So one night at dinner Jimmy looks over at Camden as says "Is his jaw dislocated?!" And sure enough I looked at him and his right jaw/cheek area was swollen. I called his pediatrician and being the awesome doctor he is he came to our house at 7:30 to check him out and see if we needed to go to the ER or somewhere that night. His jaw was not dislocated but there was a lump and it seemed like it hurt Camden when we touched it.
These were on Jan 5 when we first noticed it. I was trying to get pictures I could text to the Dr. He prescribed a dose of heavy antibiotics thinking it was an infection.
January 10 it was even bigger and he had already been on the antibiotic for 5 days. Didn't seem to bother him or affect his happiness unless I tried to feel it and poked around at it. I guess it was tender and it hurt him :( No fever, no other symptoms of any kind, just this weird lump.
January 11
As the days and weeks went on it seemed to decrease in size but there was still some kind of lump there. We went back to the Dr a few times for him to check it. Finally since it was still there we decided to do an MRI to have some final answers.
Sweet boy taking selfies in the waiting room before being called back
More selfies and we had a take a picture of him in his little gown
He wasn't super happy
He was such a trooper though and sat so patiently with us while we waited for his turn. We had to be there by 8:30 but his MRI wasn't actually scheduled until 10 ish. They have to have so much time to prep and get them ready. Since the tests take 45 min to an hour they have to sedate them. This was the first time either one of our boys has had to go through something like this. So scary!
He was a champ getting his IV. Didn't even fuss or cry!
After his procedure. They had to give him extra sedative right towards the end so they could
get a few more pictures so he was pretty out when he came back into the
room. After 10-15 minutes I tried holding him to wake him up. They said
sometimes they get upset and aggressive after having the sedatives. He
was not happy and couldn't control his head but also didn't want to be
held. It was tough. But finally he came through and became his sweet happy self afterwards. We got him a milkshake and headed home to rest for the rest of the day. This was the first thing he'd been allowed to eat since the night before! And at this point it was almost 12:30pm I think.
We finally heard back from the Dr the next day (seemed like an eternity!) Turns out he had had an infection in one of his lymph nodes. The antibiotics had helped and the lymph node basically killed itself off to protect itself. That's why weeks later there was still a little lump. He said it would eventually go away altogether. We were happy to finally have some clarity and so thankful it wasn't anything more serious! Such a traumatic event for all of us!
