Salivary gland blockage

[Dantheman]

Good times.

[zion zig zag]

What's the fix and recovery?

[Dantheman]

I'm pretty much back to normal today. Symptoms started last monday, pic was from Tuesday afternoon (pic doesn't do it justice, it was like I had a tennis ball in my neck). Onset was crazy fast, I went from totally fine at 8:00 am Monday to barely able to swallow or talk, fever, chills, vomiting, etc. by 2:00 pm. I had left that morning (thankfully not alone) to go do some work near Lassen. Went straight to the ER as soon as we hit Reno instead. I highly recommend avoiding the Reno ER if you have the option. Ended up there again that night and Tuesday morning thanks to a (dark) comedy of errors involving multiple misdiagnoses, incorrect prescriptions and bad discharge instructions.

Currently working through a 10-day course of augmentin and sucking on a lot of hard candies to stimulate saliva production. The blockages almost always clear themselves eventually, so I shouldn't need any kind of surgical intervention. The big thing is getting the infection under control before it spreads to other organs or causes sepsis. Saw an ENT last week, but he hadn't received the CT films yet and couldn't say much until he had reviewed them. Seeing him again next week. Mostly likely there will be no long-term issues, but man did that suck balls for a while.

[zion zig zag]

It's mind boggling how many things can go wrong with the body. And it doesn't take much to throw you completely out of whack.

[SB]

My experience with this is it can be reduced with proper massage/manipulation.

[iceclimb]

Had one of these earlier this year, the outcome depends on what's blocking. A simple infection can be cleared up with prescription. Small "stones"!can be massaged out. Mine was a 1cm stone, had to remove the gland because the stone was larger than the duct.

Fairly easy "outpatient" surgery. I say outpatient in quotes because I stayed overnight, but less than 24 hours so was through some loophole. Recovery wasn't too difficult.

I will say, if you do surgery make sure the ENT is good, the nerves that control facial muscles are wrapped around the glands.

Also... Stay hydrated, I guess that's what causes the stones.

[PB]

1 cm?!?! Sure it wasn't a tooth??

[TBS]

Not to be an alarmist, but get that kind of thing checked quickly
One of my kids had a similar lump grow in the cheek/neck area. Docs at first thought it was a salivary gland infection.
It was cancer

[Dantheman]

Mine was a 1cm stone, had to remove the gland because the stone was larger than the duct.

Holy shit. Mine cleared so quickly once I got on the right antibiotics that I suspect the infection caused the blockage, instead of the other way around, and I didn't have a stone. I'll know once I see the ENT again and find out what he saw on the CT films, but they bumped my follow-up appointment to December 9 so it's going to be a while.

Not to be an alarmist, but get that kind of thing checked quickly
One of my kids had a similar lump grow in the cheek/neck area. Docs at first thought it was a salivary gland infection.
It was cancer

I had a CT scan done at the ER, and an ultrasound done by an ENT two days later. Definitely wasn't cancer.