More Medical and Health Woes

As if my little medical issues lately weren’t enough, there’s more!

Those of you who know us in the real world (as opposed to the cyber world) know that Jack’s goatee has gotten him into trouble a time or two in his life.

Almost 11 years ago (1998, about a month before Casey was born) he was chewing on a whisker from his beard / goatee (’cause he’s weird like that) and the whisker broke, flew into his mouth, burrowed under his tongue, and proceeded to cause a massive infection behind and below the base of his tongue that could have killed him.

He was sick for several weeks and had doctors confused as to what was wrong with him. We went back and forth to various doctors several times in a five week period who would only prescribe antibiotics then send him home. He’d get a little better from the antiobitics but as soon as they ran out he’d be sick again. Jack eventually ending up in the ER when he became delirious with a 104 temperature and his throat was almost swollen shut. I threw a small fit demanding someone do *something* and refused to leave till we had an answer. We were finally referred to an ear, nose, and throat specialist.

He too almost sent us away not knowing what was wrong. None of the doctors could see or even feel the infection because it was lodged so far back under his tongue and moving inward, almost under his jaw. The specialist finally found the abscess and was quite shocked at how bad it was. He sent us to the hospital right away and did an emergency surgery to fix it. Jack was in the hospital for almost five days after. It was a major ordeal and left him with an almost 3 inch scar on his neck.

The reason it could have killed him is the infection was close to the vein (artery?) that goes from your tongue down to your heart. If the infection had gotten in that vein, he wouldn’t have made it.

Fast forward to today, he still has some issues with the area, usually in the form of a clogged salivary gland under his tongue from time to time. It’s always cleared up on its own, but this time it didn’t and he started getting swollen in the same area as his scar.

He has another infection that we now know needs attention asap. He had it looked at Monday and today he had a quick little surgery to extract the infection. He’s being referred to another ear, nose, throat specialist because he shouldn’t be having these problems. The oral surgeon’s theory is the infection/surgery from 11 years ago may have disturbed the way his salivary glands are functioning and the area will need to be revisited with another surgery and possibly a correction.

Do we have some crazy shit happen to us or WHAT?? Actually, Jack has the crazy stuff happen to him. He’s the one who can’t be normal. (And anyone who knows him knows this to be 100% accurate!) He can’t just break a leg or something. Oh no. He has to go and almost kill himself because he happened to chew on his whiskers. Do normal guys even do that? He seems to think so. I think Jack’s just… weird.

Our medical bills this year are going to really REALLY suck. At least we’re doing our part in helping the medical field stay in business.