Lump: Size of a Golf Ball!

[King Herald]

groucho said:

You carried on eating with a ping-pong sized lump in your gob?

My thoughts too.



I'd have been on the way to A&E as soon as I'd swilled the last of the chicken down with a tasty beverage.

[robinhood21]

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

[turbobloke]

robinhood21 said:

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

Then felt below par?

[Driller]

drfrank said:

LOL,

KNK you have tickled me....

What with all the experience GPs have.....don't make me laugh, the saying

'Jack of all trades, master of none' springs to mind.

Whilst I am sure the op has a possible blocked submandibular gland (duct) I think an AE specialist reg would be able to spot it. Remember a lot of the new GPs can qualify after just 4 years post medical school, for a specialist trainee (including A&E) it typically takes longer than 10yrs.

I'm sure you would know that the submandibular gland is the commonest gland for salivary stone to form, what given the consistency of the saliva it produces compared to the parotid and given its rather tortuous duct, especially given that you are an experience GP.

Please stepdown off your high horse !

As you say, Wharton's duct blockage either due to salivary stones, infection or both. Metronidazole to treat infection and oral surgeon for removal of stone.

[blueyes]

Driller said:

drfrank said:

LOL,

KNK you have tickled me....

What with all the experience GPs have.....don't make me laugh, the saying

'Jack of all trades, master of none' springs to mind.

Whilst I am sure the op has a possible blocked submandibular gland (duct) I think an AE specialist reg would be able to spot it. Remember a lot of the new GPs can qualify after just 4 years post medical school, for a specialist trainee (including A&E) it typically takes longer than 10yrs.

I'm sure you would know that the submandibular gland is the commonest gland for salivary stone to form, what given the consistency of the saliva it produces compared to the parotid and given its rather tortuous duct, especially given that you are an experience GP.

Please stepdown off your high horse !

As you say, Wharton's duct blockage either due to salivary stones, infection or both. Metronidazole to treat infection and oral surgeon for removal of stone.

I've had one for years. I heard that they have to remove the duct as the stones re-appear if they just remove the stone. Also it's a tricky op as they can damage a facial nerve when they are digging about in there.

Any new ways of dealing with this problem?

[gerradiuk]

Have you any Hamsters in the family lineage ?

[NDA]

gerradiuk said:

Have you any Hamsters in the family lineage ?

That's such a silly thing to say.

It's July.

They don't hibernate until the winter.

Keep up.

[Glassman]

Thanks to all for replying.

The way I see it is: I'm not in pain, I can still eat food and drink liquid. Occasionally there is some discomfort; ok so one side of my moosh looks like a Hamster... I'd rather not spoil my weekend by sitting in A&E for hours and hours when I can ride it out at home until Monday. If there is still a lump, doc will be my first call...

[Chip Hazard]

drfrank said:

LOL,

KNK you have tickled me....

What with all the experience GPs have.....don't make me laugh, the saying

'Jack of all trades, master of none' springs to mind.

Whilst I am sure the op has a possible blocked submandibular gland (duct) I think an AE specialist reg would be able to spot it. Remember a lot of the new GPs can qualify after just 4 years post medical school, for a specialist trainee (including A&E) it typically takes longer than 10yrs.

I'm sure you would know that the submandibular gland is the commonest gland for salivary stone to form, what given the consistency of the saliva it produces compared to the parotid and given its rather tortuous duct, especially given that you are an experience GP.

Please stepdown off your high horse !

What a great word? Have you been waiting long to use it?

Edited by Chip Hazard on Saturday 21st June 17:23

[dfen5]

All this rush down your Doctors does make me laugh. Once you've finally got in to see your GP, which for a change only took a day last time, he said "Ooh I've not seen something like that before, err not that I want to worry you, it feels normal but, erm, lets get you to see ENT, erm, just because I've not seen it before doesn't mean you should worry, erm.. Computer crashed, hang on.."

5 weeks later I'm being examined by the ENT consultant and yes, it's nothing to worry about. I have to say I'm glad I didn't pay the £250 Bupa wanted for me to jump the five week queue.

[RossMac]

turbobloke said:

robinhood21 said:

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

Then felt below par?

stop it

[Jasandjules]

robinhood21 said:

Had it for tee!

[Thudd]

RossMac said:

turbobloke said:

robinhood21 said:

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

Then felt below par?

stop it

I bet he's worried they'll slice him if he swings by into A&E.

[turbobloke]

Thudd said:

RossMac said:

turbobloke said:

robinhood21 said:

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

Then felt below par?

stop it

I bet he's worried they'll slice him if he swings by into A&E.

Bunker mentality

[Jasandjules]

He's feeling green just thinking about it...But it's the only fair way of dealing with the problem.

[turbobloke]

Sure, got to iron it out, anybody wood.

[Stealth-wagon]

Glassman said:

AFAIK, I'm free of allergies.


