Sorry for the long post, but this is also
a vent as well as seeking advice...
Now i don't have bulimia...BUT I have had
some anxiety and alcohol tolerance
problems which has caused me to vomit an
average of
once every 1-2 months for the
past 2 years or so. Usually occurs after a
meal, I ate too much by accident and
couldn't handle it. Definitely not
intentional purging, but rather
unintentional and happens every now and
then.
I just had my wisdom tooth taken out last
week (top left, only 1) and it has caused
some swelling on the left side of my face.
As I was looking at that, I realized that
(in general) my cheeks look overly puffy
and my whole face looks 'heavy'. If you
didn't see the rest of my body, you'd
think I was slightly overweight even
though I'm far from that. I happened to be
looking back at some pics of me a couple
months ago and to my surprise my cheeks
appear a little puffy, maybe not as bad as
now because of the surgery....but still
bigger than I thought. It didn't seem
right....so I took a look back at maybe
5-6 months ago and my face looks a lot
thinner (what I always envisioned my face
to be). I also checked a pic of myself a
year ago and my cheeks didn't seem puffy
at all. While I didn't have a perfectly
straight clean cut jaw, the fat was
minimal and hardly noticeable at all.
Now I have gained about
5-6 pounds in
the last 6 months as I am trying to
gain weight cause I am slightly on the
thin side. I am pretty sure it is all
muscle, because I am much stronger in all
my muscle groups and I appear more
defined/muscular. A couple people's first
inclination was that "I was gaining weight
and 'filling out'" as to the reason why my
face appears puffy. While I have gained
weight, it is probably 100% muscle gain,
as my overall body fat % is even less than
10%. Say even I gained 2 pounds of
fat...theres no way that tiny amount of
gain would account for the size increase
in my cheeks. I went from looking slightly
underweight to average to appearing
slightly overweight in the face in the
last 6 months. In all honesty, it's not
'that bad' I'm not a puffball or anything
but I definitely like my old face
better...the shape was much more defined
and now if you saw my face now u'd think I
never missed a meal in my life...
So I went to see the doctor and she found
a lymph node on the side where I got my
wisdom tooth removed. The left side (side
i had the dental surgery on) is more puffy
than the other side...so that's part of
it. The swelling on that side should heal
up within a few weeks hopefully, so at
least the 2 sides will be evenly puffy
. But in spite of
all this, even the pics I took a couple
months ago my cheeks appear slightly
bloated. What I am trying to say that
although the wisdom tooth surgery has
temporary contributed to this problem, my
cheeks were still puffier than usual even
before the surgery.
I think I have a swollen parotid gland
(big salival gland just underneath the ear
lobe) which is causing this problem. I
don't buy the arguments about me "filling
out" because I'd probably have to put on
20-30 pounds of FAT to account for this
change. I am worried that possibly the
vomitting I have been doing (once every
month or so for the past 6 months) has
done damage to my parotid gland. I read
that people with bulimia commonly have
puffy cheeks due to the acid in the vomit
damaging the salival glands. However,
people with bulimia purge about 3x a week
on average, compared to my 0.25x a week.
Could vomiting around once per month the
past 6 months caused damage to my saliva
glands, causing my cheeks to puff? Will
they heal in time assuming I don't vomit,
giving them time to regenerate? Is it
possible that I am comparing my face NOW
which is swollen because of the wisdom
tooth surgery to my face 6 months
ago...and that's why there is a huge
discrepency? Any insight, ideas, personal
experience or whatever would be of great
help!
