my mucocele story (identification, removal, and recovery)

    I decided to share my mucocele story with this site since this site was pretty helpful to me whenever I had one.  I was 19 attending college about 3 hrs away from home.  Around February/March '10 I bit my lip while eating, and it bled a little bit and swelled up a little.  No big deal, I thought it would heal in a few days tops. A few days later, a fluid-filled bump formed.  I had NO clue what it was, but obviously it had to be something to do with the lip bite.  I figured it would pop on its own or go away or something but it continually just got abnormally larger and larger. (my surgeon said they are usually the size of a pea, but mine was the size of a gumdrop!..the largest he's seen in 5 yrs!)  After weeks and weeks it still never drained and I just kept biting it accidentally and it was even getting in the way of talking. Mine was so big and hideous that I was becoming self-conscious to even talk in class.   In April I decided that I should probably go to the college health clinic to get this ugly annoying thing at least identified and hopefully drained. So I went. And it cost me a $40 visit for her to tell me "oh, well that's a mucocele" and that I HAD to go to an oral surgeon. She said that's the only treatment since the thing is caused by trauma to a saliva gland. The gland and surrounding glands need to be surgically removed, otherwise it will come back if you drain it yourself. (That's why I didn't bother with any ointments or creams).
   
    So I went to the surgeon.  I was nervous about the surgery after reading this site and hearing others' stories about asymmetrical lips and constant numbness and whatnot, but I really didn't have a choice. Anything was better than what I had going on.  He gave me 3 local anesthetic injections and from there I don't know exactly what he did, but I know he cut into that thing and it drained...a lot.  In the process he hit a feeder vessel in my lip and I guess it sprayed some blood and he had to solder that, and the burning flesh smelled gross. Overall, the surgery went very well. Kudos to Dr. Pliske. Anyway he ended up giving me about 8 dissolve-able stitches (normally it should be about 3), gave me an extra anesthetic injection, ice pack, and prescribed me painkillers. 

After the anesthetic wore off (before I got my pills) was the only pain I felt, which just felt sore, like I got punched in the face or something.  After the first day, I didn't even really need the painkillers.  The stitches got in the way of eating sometimes and they felt weird and annoying.  It hurt to laugh and smile for a few weeks as it was healing,  but eventually the stitches dissolved.  I went in for a checkup and the surgeon said that it looked great.  Scar tissue formed and the inside of my lip had a funny numbness feeling for about 2 weeks.

  4+ or so months later, all I have left is a scar that is about 1" long on my inside lip.  I don't even notice it, but I can feel the tough tissue only when I feel it with my tongue.  Cosmetically, you can't tell anything from the outside, and even I can't tell a difference.  The only thing is for a while, when I stretched my lip out in a 'putting chapstick on motion' it looked like my lip was really, really thin in that area, but now, it doesn't look that way.  Next month when I go back to school, I'll go in for another visit.  My doctor said sometimes a tiny bubble forms due to how they stitch it (they stitch it with excess tissue so there's enough tissue to heal and stretch so it won't be tight).  They can just laser those off he said, but luckily I don't see anything like that.

I couldn't have asked for a better surgical/treatment/healing experience considering how abnormally large mine was.  In case anyone was wondering, my total cost of the surgery was $700, before filing with the insurance.  However, that might be on the higher side, considering I received quite a few injections and stitches.  I know this is a long entry, but I hope the details helped some people with some of their questions!  I know I had a lot and not many people update after the surgeries.  I would've put pictures up, but I can't figure that out. haha  Good luck, all!