The Agony of Adolescence

Sam is at the age now where his oil glands are starting to pump into overdrive and he is starting to get a few pimples. Nothing too bad. I got him some Clearasil face scrub and face cream and that seems to be handling everything. He has been very good about keeping his face clean.

Yesterday he told me he thought he was going to get a big zit on his chin. I told him to just keep washing it and using the cream and we would just have to ride it out. By the middle of the day though he said he could feel a firm ridge along the edge of his chin that was painful. Indeed, when I looked at him I could tell the outline of his face was swollen. I gave him some Aleve for the pain and we used warm compresses with gentle massage to help loosen things up a bit but Sam said that made it hurt more. So then we went with ice packs to help reduce swelling which he said was worse. So back to the warm compresses.

Normally I wouldn’t have done much more than that, but this morning Sammy woke up with the entire right side of his jaw swollen including his lip. His enunciation reminds me of John Hurt’s portrayal in the Elephant Man. He said that it does not hurt to swallow and he can still breathe, but his painful face woke him up at 2 o’clock a.m. and again at 4 and 6. And now he tells me that the firmness is moving to the other side.

Is this acne? or is the acne just a coincidence of something else going on? Sam did get stung by a bee at the cross country meet on Sunday, but the area of the sting isn’t red or swollen and looks completely normal.

The worry wort in me is taking Sam to the doctor this morning before this gets any worse. Here’s a pic but trust me when I say this doesn’t do it justice. His jaw line right now resembles Dudley Dooright – very sore and swollen.