Well my husband woke me up in the middle of the night to ask me if I thought the side of his face was swollen.I couldn't believe the amount of swelling on the side of his jaw and neck. This area has been causing him alot of pain and previous swelling so he was put on steroids ( a good anti swelling drug but alot of side effects) but it did help with the swelling. So to see him so swollen and in so much pain was alarming we saw an oncologist today to take a look. His regular Dr is on vac so she was seeing him for the first time. She wants him to have a Pet scan which the other Dr does not want at this point because of the false positive he believes he can tell as much with a CT scan as the petscan. S anyway He had a Catcan 3 weeks apg and a MRI 5days ago of the head because he was getting headaches came back fine dr thinks the steroids aused the headaches but wanted to be save and have the test. Now this dr wants another CT scan to look to see any differences from 3 weeks ago. They were also looking to see if the jaw bone was injured but apparently nothing showed that it was on the MRI and the xray the dentist did. So the pain is for now a mystery. The dr put him on an antibiotic in case there is an infection which I think there is because of the tenderness and swelling around the jaw. The pain has really gotten worse instead of better he has been out of raditation since August 11 and we thought he would have decreased his meds but instead they just put an extra 50 to his durajesic patch. I know pain meds are neccessary but I'm getting frustrated why they get to the source of the pain. Im nervous that the cancer has spread to the bone, but wouldn't they have seen it on the ct scan. can you believe i didnt Ask the Dr. I'm very scared and hate to see my husband in constant pain. Any suggestions. They also havent done any blood work lately.
Take Care
B