Have any of you suffered from an infected salivary gland? Or infected thyroid/parathyroid?

The gland beneath my left jaw - you know, the ones moms always check when you're ill to see if they've swollen up - is giving me a lot of trouble. It aches and is rather large and quite hard. It gets really awful when I eat - I wonder if it has to do with all the tongue action. It was bad yesterday but is even worse today and now it's very visible and makes me look unbalanced!

I don't have health insurance. I have a doctor's appointment for Monday (in case shit gets REALLY bad over the weekend) but I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on the appt, bloodwork, antibiotics, etc. I tried googling this shit but all I can find is neck cancer. My mom thinks I have an infection somewhere and this one gland is reacting to it. Or maybe it's salivary - yesterday when I was eating a sandwich, the olive spread really freaked that side of my mouth out. (This is when I first noticed it.)

I'm just looking for reassurance that it's not as bad as I fear and that I won't die from it. I'm quite concerned that this will interfere with my head-giving skills. There goes my weekend.

That's awful!



And it sucks you don't have insurance. Ah well. At least medical bills can be paid off slowly over time if need be and won't ruin your credit.

I don't know anything about them, except I always had swollen glands as a kid.

for being concerned over your "skills"

this indicates a possible infection somewhere else, not necessarily the gland itself. Antibiotics should take care of it. Have you noticed this other times and or often? If this is an isolated experience, you're probably just fighting a virus of some sort and antibiotics should help

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

That sounds about right.

a cancer wouldn't swell up so quickly. It could be a blocked salivary duct. You'll be fine, I promise

you might have a stone in your salivary gland. depends on who you see about it...a surgeon will want to remove the entire gland on the assumption that your salivary gland will keep producing stones. sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. my ex had a stone removed several years ago and has been fine since.
good luck to you, whatever it is.
i kinda recall that the first course of treatment consisted of sucking on lemon drops to see if the stone might be passed that way.

My glands have always been big, but I've never experienced anything like this before. It's kind of painful and it hurts a LOT when I eat. I'm wondering if I do have an infection somewhere. It's bizarre that just the one gland is reacting, and not the other. Is there any chance the infection can clear up without antibiotics? My mom suggested hot compresses, my boyfriend suggested lots of garlic.

blocked salivary duct! a stone in there!

Thanks for the help and kind words, everyone. and supa, I'm sure I could never compare to your skills.

Natsume said:

it isn't as bad as it sounds and it might not be infected at all, just blocked. a hot compress is good too.

Natsume said:

We could always compare notes

My son came home from school one day, and right below his jaw on the right side and his whole side of his neck was DISGUSTINGLY swollen. I literally FREAKED OUT!! We brought him to the hospital, they said it was just an infection and nothing to worry about. Antibiotics brought it right back down to normal in a day. But man, I remember that day, I had never been that worried, I thought my baby was hurt.

It's happened to me before Pamela so dont worry about it. All the doctor did was cut off my head and put on a pumpkin.

This thread is fucking gross.

The craziest thing I had ever saw was when my sister's adnoids (however the fuck it is spelled) became swollen and she could not talk or breath. She was rushed to the hospital and the whole family was there. The doctor told her husband it was do to frequent oral sex. I felt so embarrassed for her. Her husband was such a joke-ster that he told everybody!

2the9s said:

9sey!

ShySlantedEye1 said:

By this standard, my head should have fallen off years ago

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Think Deeeeep Throat!

you probably just need antibiotics, dont worry. I hope you get well soon
It must be so expensive getting treatment in the States. The NHS isnt perfect, far from it, but its reasuring to know you dont have to pay.

LleeLlee said:

They rape your ass when you don't have insurance.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I can imagine, we pay pretty high taxes which goes towards the NHS and have to pay for prescriptions, but seeing the doctor or having an operation/treatment like blood tests etc is free, which im grateful for. you can get private healthcare if you want to and some employers subsidise it as it can be expensive, but generally, if youre sick you know that money wont be an issue and you can be admitted to hospital without being asked for any money.

what do people who cant afford insurance do?

