Parotitis

Wednesday night while we were eating dinner before church, Karly kept complaining that her jaw was popping and hurt. My jaw tends to pop if I use it in a repetitive motion, such as chewing gum, so I didn't get very concerned, other than to encourage her to chew on the other side of her mouth and eat her oranges and soft french fries. When she woke up yesterday morning, she complained of a stomach ache and was somewhat whiny and seemed very tired, so I told her to lay back down on the couch for a while. She later got dressed and then complained further of her jaw hurting, when I looked at it, I could see that she had a hard swollen spot along her jawline near her left ear that was slightly purple in color. My first reaction was that she had popped her jaw out of place. After I dropped Kinsley off at school, I took Karly to the ER. She was such a trooper while they poked at her and took 6 or 7 x-ray pictures. She snuggled in moms lap the majority of the time and held my hand tightly while the x-rays were taken.

Much to my relief, she had not popped her jaw out of place, she was however diagnosed with Parotits, or Swollen Parotid. What this means is that her salivary gland, which is located between the ear and the jar has become swollen and inflamed. This can be caused by many things, including mumps, diabetes or because it is blocked by a stone or sometimes even food. As she appeared to be healthy otherwise, no fever or other symptoms, and the x rays did not show a stone, we are leaning towards a simple blockage which will clear itself over the next few days and weeks.

In the meantime, she takes Tylenol and Advil every 4 and 6 hours respectively, and we apply warm compresses to her face. She is also encouraged to eat lemon things, such as lemon drops and or lemon juice. The lemon causes the salivary gland to contract and will help to clear it faster. Karly thought this sounded great at first, lemon candy, lemon Popsicles, lemonade, but we quickly discovered, she really doesn't LIKE lemon that much, so it has been a little more difficult. She stayed home yesterday and rested throughout the day, but did feel well enough to go to school today.