Within several minutes, I felt the presence of what turned out to be a lump - about the size of a ping-pong ball - lower jaw, under the tongue and visible from the outside.
Looking in the mirror I can see a lump just below my lower jaw...

Edited by Glassman on Saturday 21st June 10:26

From what you describe, this sounds remarkably similar to an episode I went through about 15 yrs ago. Initially I just had a pain under the tongue and a firm area of skin on the side of my jaw that was tender to the touch. It just sort of went away over an hour or so. But it kept on recurring daily, and a lump started to appear on the side of my jaw, which, after a few more days, would grow to be the size of a golf ball.

By this point it was seriously painful and the skin on the bump was as tight as a drum. I worked out that whenever I tried to eat, or even just thought of eating something the full sized lump would appear in under a minute. It was quite impressive how quick I could make it bulge out. It looked like some Hollywood special effect ! But each time this happened, it would be so painful that I didn’t want to eat, and it would be hours before it went back to normal. It got to the point where I didn’t want to eat anything but bland food or soup. And touching the area around it became super painful.

Eventually, I called my Doc and said I had a very unusual problem and that bits of me were bulging out in all the wrong places, and he asked me to come in on Monday first thing, which was annoying because I remember it was a Friday afternoon that I called. I spent that weekend supping soups.

So, Monday morning comes around, and I decided to ‘demonstrate’ the effect, by taking a Mars Bar along but wrapped in a plastic bag so I couldn’t see it. It was very difficult to empty my mind of all food thoughts as I wanted to put on a really good “demo”...

Anyway, in I trot to the doctors surgery and he asks me what’s up. All I said was ‘watch this’ and whipped out the Mars bar and started removing the wrapper. Sure enough I started salivating in anticipation of the chocolate and out pops this seriously impressive bulge on the side of my face. Along with loads of pain.

The doctors exact words were “I say, Good heavens” as he stood up to take a closer look.

I was kind of hoping that he would know what it was and what to do about it. But he honestly didn’t seem to know. He did get on the phone and, long story short, referred me to the local hospital, which said I could drive on over and a specific consultant would take a look that morning. So I packed up my mars bar and drove the 45 minutes to the hospital. By then, my bulge had gone down and I was looking forward to demonstrating it all over.

Eventually, I get to see this specialist, and I tell him the story and demonstrated the Mars Bar trick all over. This time round he said, “well done, you fall into the tiny group of people who need a Jacobsen’s incision on the parotid”. He said about 100 people a year experience sediment build up in the main duct from the saliva glands. He massaged my face and mildly pinched the gland area to see if he could release the pressure, else he would have to do a minor operation there and then. Was quite painful, but all of sudden “bbluurrggghhh” and what seemed like half a pint of saliva fell out of my mouth. I looked like something from ‘Aliens’ with all the gooo dribbling out for 10 minutes or so.

He said to give it a day or so and see if it recurred, and if so he would have to operate and clean out the duct. Luckily nothing did happen again and I’ve been gooo free for 15 yrs. What ever the sedimentary bits were, they must have come out in the hospital goo explosion.

I wouldn’t recommend squeezing the gland yourself just in case you rupture it, and instead get down to the docs and repeat this tale. Heres some medical info :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parotid_gland


Anyhow, Good luck !

Edited by Stealth-wagon on Saturday 21st June 19:29

[minimoog]

Tim.s said:

Blocked saliva gland perhaps?

Yup I reckon. I've had this for years. Comes and goes, when it's bad it's like having half a boiled egg on the side of your neck. Goes down when you stop eating i.e. salivating. Once or twice it's been quite severe and painful, but passed (in both senses) eventually. Sometimes you can actually tell when a bit of stone is coming out of the gland under the tongue, and may need to help it out with tweezers. Ewww...

Mentioned it to the consultant years ago when I was in for kidney stones and he said it's the same thing i.e. calcified accretions blocking the tubes. He offered to cut the offending gland out (a tactical move to shut me up methinks) which I declined with thanks

He did mention that in severe cases a blockage can lead to infection, but otherwise it's probably as well to ride it out.

[Gretchen]

turbobloke said:

Thudd said:

RossMac said:

turbobloke said:

robinhood21 said:

Baldinho said:

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swallow a golf ball?

Had it for tee!

Then felt below par?

stop it

I bet he's worried they'll slice him if he swings by into A&E.

Bunker mentality

Not being able to eat sounds like a severe handicap.

Is there an A & E within reasonable driving range?

[NDA]

Stealth-wagon said:

Interesting stuff

How fascinating...! I read that with great interest, how weird and extraordinary. I'll bet you were massively relieved it was something 'relatively' easy to fix.

I thought reading through it that your demonstrations weren't going to work- how satisfying that they did.

Talking of lumps and bumps, has anyone ever seen that bloke that walks on the Kings Road (London) from time to time with a second head growing out of his neck? (Not kidding by the way).