Result #2: Surgery
Okay, got to see the Ears, Nose, and Throat doctor today. In a nutshell, the CT scan showed that my glands are all normal, but it's my lymph nodes that are the swollen. I have a whole series of them in my jaw that are inflamed.
I told him about Kaze and her habit of dabbing her paws into any available water (the water dish, our glasses, the sinks, the toilets, the bathtub, etc.) and licking the water off to get a drink. We've found congealed masses of clumping kitty litter in the bottom of our glasses before, so I brought it up to him and we discussed the possibility of me contracting something from Kaze's little habit.
He wasn't willing to completely agree or dismiss it, since I don't have most of the common symptoms seen in people with those more common infections (e.g. no significant pain, fever, etc.) nor am I in the most at risk groups (e.g. the very young or the very old). But, like I said... he wasn't willing to completely dismiss it either.
He didn't feel a needle biopsy or other non-invasive methods would turn up good enough results, so it's surgery for me. He wants to remove one of the lymph nodes in my jaw and send it to a pathologist for testing. I agreed immediately. It's a short (30 minute) out-patient proceedure... According to him, it'll take me longer to get to the hospitol and for them to prep me than it'll be for him to open me up to see what's going on.
He went over what he would do in surgery with me too. He can't cut right into my jaw, since the major nerve that controls all my facial functions runs in that area too. Instead, he'll go down about 2 inches and place the incision inside one of the natural creases in my neck. Then he'll go upwards and nab the first swollen lymph node he comes to. And once everything is done, I get to go home. =)
In the meantime, all of us have begun using covered cups to drink from to discourage Kaze from doing her thing and have begun trying to make her unlearn her habit everywhere else as well. (Problem being: she's just too damned cute!)
Went over to Poppa's afterwards and I told him what my doctor wanted to do. Since he's under no obligation to remain neutral, he felt Sal's and my hunch was right about us getting sick from Kaze's habit. Afterall, Kaze started her habit just before Sheba came up for her visit and we noticed the swelling sometime in August. It seems more credible than our original thought of catching some elusive bacteria that lives predominately in the southern states and Mexico. Kaze's habit with our glasses is pretty much the only common factor between us, aside from our exposure to Sheba and living in Ionia where it started. But since I'm no pathologist (I'm just a CSI nut who has too many big words playing dodgeball in his head) I'm just going to wait for what they say.
I was partially hoping he'd toss some penicillin or amoxicillin and tell me to come back in when I'd taken all of it, but I had a feeling it was going to be surgery. So... I guess back to praying that it isn't something nasty and that - in the end - it'll just boil down to some medicine and breaking a kitten of a bad (but cute) habit.