11 year old, huge swollen throat on one side

[DaysofHoney]

We’ve just come to A&E with DS, 11. He had a bit of a cold at the start of the week but seemed fine by Thursday. He’s just woken up with a huge swollen throat/neck on one side, says he can’t swallow and that he’s in a lot of pain. He had a small lump in the chin/neck area at bedtime but I assumed a little swollen lymph still, and it’s just come up hugely in size.

has anyone experience this themselves or with DC? We are in the A&E but I’m a bit worried!

Could it be mumps?

Glandular fever?

Is he vaccinated for mumps?
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mumps/symptoms/

He’s vaccinated for mumps, yes

Quinsy?

Aka turbo tonsillitis. Nasty!

I thought Quinsy too. Hope you don’t have to wait too long.

Goodness never heard of Quinsy. What will they be likely to do to treat him? I’ve given him some paracetamol but anything else I should give him in the meantime??

Could be mumps. My dd had this even though vaccinated as the vaccine is something like 85/90% effective. She had a huge swelling one side of her neck, couldn't turn her head to the side, quite scary until we got a diagnosis. She recovered fully in around 10 days with pain relief/rest. Hope he gets assessed and treated soon.

Might be his salivary gland. Do you not have an out of hours to avoid A&E?

Could be a blocked saliva gland. I had that, my GP got ever so excited as she hadn’t seen one in ages . Cure was to suck on lemon wedges.

I hope it’s something minor like that.

Hope he's ok xx

We are overseas, no such thing as out of hours so we are at the government hospital rather than our usual clinic - it’s all a bit frightening.

I had an infected lymph node in my neck 18 months ago after a cold. One side of my neck swelled up hugely within hours of me feeling something wasn't quite right. I had a 7 day course of heavy duty antibiotics prescribed by my GP which sorted it.

I understand Quinsy is excrutiatingly painful (one of DD's 20-something friends has just had it). My infected lymph node was uncomfortable but bearable (albeit pretty frightening looking).

He was off school Mon-Weds with a cold/fever and a bit of a cough but had been on the mend. I sincerely hope not Quinsy but it is very large and visible swollen externally. Never seen anything like it.

If it is quinsy they'll give antibiotics and maybe steroids

I had it quite severely last year and honestly within a few hours on an IV I felt 75% better

My daughter had this, it was very scary.
It was a post viral issue which resolved itself. I had it checked at the GP and they said it was a good immune response and nothing to worry about it.

Thanks everyone, there’s nothing better than a MN handhold at times like this.

They did an x ray which was ‘unremarkable’ but have asked us to go back for an ultrasound in the morning when the ENT doc will be on, to rule out Quinsy. They’ve given us antibiotics to be getting in with too.

Update, they have now done the ultrasound which didn’t show any fluid in there so they can rule out Quinsy I believe, phew. Radiologist indicated it’s swollen glands and lymph nodes but wants us to see doc again to make sure we have the right treatment to clear it up.

Hello and thanks for your message. The ultrasound showed it is the salivary gland/lower mandibles gland. How long did your swelling take to go down? Poor boy has a huge neck!

Oh I’m so glad it wasn’t anything more serious!

Once I’d started sucking on the lemon wedges it started to go down quite rapidly. It did come back a bit whenever I ate but within a few days it had completely gone. I hope your DS’s resolves quickly too.

OP - sounds like he had a post-viral infection like me (I posted yesterday) and although the huge swelling looks alarming it will be sorted quickly and easily with antibiotics. No need to worry about anything.

thyroid