ENT Part 2

Time is passing. I was mistakably scheduled with a doctor that could not take my insurance. I saw a PA instead. She was lovely but couldn't really do anything as far as surgery went. It was the first time I asked about surgery. She told me about a parotidectomy, more on that later.  It was also the first time that this seemed a bit more complicated than I thought.

More time passes. Finally at the end of August I get to see the new ENT. He agrees that he should try the procedure to open up the duct. I guess I was surprised at this point since the PA had suggested something different. I figured it was an office procedure, but soon learned that it was outpatient from a local hospital. Since I had asked the PA questions about the other surgery I didn't think to ask too much about this surgery. All the doctor said was that I might have a wire hanging out of my mouth. Um... ok... what?? I searched the Internet to find out information about what was about to happen and pretty much came up empty. I knew I had to just trust the doctor. If it worked, it would be a lot less invasive and I'd have a working gland again.

By now my little bump isn't a whole lot bigger, but it hurts. Not terrible pain, just constant ache in different parts of my face and ear. The tricky part of this whole Parotid thing is that your facial nerves pass through the middle of the gland. I'm guessing that is why the pain feels different from time to time.

I had no idea that it takes so long for surgery to happen. On the good side, that means it isn't critical.. the bad side is that you have much more time to worry. Health care drives us, not the other way around. Now it would be mid October when my surgery was scheduled. Ok, only 6 more weeks... not so bad. And yet, this is late December, right? I'm not to the bottom of the hill yet.