and i thought i was doing so good - part 2

well i am better, sort of, i am better that they have now released me from the hospital, please look at this picture, look at the thing marked "Patroid Gland" its the one that looks like wine grapes in the dead center near the ear.

that gland and one other swole up 3x - 5x its normal size, when it started impacting my ear canal that was painful, not saying the rest wasn't, but anything that messes with the ear hurts like hell. one other thing, the side of my face was extremely hot to the touch, that is a sign of a localized infection, i was not running a temperature, but it was damn hot, i could feel the heat, and so could the doctors.

for you out there that have had the mumps, you know all about this gland, it is the main one that swells up when you have it, makes you look like a chipmunk.

i started feeling it go bad on Saturday morning, but it was manageable, by Sunday by noon it was a mass, my face was red, swollen and it was hard as a rock, so off i went to my trusty ER, the doctor was not happy, they had me cat scanned and then he told me i would have to stay to get IV anti-biotic and pain medications, because he knew how bad it was hurting me.

I do have a pretty high tolerance for pain, and i have had the drug "dilaudid" before. but it took for shots of that damn stuff before i could even get comfortable. i had to have bags of IV anti-biotic ever 6 hours, and injected steroids to take the swelling down, i was told i was a sick person, and needed to be in the hospital, believe me, i tried talking my way out of that place.

i remember them taking me up to the hospital room, getting in bed, getting two more shots, one of the steroid and one of painkillers and i went to sleep, that was around 9ish i think, i remember them waking me up at 3am to repeat that, and then they let me sleep, i woke up around 6.30am when my primary care doctor came in to look at me, she just told me to go back to sleep. i slept till almost 2pm that afternoon.

I woke up to a nice clear liquid meal, what the hell? clear liquids? who's funny idea was that?

I spent all of monday repeating the same routine, IV anti-biotic, pain meds, steroids, repeat every six hours, my ENT surgon came by to see me and explained what i had, i forget the fancy name for it, its mainly what i posted(minus the name) and said due to the radiation i had i will be prone to this issue, i thanked him. i stayed awake till 2am, i was waken today at 7am by someone jamming a needle in my arm, and have been awake since.

my primary care doctor came in at 1.30pm, looked, said i looked a lot better, put her hand on what was left of the swelling and said it felt normal and would i like to go home? any guesses on what i said?

i was out of there at 2.30!, quick stop at target to get meds and pet food and i was home.

and i thought i was doing so much better.

but i am home now, and alive yet again, i had less issues when i was under radiation, well at least i had less hospital visits.

i am here and up, i will leave the light on for you, but i wont answer the doorbell.