Salivary gland problem (I think parotid?)

[Jux]

Dh has a big problem with it swelling up and being painful. He has had a scan, and dye injected, and apparently the gland is narrowed, rather than being blocked so sucking sweets etc won't work (first thing we tried - over 5 years ago). It is just getting worse. Right now there is a swelling from his ear nearly to his nose, and at its most prominent point is about an inch possibly more.

The doctor says the only thing they can do is surgery, which is major major major and could leave him with facial paralysis. He is a guitarist/singer, so that could be devastating to his livelihood, and as I'm disabled with ms and have virtually no earning power, it would be devastating to the whole family. Not to mention how dreadful the effect on his mh would be if he couldn't really go out gigging any more.

Is there really no other option?

We have no idea why the gland has narrowed; he is nearly 60 and this has not been a lifelong condition.

Have they talked about a duct stent? Like they do in the heart vessels, it can hold it open/change the narrowing.

I learnt most parotid stuff from a maxillofacial radiologist. What department have you been seen by?

Maxillofacial dept., dh saw the surgeon last week.

I had fleetingly thought of a stent, but assumed that as it hadn't been mentioned, salivary gland stents didn't exist. Or perhaps they're so small they're invisible and can only be done by invisible surgeons? We haven't seen one of those (boom boom).

Seriously, do they actually do stents for this?

Yes!! Google it. Parotid duct stent think there's some YouTube videos

You could ask to see someone who does them? I know they exist but that's the sum total of my knowledge. I'd certainly rather have one than risk damaging my facial nerve.

HTH (not much,sorry!!)

Brilliant! Thanks, MrsM. I'll tell dh.

That sounds strange- I had a completely blocked gland and the treatment was a minor operation under local anaesthetic.
I'm just going to check what procedure I had done...

Daily Mail Article inc treatment.

Now I think about it, for me it wasn't blocked but narrowed due to repeated infections. I saw the surgeon mentioned in the article on the NHS.

In the article the man had a blockage in his submandibular gland. This is totally different to the Parotid gland and much easier to deal with. The facial nerve has many branches which lie intimately through the parotid gland and can easily be damaged during surgery.

MrsM, dh has now looked it up too, and is going to ask about it. Apparently, this really is the first time he's heard of such a thing. Fingers crossed. Are you a surgeon? Would you come and do dh's? Are you free tomorrow?

Are you are surgeon, Simonthedog? You both sound so knowledgeable.

Mine was definitely parotid and definitely narrowed not with an obstruction.

I had a blocked gland when I was 5 or 6 and our gp prescribed boiled sweets. My mum got me not-very-nice diabetic blackcurrant ones which were very small. I had to suck one every few hours to dislodge the stone. My teacher once made me spit one out - no sweets in class - and then remembered they were medicinal so apologised profusely and gave me another.

The stone was gone in a week or so. It was altogether quite exciting.

The boiled sweet cure was the first thing we tried with dh way back in 2008.

Hi OP, my experience is 16/17 years old so may not be relevant, but..

I had problems with my parotid glands from age of 6ish, severe pain, swelling etc. By the age of 11 my right parotid had ruptured, leaving massive scarring and a huge dent in my face on that side, where the surgeon had to scrape out all the crap. The op became much more major because of the extent of the damage and I still have lasting facial paralysis at 30 years old.

When I was 12 they removed my left one (which caused swelling and pain but had not ruptured) as a precaution, and was a much less major operation. No lasting facial paralysis and minor scarring.

If he has the op, depending on how they do it there will almost definitely be temporary paralysis but it goes after about 6 weeks. Saying that, I think the technique used when I had mine done was already out of date!

I'm still incredibly conscious of my right side. If there's any risk it may rupture it may be best to have it removed. Oh!! I also have Fray's syndrome on both sides, which is where the sweat gland bonds with the salivary ggland, so when you salivate you also sweat from the side of your face. It's really quite a nasty op and I'm sorry you're in this position.

Just realised my maths is appallingly wrong in that post, and time does fly!! Would've been about 18/19 years ago.

Thank you for telling me your experiences, Seriouslyffs and pippyvonlongface. I'm so sorry to hear of your horrible experience, pippy . I won't be telling dh though; he had a headache once and in the course of it, a couple of hours, managed to convince himself he had a brain tumour! In the same way, he has had bowel cancer (d&v), a heart attack (indigestion) and countless other serious and life threatening conditions. His real problem is that he has not been 21 for nearly 40 years.

This gland thing is real, though, and is concerning.