Polyp???

[jshet]

Must son, (recently turned 18), has something a little odd going. One week ago it looked like his forhead above his left eyebrow was swollen. I felt around, and found a hard, solid, small, about the size of a grain of rice, just below, the inside part of his eyebrow. It feels as hard as a small pebble does. I assumed it may be a blind pimple because he is lagging in puberty, and has started with mild acne. Over the week, the Obvious swelling has gone down, but the bump is still there.

today his visiting nurse came to flush his port, and I told her about it. Befor checking, she to thought it was probably a pimple. Once she felt it she said it is not a pimple, and she can feel another one below the one I can feel. She said that it is where his frontal sinus is, and has to do with his sinus.
anyone have any ideas what this may be? He has had no Sinus or cold issues and does not have any now. The one thing I noticed is his sense of smell seems a little dulled. He also was having severe headaches a couple months ago that were diagnosed as migraines in that exact area. The headaches have subsided.

we have had no experience as of yet with nasal polyps either. I did as she said and made an appointment with his pediatrician for Tuesday, but was hoping someone may have an idea.

Thank you so much,
janelle

 

[Gammaw]

Polyps do affect the sense of smell and can affect vision, cause headaches, snoring, and generally cause pain and other issues as well. If your pediatrician is at all unsure, do ask for a referral to an ENT - Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Also known as otolaryngology.

 

[welshwitch]

Yep, polyps are a CF thing. I've had them for years, and have had several surgeries. Weirdly, it's the only CF thing that has ever put me in the hospital. But I digress.

Overall, they aren't a big deal. If he indeed has nasal polyps, it's something his Ear, Nose and Throat doctor can help suss out and figure out next steps. The doc will stick a tube down your sinuses and/or do an X-ray to see what's going on. Sometimes all you need is some nasal spray. Other times, it requires more extensive treatment, like sinus surgery. And as surgeries go, it's not really that big a deal either. I last had my polyps out when I was 30, and I didn't even stay overnight in the hospital!

THe annoying thing about nasal polyps is that it definitely can dull or remove your sense of smell, and they often grow back once you get them taken out. Mine has been basically pretty nonexistent the last couple years. My ENT says my polyps haven't really grown back enough to warrant a loss of smell, but then he can't explain why I can't really smell anything either. Anyways, he offered me prednisone to try to see if something changes, but I didn't really want to go on that med if I didn't have to.

Hope your son can get some answers

 

[jshet]

Thank you both for replying. I am hoping they go the x Ray route. He has autism, and there is no way they are gonna put a tube down to his sinuses without a huge meltdown.
Could you ever feel the polyps from feeling where your Sinus is under your skn, or are they unable to be felt through the skin
Do they feel like hard little rocks, or are they more squishy? Thank you both again.

 

[Gammaw]

My son has always been too little to have any tubes run into his sinuses while awake! He'll stay still for a little bit of inspection with a lighted tube in the chair, but I don't believe they can see all the sinuses with that. A CT scan - totally painless - is what they've always used on him when they needed a more extensive view. Have yousimply look with a flashlight into his nose? you can see polyps in some of the sinuses by simply looking inside. They may look like balls of flesh hanging or growing from the inside walls of his nose although not usually completely especially if he's not complaining of congestion. But there are eight sinuses, four pairs, and you can't see them all by simply looking up there with a flashlight. I've never felt one but the ones I've seen are larger than rice. I am not an ENT though and I've only seen my own child's polyps! If they have already caused swelling above his eyes, though, I really would see an ENT as soon as you can.

 

[jshet]

Thamks Gammaw for the advice. Cannot really see anything from looking up his nose. Whatever it is,it does feel bigger than a few days ago. Going to see his doc. On Tuesday, and he is very through so I have no doubt he will get to the bottom of it.

 

[LittleLab4CF]

Before you go much further, see if he has similar bumps on the other side of his face. One thing that makes sinuses so vulnerable is the fact that they're surrounded by bone. Polyps are growths on the sinus linings and it may not be possible for a polyp to be felt, per sé, from the face side of the bones.

What you might be feeling, and grain of rice fits, are some very inflamed nerves. I have bad sinus issues and have spent hours massaging my face and head trying to soothe the pain. The scientist in me began to feel various nerve entries and a certain amount of branching. At first I had no idea what those grain of rice bumps were when I pressed my thumb along the underside of the bone just below the eyebrows, in other words sticking my thumb in my eye socket just below my brow. Nearer to the bridge of the nose, half inlaid into the supra orbital notch, is a large nerve that control the muscles of the brow and forehead passes through several inches of nasal tissue before exiting above the eye. When my sinuses are inflamed, that nerve triples in size. There's a substantial nerve over the outer bone of every sinus and they have pressure sensing nerves hooked into the bone. This is why we feel the exquisite pain of any sinus problems. We don't really feel anything inside the sinuses. The sinus openings are enervated and we feel hot, cold and pressure pain.

After studying the anatomy of the head, relative to the sinuses, a few layers of illustration confirmed several things and proved my memory wrong on others. Indeed the sinuses are surrounded by bone and it is substantial enough that it shouldn't swell in localized spots.

Nerves of the face do double duty. The sinuses are modestly enervated and sharp pain is not a common sensation. Pressure is the priority measurement because a sinus is a bone cavity with a fleshy mucus membrane lining the cavity. Large facial nerves pass close to every sinus and when they're inflamed, few words can describe how painful, pain can be.

Muscles cover the bone over every sinus. They can become rock hard from the misery going on the other side. They can even become cool or cold due to inflamed nerves cramping the muscles and restricting blood flow.

In the 50's and 60's when I was probably 8 to 18 years old, my doctor used to periodically open and drain my tortured sinuses, with cocaine!!! I would lay on an exam table with a couple heat lamps flooding over my face and forehead and the doctor would stuff cocaine soaked swabs far onto or into my sinus openings. Cocaine acts as an anti-inflammatory drug quickly shrinking the tissue occluding my sinus openings. Soon the swabs could be slipped through the sinus openings and the doctor would slather cocaine on fresh swabs and slide them home inside the sinuses.

It was manna from heaven as gobs and gobs of mucus drained down my throat. Whatever effect of the cocaine if any was lost on me. I can't even create a memory of feeling anything except the incredibly effective treatments returning me to a normal free breathing kid. When I was 18 and at university, my sinuses needed draining. When I went to see my first adult ENT, he completely disbelieved that I had been given any such treatments and accused me of drug seeking. I did know what drug seeking behavior was from psychology/sociology classes but cocaine was a tissue shrinker in my mind. I didn't know it was a street drug. My utter confusion must have convinced the ENT that my problem was not drug abuse and went about using steroids and antibiotics to help me. Eventually I had Xrays of my sinuses and such. Nothing short of sinus reconstruction surgery would help me. He ran a string up one nostril and drew it out through the other was his way of demonstrating the hole in my septum. I really miss those two hour long cocaine cleanouts.

Polyps easily could be the problem. Be careful about embedded pimples,

LL