Does anyone have experience/info about swollen lymph gland?

[1mamaroo]

My son has a swollen and very tender lymph gland. He had a fever of 101 a week ago, but not since then. And he has had a raspy cough and runny nose for a week. Yesterday morning he woke up with the right side fairly large. I've taken him for 2 acupressure treatments yesterday/today and have given him Bryonia alba tablets. The swelling is down about half way and it is still quite tender. The left one I can feel and it's a little tender. My mom (over the phone) insists that it must be mumps (he is not vax) and the acupressure practitioner is a little concerned too. I just don't think that's what it is though. Oh, he's happy, playing, good appetite, and really wants to go to school tomorrow! Any experience with this type of thing?

[AllyRae]

Reactive inflammatory lymph nodes can be swollen for a month or more as the result of an infection. If it's not hard/firm/rubbery and if it is still mobile, it's probably ok. (I'm actually undergoing testing for a swollen lymph node that is firm and non-tender, as those tend to be more worrisome than tender soft lymph nodes.). Is the size getting smaller each day? If so, I don't think I would be concerned. If it's growing though, definitely keep him out of school. Even a reactive inflammatory lymph node should still be under 2 mm...

[1mamaroo]

Hmmm. Thanks for replying! It is hard and does feel somewhat fixed in place. Not really puffy. But quite tender according to him. It just started yesterday morning and now it's at least half the size of then. I'm going to take him for another acupressure (and light therapy) session this evening. Oh, he's 5 yo.

[AllyRae]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, mine's been that way for over 2 months now and the doctor is still ok with watching it (two doctors, actually...an ENT because it's right over the parotid gland, and my hem/onc doc because I mentioned it to him when I was there for my quarterly monitoring for a bone marrow condition).

I'm not sure how you feel about conventional medicine, but for something like this, I think I would at least check in with a pediatrician/western med doc. If it's the mumps, you don't want to mess around with exposing others who should not be exposed. If it's something worse, you want to make sure it's treated now rather than later. And if it's nothing at all, at least you can feel better about it.

Oh, and if it's shrinking, that's a really good sign! The tender probably comes from the fact it grew really fast.

[1mamaroo]

Yes, I should get him checked out just in case. If it wasn't the weekend I probably would have already. I would really like to avoid antibiotics if we can though. That is my main concern at this point, to not expose anyone if it were mumps. His little sister has been playing with him non-stop and is just fine so far. My son really seems to do things acutely. Like if he gets a fever, he will get it suddenly in the evening, sweat all night with cool cloths and a fan, and then be fine in the morning. Hopefully this is going rapidly like that too. That's what the acupressure was trying to help along. Thanks again for getting back to me, it is always a relief to get some advice (that's not from my mother http://www.mothering.com/discussions...s/eyesroll.gif )

[1mamaroo]

Update...
He has strep throat. I had no idea. Well, at least we can take care of it now that we know! Thanks for the support! Aloha!

[mom61508]

Just for future reference castor oil packs are great for putting on lymph nodes!