Ear Nose & Throat, part Dos

Firstoff, I want to apologize forthe way this looks. The spacebar on my computer that I'veonly had for 2 weeks is already sticking and it'sa huge pain in theass. Luckily the refurbs have warranties so I'mtaking it in this weekend.

Secondly, i spent 3hours in the emergency room this afternoon. About 2 months ago I was having a lovely Friday night dinner at Thai Passion with Kurt, Meredith and Bill, when the underside ofmy tongue on the left side starting burning as if I had a spice caught underneath it or something. And then my gland started swelling. Up to about the size of a ping-pong ball. After about 20 minutes it went down and I didn't think much more of it.

Jump to several weeks later, againwith Kurt & Meredith, eating pizza, and it happens again. This time, however, it went down even quicker than before, so again, Ijust shrugged it off.

Today, however, I was eating breakfast at home before class, and it starts happening again, only it never really goes down. So after about 5 hours (after I get out ofclass and go to work and tell them I need to leave), I take myself tothe emergency room.

After I wait for 2 and a half hours, I meet with a doctor for about 3 minutes who looks inside my mouth and tellsme I need to see an ear, nose & throat specialist. So I guess I'm gonna go see the guy next week that did my surgery for me last summer.

Anyway, turns out I have a blocked salivary gland on my left side. Which means that, much like a kidney stone, whenever I eat, and my gland produces saliva, it's clogged onthat side and instead of the saliva going into my mouth where it's supposed to be, it just builds up in my gland, thus causing it to inflate. The doctor said there was no infection, and was probably just some kind of blockage. I can probably flush it out by sucking on lemons or sour candy, but if not, it may require surgery. Let's hope to god it doesn't come to that.

It's pretty gross, but it doesn't particularly hurt, or inhibit my breathing, so I guess it's not a huge crisis. But it is uncomfortable and a little scary.