Parotitis

You can see here where her chin is suppose to end, and her neck should start. Just imagine drawing a line from her chin to her ears on her neck line. Poor little neck and jowl.

So..yesterday I was on the phone with my friend Michelle. I looked over at Emilia from across the room and noticed her left cheek was looking abnormally large. I walked over and touched her cheek. It felt as though there was a large brussel sprout inside of her cheek, hard as a rock. I asked her what was in her mouth and to spit it out. She definitely had something in her mouth, she usually does, but it was just one small cracker. Her cheek and neck were so swollen she resembled 'Jabba the Hut'. I told Michelle I had to go because there was something wrong with Emilia. I immediately called Emer at school who did not answer and within two minutes I heard a knock on the door. It was my tender mercy, LaDonna. She had been at the park with her kids and was stopping by to say hello. She took Rock and Julia to her house and I drove to Emer's school to find him and have the Pedo clinic look at her in case it was an abscess of some sort.

On my way to look for Emer a couple students stopped me and were shocked at her face, because of their reactions I started to worry a bit. Finally I found him in the Sim lab and we walked to the Pedo clinic downstairs. They said they couldn't do anything for it and sent us to the ER across the street.

Well, it turns out they didn't really know what it was either. Even though we were there for about three hours. They are calling it "Parotitis"(Inflammation of the Parotid Gland). I guess your Parotid gland is your salivary gland. They think it is either a bacteria or virus. They gave her some anti-biotic and told us to really watch her. If it gets worse bring her back in and they will admit her. They said they would have admitted her if she acted as though she were in pain. But not Emilia, she was giggling and joking with the Doctor and Nurses. She thought it was a party, she colored, played with latex gloves and cuddled with her dad, who fell asleep beside her on the hospital bed.

When we left they made sure I knew to "keep an eye on her" through out the night, in case her neck swelled bad enough to stop her from breathing. Great, thanks for the wonderful medical advice. So, my night consisted of freakish dreams about her extremities swelling unusually large. I would wake up after every dream freaking out and reaching to touch Emilia's little face to make sure the dream wasn't real. What a night.