The VA got me into to see my fairly newly assigned PCP quickly. Spent 15 minutes with his nurse, and nearly 45 minutes with the doctor one on one. One thing I like about
him, is his undivided attention. He will not answer a knock on the door when he's with me, and twice his phone rang on and on. He gave me his fullest attention, and never stopped taking notes the entire time.
I will stick to the main point of this quickly scheduled visit, the lump/growth (?) in my right eye socket, along with the olfactory hallucinations. I pointed to where it could be found, and after putting on gloves, he reached right over, and in seconds confirmed what I had been saying. There is a green-pea (at least) sized hard growth on the eye socket bone itself, doesn't appear to be on my actual eye ball. He didn't want to push in any further, as it was hurting me enough to have a strange finger in such a delicate area, but he suspected it may have been much larger and going further into my skull away from my eyes socket. He checked the other side, and there is nothing remotely like it. Said the bone there should be silky smooth, assuming there had never been any skull injuries in the past.
As far as the olfactory hallucinations, said only two things in the world they could really be. A rare side effect of certain epileptic attacks, of which he said I had no symptoms ever, or else the result of a brain tumor, benign or cancerous. This is what I was fearing. Many of these phamtom smells happen, when I get up quickly, or turn my head fast, or look up sharply, or take off walking. To this he said, it made sense, as whatever is going on behind the eye, is putting pressure in that area, and around my sinus cavities, sending the brain a false signal.
He's considering this even to be serious and urgent, but warned me (as we vets already know), that "urgent" with the VA doesn't always translate to urgent in reality. But he ordered all kinds of scans as being "urgent". I will have to go to Columbia for most of them, unfortunately.
He wants to do a different kind of brain scan (had 2 last year), and a facial skeleton MRI, and a variety of other MRI shots. He sending me to their top eye doctor, to make sure that whatever it is, isn't directly on the eye itself. Doing an EEG, and when the scans are done, he's bringing in their neurologist that specializes in brain/skull issues.
He gave me a special number, where if any of these symptoms become suddenly worse, that I have a way to reach him immediately, and he assured me that he will get me in to see him on the spot.
Only the 2nd time I have been with this doctor, and I am impressed with his seriousness and thoroughness in his approach to thing.
It's way too early to know how this will pan out, so I will be chilling until all the tests are ordered and completed. He said that due to its location, and assuming it was a benign tumor, it would involve a high risk operation, that he may or may not advice. Said at my age, depending on what it is, it may be safer to leave it, then risk brain damage by trying to remove it, or to risk damage to my sight.
He said for the 2nd time in two visits, that he feels the RO back in 2000, was reckless for giving me so much radiation in my throat, for a cancer that had no known radiation treatment protocol. Said he might have agreed to have given me 20-30 gys, to see how it would react, and wait a few years, but not to give 70 gys. of how radiation was administered 15 years ago in such a sensitive place. Said that episode absolutely is the soul reason all my teeth rotted out of my head, and the jaw bone damage, etc. that I was operated on late last year, and will always be at high risk for any additional cancers in my head.
If this turns out to be another cancer (it would be number 5 for me), he said undoubtedly, as the results of the 2000 radiation treatment.
I hope not, not sure I can go through still another major cancer event, and I don't want to mess with anything that near my brain, based on tonight's feelings, I would vote not to treat it, regardless. But kind of down with all this unpleasant news, very tired and very much in pain, so know I may not be thinking rational at the moment.
D.
P.S. I was unaware when the VA took a bunch of blood from me in December, they did their own PSA testing, and my PSA has risen up 6 full points since June of last year, right after I had that first and only drop I had recorded back then. So my PC is back on the roam again.