Concern?

[ms99]

Wife had surgery & radiation ablation treatment for papillary thyroid cancer in Feb of this year.

Lately she has been complaining of pain in her jaw. Looking at her I can see that her left jaw is swollen and she complains of pain when touched there. This is just in front and below her left ear.

When she had the I-131 treatment, the doc did mention that occasionally the I-131 can cause problems with the salivary glands.

Her regular doctor just dismissed it as TMJ and told her to go see a dentist for an evaluation.

However, she is quite concerned that this could be something, possibly connected to the thyroid cancer or the I-131 treatment. She does not agree with the TMJ assessment mainly because she says it does not appear to be related to chewing or jaw movement.

Thoughts?

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

This sounds like parotid gland swelling, sometimes the salivary ducts can become blocked/narrow after I-131 treatment.  An ENT may be able to confirm the diagnosis and help with the symptoms.

[ms99]

Thanks for the response.

I plan to call her ENT doc tomorrow to see when we can get an appointment to get in to check this out.