Extremely painfull swelling/burning in cheek, patch of pressure on forehead, eyes red and swollen

I have been having these symptoms for a while now, and was wondering if it might be ETD related? I was "diagnosed" with ETD by a GP, however I have not been able to see a new ENT to get a proper diagnosis. I live in Australia and the whole process of getting a referral and the wait time to see a specialist is at least a few months, at least where I live.

The swelling is in my left cheek, and it's hard and tight to the touch. It's extremely painful and there's a very disturbing pressure feeling behind it. The severity of the pain changes along with the size of the swelling and the hardness, sometimes it's just annoying and other times it's unbearable.

The patch of pain/pressure is on the left side of the forehead, just above my ear and in line with my eyes, and the size is a bit smaller than my palm. It also changes in terms of severity, but yesterday it was so painful for over two hours, all I could do was cry and scream, two things which made me feel even worse. I took Panadeine Forte, the strongest prescription painkiller that doctors will (reluctantly) prescribe here, and that didn't do anything at all, the pain actually got worse after I took it.

My eyes have been very painful for a while. They look red, on the eyelid and underneath, and it looks a bit like there's a small bruise on both outer corners. It hurts to keep my eyes open, and there are times when I can't even open them, it stings so much. On the inner corner of my left eye, there is an odd hardness that is not present in my right eye, and the more hard and swollen my cheek is, the harder that inner corner is. There are also occasional weird puffs of air coming from the bottom of my left eye.

I currently have a sinus infection and am bleeding out the left nostril. I have been doing sinus rinses and small black spots keep coming out. I also might have an ear infection right now, it certainly feels like it - I haven't had my ears checked recently but I do have ear infections most of the time.

The left side of my face feels numb, and it tingles sometimes. I am worried I'm going to end up with facial paralysis.

The pain in my cheek and the patch on my forehead started to get worse on Saturday, and it's been worse every day since. It feels like there's a strange combination of both burning and an icy sting in those two areas. I don't known what to do any more... I have tried the following:

• Sinus rinse (comes through the left side and out from right nostril, but doesn't come out through right side, it either just drops back down through the right nostril or I have to blow it out.)
• Panadeine Forte
• Lower level pain medications like Panadol and Neurofen
• Stemetil
• Heat pack applied to both cheek and nose
• Valium and Serequel (for the panic attacks and self harm episodes this is causing)
• Steroid nose spray
• Cream up my nose to heal the infection (been using for over a month, still badly infected)
• Antihistamines
• Ear drops in ears
• Head under a towel over a bowl of hot water and Vicks
• Holding my nose and blowing hard (only causes left ear to pop painfully, no relief)
• Blowing a balloon through my nostril (odd, I know, but I read somewhere that it can help ETD...)

Nothing helps... I don't know what to do any more. l am so distressed by this. I don't know why this is even happening, if it even really is ETD or something else, or if I'm just losing my mind. If there are any suggestions (besides going to hospital, I have already been and told the ER is for car crashes, heart attacks and the like, even after I fainted I was just given an arm X-ray and sent home.). I haven't seen many examples of this kind of cheek/forehead patch pain in ETD groups, which makes me really think maybe this isn't ETD at all, it's just yet another misdiagnosis. I don't know what to do...

0 likes, 1 reply