LleeLlee said:

Get sicker or face huge bills they probably can't pay. It's the wonderful American way of life. Currently there are 44,000,000 uninsured people in this country.

That would be the equivalent of the population of:

Oklahoma
Oregon
Connecticut
Iowa
Mississippi
Kansas
Arkansas
Utah
Nevada
New Mexico
West Virginia
Nebraska
Idaho
Maine
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Rhode Island
Montana
Delaware
South Dakota
North Dakota
Alaska
Vermont
Wyoming

and the District of Columbia

that is almost half the states of this nation. Guaranteed if there was an issue that impacted that many states, the government could never ignore it. But the uninsured are spread out among all the states and there isn't a collective way to deal with the issue. The people who want to come in screaming about personal responsibility couldn't afford healthcare anymore than anyone else.

I had a friend that got laid off from her job and continued her coverage privately and her rate went from $200.00 per month when she first got laid off to almost $800.00 a month for standard coverage and that was without using her medical benefits for some major issue. They kept raising the rates and she kept asking why and they made all kinds of excuses as to why they needed to raise the rates. She eventually had to drop coverage because she simply couldn't afford it anymore.

And it is standard practice for insurance companies to outright deny claims even when you have done your part and paid your premium for years. They do this to enough people who just get fed up with fighting with the companies and then just pay the bill. Insurance wins twice. Plus our government caters to the insurance industry and the insurance lobbyists get to help craft national policy. This shit is a wreck over here. It's awful. The moment that a proposition comes up for the government to intervene or be involved you have political yahoos who start screaming communism and socialism and big brother and all kinds of crap. Meanwhile the government keeps collecting our money to go to war and give breaks to the wealthiest in the nation.

But you probably are aware of all this, but it just sucks that this is what my wonderful country has come to in 2006....

Natsume said:

I thoguht for a second this thread was about the glands on the penis.

I was going to suggest that circumcision would cut down on the chances of infection.

Natsume said:

even if you don't have insurance, you should still try to get it checked out and treated and just pay it off slowly.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

that is almost 2/3rds of the entire popluation of the uk which is about 60 million, oh dear. its an amazing amount of people. That many people living without the fundamental right to basic healthcare is completely mind boggling. Having to worry about getting sick and how they will manage must be truly awful.

$800 dollars a month is shocking.
Personal responsibilty is one thing, but what about collective responsibilty towards those less fortunate?

...
[Edited 5/12/06 11:08am]

Nat...you'll be ok...it sounds like an infection to me too I hope things will be just fine



When I was in England it was during my college days and I had no insurance here in the States, but I did get sick while I was over there. I had to see the doctor and get a prescription filled and the whole deal cost me only about 3 pounds...and that was because I was a guest of a citizen! I couldn't even get care in my own country!

applekisses said:

Doctor visit and standard prescription without insurance is at least $100 - $200 depending on the doctor/prescription. Could be even more than that.

I'm putting hot compresses on it... it doesn't seem to be improving.

I have an appt on the 26th to see if I'm eligible for the CMSP program, which would give me care for reduced prices. But if I see the doctor before the 26th, they'll totally ream me.

I have been insurance-less for a year now. My father's insurance cut me off earlier than they said I would once I graduated last June, and when I tried to re-apply with them afterwards, they denied me.

I have had similar symptoms before - Although very unpleasant they were attributed to Dental problems - Mine was so bad I could not swallow food without tears to the eyes, very, very painful. In my late 20's I suffered a lot with Abcesses in the Roots, on one occasion I had an infection in the root of my right Canine and my face swelled up so much I could not see out of my right eye !!! But at the same time I had severely swollen glands too. Also on a few occasions in my life I suffered Ear infections that aslo caused my Glands to swell up.

To help with the Pain I used Ibuprofen tablets, which did relieve a lot of the pain caused by the swelling etc.

I did a Google for Swollen Salivery Glands and below is three links - Obviously do a search your self if you like

Don't worry too much. It is probably something really simple.



http://www.medic8.com/hea...lands.html


http://www.patient.co.uk/.../40000981/


http://www.medterms.com/s...ekey=14387