As most of you know, I've come down sick *AGAIN*. This is about the 4th or 5th time since Thanksgiving and the second since the turn of the year. The last two have gone from bad colds to upper respiratory infections. You may also remember that I went to the dr's on Thursday, given a breathing treatment and prescribed a bunch of meds to help get past this one.
The coughing spasms were horrible. I mean a frightening kind of horrible. Around 4-430pm on Friday, a spasm so bad hit that I blacked out. Not only did I black out, but I fell out of my office chair and face first into the tv cart in the corner of the room. For the smart-asses, the tv cart and floor survived, but they're demanding hazard pay and the cart needs a good therapist to deal with the weeping and tremors it gets everytime I waddle into the room. Anyhow, I did quite the number on myself and really scared the shit outta hubby (although he's not really admitted it yet). Blood family knows that when I see my own blood, I tend to panic.... which is precisely what I proceeded to do (screaming, crying, hyperventilating , the whole 9 yards). I scuffed my right knee, left shin, back of my left hand (how the hell??), scraped between my eyes as well as under my nose and ended up bruising my forehead, over my right eye and my right jaw. Yeah, when I do something like this... I really do a job and a half on it.
By the time I got cleaned up, hubby had to call the Urgent Care Clinic because it was after hours at the regular clinic. He made an appointment for me there at 7pm. Why they couldn't just send me to the hospital just 5 minutes down the road, I have no friggin clue. Ah naw, send me to the UCC 20 miles away. Idjuts.... but I digress.
The dr that saw me ordered a CT scan, to be certain that there were no fractures or brain bleeds. Thankfully, I'm all clear there. However, they did find something. While reviewing for the cracks and bleeds, they found a lump in my parotid gland (or at least that's what that dr was thinking at the time). Needless to say, I've been worried and scared all weekend because my family... well we don't have a great track record with certain diseases. I'm high-strung and a nervous sort so naturally my brain went to the worst case scenerio (to be expected when a dr pairs "lump" and "biopsy" in the same sentence). By this morning, I had a raging migraine. Mostly from the stress, but also the sinuses and what the paperwork from Friday calls post concussion syndrome (means that I'm gonna be "off" and have headaches now and again for up to 4 weeks... *ugh*).
The ENT doctor was really nice (she got wind really quick that I'm a very difficult patient). She told me that the lump was what they call an incidental find. Meaning it's not something they were looking for. Since they weren't looking for this kind of problem and were just checking for cracks, a contrast wasn't used.... so they didn't have alot of detail on it. She did say that it's "only" about 7mm (any lump is too big in my mind, honestly) and she's not really overly worried about it. She had her fingers in my mouth, probing both cheeks as a comparison (and to see if there was anything in the right cheek as well) and couldn't feel the lump at all. She said 90-95% time it's totally nothing. NO biopsy today (which is something I was terrified of having because locals just don't work on me). After a long talk, we're thinking that with my severe allergies and the fact I've been sick so often lately that it might just be some overspill from the infection. Could be the parotid gland or a lymph node. If it's the lymph, it's usually nothing (but a good idea to check because of cancer in my family, reason why I've been worried). If it's the parotid (it's a salivary gland in the cheek), it's usually nothing either. Normally both are benign ~IF~ they turn out to be tumors. We're hoping a lymph, because it normally means no surgery. If it's the parotid, they may opt to go in anyhow because even a benign tumor still grows a bit and a lump in the parotid can effect (affect?) the surrounding tissue and muscles in the face. I've been instructed to finish up my antibiotic and schedule an MRI in 2-4 weeks after things have settled. Actually, even if I end up with more anti-biotics (which is always a possibility), I'm to go in anyhow. This time they'll be sending some contrast through so they get a better look at it. We're hoping to see some shrinkage from the anti-biotics. If that's the case, they may put me on a month long course to kill it good and proper. Just means no allergy shots for the next month or two (which starts me back near to square one again.. *sigh*).
