your eardrum is not going to hurt, they are lying. It does hurt. Take care. -Eric

I'm not dead yet

Have you ever seen "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"? The scene where the guy is pulling his cart through town yelling "bring out your dead" as he collects the dead from each home in the town. One guy he collects is actually still alive and he throws him top of the pile. The man exclaims "I'm not dead yet" (with heavy British accent). Funny stuff. Well I'm not dead yet either. In fact today is a milestone. Eighteen months ago I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. When I was diagnosed the doctor gave me a prognosis of 12-18 months. Today it has been exactly 18 months and one day since I was given that prognosis. I waited one extra day to celebrate just to make sure I really beat it:) Usually I prefer it when my doctor is right about things, but in this case I am glad he was wrong. I'm still alive and kickin' and "not dead yet". If you are in the neighborhood feel free to stop by, we're celebrating with some cake. Take care. -Eric

ENT visit

So third visit to the ENT doctor. The first two visits we tried two different antibiotics with no success. This time he decided that there could be fluids in my inner ear so he poked a hole in my ear drum. Yeah it hurt. There were some fluids, but not much. He seems to think that things will improve over the next two weeks as the fluids drain. We'll see, I have my doubts. He was going to put a tube in my ear to help with any drainage but he said my ear drum was much too thick, thicker than most. I took that mean more "manly" than most. I have chemo on Monday, and will revisit the the ENT in two weeks for a follow up. By the way I graduated from voice therapy. The therapist said there was nothing more she could for me. The voice is actually pretty good, it quickly tires if I talk too much and towards the end of the day can be pretty rough, but in general it is getting slowly better. Take care. -Eric

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