Hi All,
I’ve been having some unusual issues with my face, throat and neck for the past few months and wondered if anyone had experience similar or had any thoughts or suggestions! I’ve finally got a consultation with ENT next week and wanting to get the most out of it.
Bit of background (sorry bit long). I’m 45, M and until end of May this year, no real health complaints other than having PsA and being treated fairly successfully with Benepali (Etanercept Generic). Asthma too, but only ever bothers me if I come down with a respiratory infection.
I finally caught Covid in May, wasn’t awful, just the usual flu like symptoms, fever, fatigued, muscle ache etc. I’ve had a lot of Covid vaccines, always take up the offer of boosters etc. Mid June, woke up one day with a very swollen cheek on one side, so bad my mouth was slight downturned on that side, lopsided smile etc. Went to the dentist, checked me out, couldn’t really see anything but there was a tooth with a previous root canal near the swelling so they gave me a 5 day course of Metronidazole and over the next 10 days or so, swelling went mostly away, still felt a little puffy after. 2 weeks after had my Covid booster.
Couple weeks on, visited my GP as my face was still a bit puffy and Dentist hadn’t found anything, she though potentially a Sinus infection so gave me a 5 day course of Doxycycline and I went away on my holiday. After my holiday, was feeling puffy on the other side of my face, having some itching under my jaw / chin on that side too and slightly burny feeling in the same side of my neck so went back to the GP.
She noted this time other side of my face was puffy now and thought ‘aha’, its your salivary glands, sent me off with some salivary spray and to massage my parotids and sub mandibular glands. Did that for a good few weeks with no improvement, tried sour sweets, sucking hard boiled sweets etc.
Couple weeks on, felt quite unwell, tight chest and wheezy, back to my GP and found I had a chest infection, another blooming 5 day course of Doxycline and Steroids. Couple days later I started to find my throat incredibly tight and my neck feeling swollen both sides, went back to see another GP and got told probably Anxiety, finish your antibiotics / steroids and if not gone away, come back and see him about ‘my mood’.
Went back again couple weeks later, still having issues with my throat / neck / under my jaw, thankfully saw the most experienced of the GPs at my practice, agreed I needed to see ENT and referred me. Had to go back a couple weeks later again to ask for pain relief as was struggling quite a bit with sore throat / tight throat, pain in my neck and under my jaw. Got given the strong Co-Codamol and Naproxen and he contacted ENT again and asked for my referral to be made urgent.
So thats where I am just now, still quite often having what seems an almost ‘cyclical’ set of symptoms. After a few days feeling ‘slightly better’, just background discomfort in my neck and slightly puffy feeling face and not needing to take the Naproxen and Cododamol, I start having a sore, really tender pain in my throat, kinda half way down. After a day or two of that, I start having pain in the back of my mouth, then start getting a real tight throat, can very obviously notice swallowing food, seems to get aggravated by hot drinks or food, stabby pain that goes through to the back of my neck, can feel liquids going down more slowly etc, voice gets a bit hoarse etc, I feel fairly miserable and need to start munching the Naproxen and Cocodamol at this point. Couple days on, the swelling seems to ease off a bit, leaves me with gradually dissapating pain in my neck until I come back to a kinda background level as before and not needing to take the pain relief.
What I am beginning to notice though, is how the cycle coincides with taking my Benepali injection, which is usually a Tuesday for me and this is generally the ‘best’ part of my symptoms. Its usually the next day I start to get a sore throat and 24-48 later the really painful bits peak before it starts to subside as i’ve described until it all starts again.
Without proof, I’m not saying ‘it is the Benepali’ but after carefully tracking my symptoms, I am now fairly suspicious.
I had called Rheumatology before and had a fairly unsatisfactory chat with the Rheumatology nurse specialist, she relayed my symptoms (around the time of my chest infection) to my consultant, mentioned my concerns about the swellings etc and got a response back pretty much that they didn’t need to see me, the facial puffiness was probably the steroids (despite it happening long before the steroids) and that I needed to be seen by ENT.
I did through all this have my bloods taken at one point by the GP, inflammatory markers were apparently ‘ok’ as was whatever Thryoid test they did.
So, apologies for the very long post, however has anyone had anything similar, got any suggestions or thoughts?
Thanks,
Jonathan