Tonsil/Gland Issues...

I'm a 19 year old female in excellent physical shape and normally very active, until about 6 weeks ago when my parotid and submandibular glands began swelling rapidly. They, along with various lymphnodes in my neck have been doing so ever since, and my condition has shown no signs of improvement. As a matter of fact, I seem to be getting worse. I guess the most intriguing thing is that they swell at random, remain swollen for hours at a time and then subside... it is a frequent and continuous cycle. In the last 3 weeks my Tonsils have begun to do this as well... the left one tends to get extremely large, but the right also swells mildly on occasion. They are uncomfortable but not always painful... every now and then I get a sore throat as a result but very rarely. This is driving me crazy. I've been to my doctor twice and spent 5 days in the hospital about 2 weeks ago... I've had almost every test known to man performed on me and no one can figure out what is going on. My CBC came back normal twice... I had mono when I was a kid, so that's out (they've done 3 mono tests on me anyway.) The only things that were elevated were the monocytes and the ALT, but only very slightly. I've not had a CMV, a strep test, or any sort of scan/xray of the head and neck, but again, my white count is normal. Accompanying symptoms included a killer headache, a low grade fever at times, severe nausea, upper abdominal pain, neck pain, fatigue, Dizziness, decreased appetite, trouble sleeping, heart palpitations and a tight feeling in my throat (probably due to my tonsils.) Help... please?

[DMattson]

Did you get a CT scan done on your abdomen? What other tests have been performed?

[trailgaze]

hi Desert Fox,

By your knowledge of Technical terms you sound pretty clued up on how your body works.

From what you describe, your bodies immune system could be reacting to a pathegen (viral). I had this once and the symptoms went on for months. Very similar symptoms.(tirednes, low grade fever(mostly at night), lack of energy, poor appetite etc)

Has your doc suggested glandular fever? that usually strikes young people with some of the symptoms you describe.

[DesertFox]

I'm not on any sort of medication and I've never been sexually active. I can't really speak for the hormone thing because as far as I know it's never been an issue. I went to an ENT specialist today and he acknowleged some swelling in the tonsil and lymphnodes on the left side of my neck, but it had gone down a bit since last night. He doesn't want to rush into anything but he said if it persists for too much longer then I should consider having a lymphnode biopsy done or have the tonsils taken out (in which case  several tests could be done upon removal). I just ate lunch about an hour ago and the thing is starting to get enormous again... eating in general also has a tendency to aggrevate it. There isn't any specific food that does this and I'm not allergic to anything. This is insane...

[DesertFox]

I've had so many different tests... everything from cat scratch antibodies to a sed rate. They did an abdominal ultrasound in the hospital which was normal, but no CT scan. The resident that examined me upon admission, however, did say that it felt like my liver was enlarged. At the time I was having alot of pain in that area and it was pretty well gaurded, but it had subsided by the following morning. At the moment, my throat is still very swollen (left side is significantly larger than the right) and looks like it's covered with quite a bit of mucous (sorry to be graphic)... this is something that has come to the forefront in the last 36 hours. It's sort of red as well, but it's still not painful. my salivary glands are swollen again and I've also been having some rather strange additional symptoms... mainly alternating pain and numbness in my arms and hands and some coordination problems, especially when walking. The numbness thing has been recurrent since this started, but before it was barely noticeable and only on the right side. The doctors assumed that it was due to swelling in the lymphnode under my arm (they did an xray of this as well... also normal). I'm not freaking out about it or anything, but this is starting to get a little weird...