hello, my father is 4months post surgery.. he had a jawsplit amongst other things and from time to time will experience swelling in the face, redness and sometimes drainage under his chin.. he had his montly check-up yesterday and the doctors were so impressed with his progress.. 2 days prior my father's swelling was non-existent.. doctors said even though there was some redness and swelling that he looked great! we came home and a few hours later, swelling is worse, redness and draining.. we put a call into the ENT and he re-filled his antibiotic.. this is his third time on this antibiotic for this.. doctor is not concerned about cancer being back because he did not see anything suspicous during his visit.. he said what could happen sometimes is that the body has a reactiion to the titatium and we may need to talk about long term anticiotics.. has anyone had experience with this? thank you!
nicki

similar but different... I had a pick line installed a few weeks ago. I now spend 45 minutes a day giving myself IV antibiotics. So far so good. The redness is subsiding and the swelling is gone. I am scheduling for Hyperbaric treatment to try and fight the osteo radio necrosis = bone death that my jaw is suffering. The really nice thing about the IV is that the meds do not affect my stomach. Good luck to you and your Dad.

I think a lot of us had the drainage problem. I ruined a couple of pillows with that drainage but it quit after a couple of weeks but mostly what helped in my opinion is keeping after it with Aquaphor, 100% Aloe and keeping it clean.

thank you both for your responses.. i think what concerns me most is that the drainage still comes and goes, and he had surgery back in December 2010.. so about 3 months ago.. and now the troubled side, where they took more of the floor of mouth and tongue is irritated and he gets shooting pains, he describes it as the muscle tightening and releasing and very tender to touch..

oh my goodness Ezjim did i read it correctly, you had 24 surgeries? :-(.. so sorry, but very happy you are here with us!

thanks again to the both of you.
nicki

Nicki

It could well be the titanium plates and/or screws reconnecting your father's jaw back together causing the infection. I was on antibiotics for several weeks due to an infection from one of the plates holding my jaw together. The same plate became exposed and was immediately removed by the plastic surgeon. The infection then cleared up within a week or two.

Karen