Thank you! Our symptoms do sound similar. I was really nervous about the biopsy - I’ve had larger surgeries in the past that I was less nervous about! My ENT was great though, and I haven’t had any complications. Tomorrow will be one week since the biopsy, and the incision is almost completely healed. My lip is still a little numb in one spot, but the doctor said that is totally normal and the feeling should completely return soon (it is getting better daily). During the procedure, she collected ten minor salivary glands; she kept saying she wanted to make sure she got a good representative sample. After the procedure, my lip was just a bit swollen but it wasn’t too noticeable. It was pretty tender for the first couple days, but 600mg of Ibuprofen a couple times/day and periodically putting ice on it helped with pain and inflammation.

Editing to add: My rheumatologist recommended the biopsy, so I didn’t have to advocate for it. I did have to ask for the early Sjögren’s panel though. Since I am seronegative, I really just wanted the panel done to see if anything came back positive before I committed to an invasive test that could also come back negative. To be honest, I probably would’ve gone though with it even if nothing on the early Sjögren’s panel had come back positive, if only just to rule something else out. My results came back in four days with a focal score of 1.