Gave Up Smoking And Had Swelling On Neck, Given Augmentin And Suggested E Cigarette. Suggest?

Posted on Thu, 26 Sep 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 Answered on

Sat, 19 Oct 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello, I gave up smoking on Monday and on Tuesday my glands started to swell up in my neck, went to doctor and he gave me augmentin. I started them straight away and he also said I could still use a electronic cigarette whilst trying to stop. Its now Thursday afternoon and they are still swollen, what would you recommend? thank you.

Answered by Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi (25 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Hello

Detailed Answer:
Welcome to Health Care Magic

Smoking cause tobacco addiction. Tobacco consists of nicotine and it is a highly addicting substance. It cause dependence and sudden cessation results in withdrawal symptoms. You gave up smoking on Monday and then on very next day developed swelling of glands. You have been advised to take Augmentin. Augmentin is an antibiotic combination and it can improve any infection but it doesnt prevent withdrawal effect.

As augmentin is no resulting in improvement so most likely the infection has been ruled out and we can think tobacco withdrawal as possible reason behind swelling and throat irritation. Commonly tobacco withdrawal manifest as cognitive decline, irritability, insomnia, throat irritation, hoarseness of voice, restlessness etc symptoms.

I would advise you to take Nicotine gums as on required basis and probably this should improve the situation. Once your condition improves with Gums then you can gradually taper the doses.

Second thing you can do is warm saline gargles. The gargles will help to give relief locally.

Hope this helps you, if you have more questions you can ask again.

Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar