The Beginning - Loss of Left Ear Touch Sensitivity

Somewhere around mid-July, I noticed that the skin of my left ear had lost some sensitivity to touch when washing my face or touching my ear while lying in bed.  When I noticed my left lymph node at the bend of my left jaw was quite swollen but not sore, I became sufficiently alarmed to make an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor at CIMA Hospital San Jose, a modern private hospital in the San Jose Costa Rica suburb of Escazú.  The hospital is modern and caters particularly to expatriates and wealthy Costa Ricans who want more immediate and modern medical care than they might get from Costa Rica's crowded socialized medical system.  The ENT physician whom I saw ordered CT scans of my nasal and throat areas and an ultrasound biopsy of my swollen gland.  The biopsy pathologist's report findings were "compatible" with metastasized squamous cell carcinoma.  Needless to say, that startled me greatly, and I quickly developed two priority objectives:  obtaining the most competent medical care possible for further diagnosis and possible treatment and to do so as quickly as possible.  I decided to seek medical care at the Head and Neck Cancer Center of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where I was operated on for placement of an artificial aortic valve in October 2005 and whose medical care impressed me greatly.  I made one-way airline reservations from San Jose to Washington Dulles for my wife Damaris and myself for this past Tuesday (Aug. 2), and our daughter Raquel picked us up at Dulles and the next day brought us to our friends' Leroy and Flor de Lis Snyder, in Huntingtown, MD.  Last Thursday, Aug. 4, I took the CT scan data and films and pathology slides from CIMA Hospital to Johns Hopkins, and the following day had an appointment with Dr. Catherine Gourin, surgeon in Johns Hopkins' Department of Head and Neck Surgery and member of the Head and Neck Cancer Center physician team.  Dr. Gourin diagnosed me as having tonsil cancer, took another biopsy from my left cervical lymph node, and her assistant has scheduled me for a full-body PET scan and MRI of my neck area for this week.  This Friday I will receive a comprehensive evaluation and consensus opinion of some of the nation's leading head and neck cancer clinicians and specialists at the Head and Neck Center Multidisciplinary Clinic.  Dr. Gourin said that my prognosis of successful treatment is good and would likelyl consist of seven weeks of combined chemical and radiation treatment.