My Lump Was Misdiagnosed As a Swollen Lymph Node Posted: 04-21-06 07:30am
Hi,
i'm a 22 year old university student.
Last year I had surgery to remove an
unusual lump in my parotid glad (it's a
salivary gland). The ent specialist said
it was a tumour and he was worried enough
that three weeks after I saw him, I was on
the operating table with half of my face
being cut open to remove the tumour.
It all started at the end of 2004. One
day I had pains in both my ears, I thought
it was an ear infection so I left it for a
few days. Then a week later the day
before I was going to go overseas on
holidays I went to a doctor who said I had
a middle ear infection and prescribed me
ear drops and an antibiotic....That was
the beginning of my hell.
The pain in my ears continued for days,
weeks, months, I saw lots of ent
specialists, even overseas...They said my
ears were fine...But they hurt like
hell...Sometimes I would cry from all the
pain. I thought that wind would make the
pain worse, so avoided breezes, the pain
continued.
Then I began to notice a bump under my
left ear... It was painful, very painful
and it was growing gradually and became
quite visible. It measured over 2cm in
diameter at the time of surgery. I saw
lots of doctors, had an ultrasound and was
told it was merely a swollen lymph
node...But it was always painful...They
just told me to not worry about it...To
live with it...Completely by chance I
stumbled across the ent surgeon who
diagnosed the lump and did the surgery.
He ordered a biopsy, ct scan and finally
the mri scan, it was all so overwhelming.
Deep down I knew I had to get the lump
removed...But could not believe it...I was
only 21!
The worst part is the surgery was very
risky. There was like a 60% chance that
half of my face would be paralysed by the
surgery cos the facial nerve passes
through the gland where the tumour was
gorwing. Basically if the nerve passed
through the tunour, they would need to cut
the nerve and then try to do a nerve
graft...But my face might never look the
same...It could end up droopy and there
could be a dip in the skin where the gland
is.
So I had the surgery, cos I had no
choice...They were not sure if the tumour
was benign, surgery was the only way to be
safe. Thank god the surgery was
successful. When I woke up from surgery
and saaw myself in the mirror, I had a
'pirate's smile' cos the nerves on the
left hand side of my face were weakened.
My left eye also closed heaps more slowly
than my right and I was freaking out that
it would always be like this. The
worstpart is I woke up with a very long
stitch which stretched from behind my left
ear right up to my hairline at eyebrow
level! Really freaky!!! Was not prepared
for that. For weeks I couldn't sleep on
my left side, and my left ear felt numb
like a piece of plastic stuck on. The
best news was that the lump was benign.
The scar has healed pretty well now.
For a 21 year old it was pretty full on, I
was lucky it wasn't cancer. But surgery
is something I never thought I would go
through..And I did...At 21. Apparently
such growths are rare in people my
age...Guess i'm special.
