Just when I thought it was over! The oncologist called me today tp tell me that they noted mastoid inflamation on the MRI and that "...it probably wasn't cancer", probably just an effect of the radiation (although according to some stuff I found on the net, the leading cause of mastoid inflamation in adults in cancer). I had a stage III, SCC in the right tonsil, no mets. Has anyone else out there had mastoid inflamation and how did it resolve. I have been complaining to the docs for weeks about hearing loss and pressure in the right ear which started up around the time treatment ended. I mentioned it to the Head and Neck surgeon when I saw him on Friday and he wasn't terribly concerned. To further complicate things, I saw the radiation oncologist today and she has doubled my Diflucan to 400mg because I have a roaring case of thrush (I have been taking a prophylactic dose of 200mg already) Occasionally, if I am working in the garden or working up a sweat, my ear will "pop" like after the plane has landed, but then it plugs back up again. Any thoughts, experiences?

While a variety of things can be happening (only some really bad) it is not uncommon for someone as recently out of treatment as you to have inflammation in the muscles of mastication. I had it on and off for at least 6 months after treatment. This also includes inflammation of the Eustachian tube (ear popping and fullness). Welcome to the wonderful world of cancer survivorship. Without downplaying that something serious COULD be going on here, you are behaving like me and the rest of us who have, at least for now, dodged the big C bullet. Every headache, every sore in my mouth, every pain in my neck.... is that damn cancer coming back. It's a weekly event!! Part of survivorship is dealing with the constant, even subconscious fear/doubts, that you are really past this damn thing. I hope that in your case, the inflammation is just part of your healing process, but get used to the BS of expecting the other shoe to drop syndrome, it is as common as it is unnerving.

Gary, Of course I can't know what your symptom is caused by, you might like to know that I frequently have a sense that my right ear is slightly plugged.

Also another hint I'll pass along: shortly after my treatments were finished I developed a fairly significant pain in my jaw on the left side (opposite of treated side) and I was seeing an oral sergeon (the reason I'll save for another post) He carefully listened to my story of symptoms and then simply said my pain was caused by over worked facial muscles. The fact that I was so stressed out by the pain I was feeling, I was moving my jaw around to see if the pain was getting worse. It was getting worse because I was straining my jaw muscles to see if I could still feel it! At first I didn't believe him, thought he was incompetent because he was too lazy to find the "real" cause of this pain....He was right....and I learned a very valuable lesson.

Gary, also I can't tell for sure what the inflammation is caused by, but can offer my experience also.

First surgry on left side, I was just numb from the ear down to the collar bone. That was in late last August, and I"m still numb. To make matters more interesting, PET scan showed infammation on the whole muscle on that side, leading one to think, at first look, that the cancer had spread to the whole muscle, even though there were no lymph nodes present. ON follow up PET a month later, it didn't show up as bad, now leading the docs to think it's more due to irritation from the radiation.

However, second time around, on the right side, sometimes my ear and head in that are feel like they dropped my off the operating table and I landed on my head and ear! Sometimes popping noises, sometimes earache, tender to the touch, you name it. Complained to the ENT surgeon, his reply was, "You ever see the movie "Face Off?"--enough said.

Remember, we might just have the one scar, but the docs are removing tissue several inches above and below that scar, so we do get "skinned" so to speak. A lot of stuff gets displaced and moved around during surgery, it all heals back together, but not all that quickly apparently.
Bob

Gary,
Remember...you are just out of treatment. Although we wish that cancer was like the flu...once cured, over and behind us..it doesn't seem to work like that. Little and big nuisances and aches and pains continue. Like Brian said, I bet that you are all right. Remember we are cancer survivors!!

Hang in there,
Danny G.

I still have ear pain 8 months out from surgery and 5 months out from radiation. It is the one, of many, pains that I get that worries me(first symptoms were ear and throat pain). My oral surgeon has me on Vioxx and it seems to do the trick for me. I am doing pretty well and sometimes I need to be reminded that all pain is not cancer and that having your jaw split in half is going to result in some lingering pain!

Glenn

Thanks everyone! You guys (and gals) really are a great group. I had a long talk with the doc about it this afternoon and he had prescribed Cipro a while back. I haven't taken it because my fluid intake wasn't good enough (at the time). He thinks I have an infection in my Eustacian tube. The head & neck surgeon sees fluid behind the eardrum. Sometimes the pain is pretty severe (like sharp and stabbing). It "pops" every now and then, usually when I am exerting myself (it "lightens" up but never goes away completely). I held off because Cipro is pretty powerful and I don't want to take it unneccessarily if there is another solution. I also haven't taken it because my fluid intake wasn't good enough (at the time). I still don't know whether to take it or not. He doesn't think it's cancer either but because it was an anomoly on the MRI, he had to disclose it to me.

While I am the biggest proponent here of taking charge of your own treatment, I hear too often of people who do not follow their doctors recommendations. Sometimes this involves medications. While we all feel we know our own bodies better than someone else, being your own doctor can have negative consequences. I only mention all this because the previous posts indicate that someone was prescribed antibiotics, which surely the doctor felt was necessary at the time. The antibiotics were not taken for various reasons, (right or wrong) and now there is a potential infection causing problems. Infections in those who have recently left treatment, or who are in treatment, get out of hand really quickly, as the treated immune system is not up to the challenge of yet another assault. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POST IS NOT AN ATTACK ON THE PREVIOUS POSTERS BUT AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESTATE SOMETHING WHICH WAS DISCUSSED EARLY IN THE MESSAGE BOARDS, BUT HAS NOT BEEN SAID HERE RECENTLY. It goes without saying that these doctors most of the time know a lot more than us. Allowing the non use of an antibiotic to let something bloom into a bigger or more extensive problem, stopping antibiotics before the dosage has been used up completely (which can help build antibacterial resistant strains of bugs), abruptly ending medications (such as pain medications and anti-depressants) which can cause severe, acute, withdrawal symptoms, are all bad ideas. As you all read these posts, please keep in mind that the comments by posters and their actions, may not always be the example to follow. They are patients like you or your loved one, and they are offering an opinion. That opinion, or anecdote about their own experience, may have come out OK for them, but may result in a different outcome for you. If you choose not to take a prescribed medication, perhaps because it has side effects which are disturbing you or for other reasons, please always discuss it with your treating physician.