Mystery Throat Ailment (Page 1)

Hi my name is carolyn am I think are symptons are very similar. Mine started about 2/3 weeks ago with slight cold symptons and a sore throat. Also coughing and I was taking the usual medications, but I never really developed a cold, but my throat became worser and worser and now i'm beginning to become alarmed. Havent seen a dr yet----no insurance. At times (like now) it seems as if its getting better and then it starts hurting again, hard to swallow, feels as if there is a small sore knot at the back of my throat. I just pray it goes away!!! Let me know how you continue to feel. Better I hope carolynfaye

Hi there! You always have a right to a second opinion! Was that Dr. You went to an ent specialist (ear, nose & throat). Hope this has helped.


And fasholafay, if you or someone you know will call around you should be able to find at least one Dr. Who will arrange payments under certain circumstances.


Sincerely,
sandy

Thanks carolyn and sandy! It helps to know that someone else shares my pain {not that it makes us feel any better!} not having insurance carolyn is no better than having it in my situation! I have insurance that covers 100% and I still can't get an answer or any relief from this pain! The doctor just keeps saying that she doesn't know what is wrong with me. I too have days when I feel better and days when I am miserable! My family is mad at me for being sick all the time! Like I want to be! Carolyn, we have something here in west virginia called a health right free clinic where people with no insurance can go to get treated. I had to go there for 6 years while my husband was out of work. Its not the greatest but it is something. You could call your local welfare office and see if they have something like that where you live.Let me know how you are doing my sisters in pain!

Could be oral thrush. Just a thought.

Does it by any chance seem like the things in this thread?

I wonder if pmarie solved her problem. It sounds like she had a throat infection for months and then she was able to fight it off, but the lymph nodes swelled as a result of the body beating off the infection. Lymph nodes can take a while to subside. The fact that the tonsil is smaller now shows that it was involved in fighting off the infection and now the infection is gone. There nothing that can be done to reduce the swellings except wait. The fact that all the medical tests are negative should be reassuring.

No, I have no new info here. I still have a sore spot in my throat just below my left tonsil. I had an e n t doc look at my tonsils and he said that they were not infected. I found that hard to believe because they had been covered in white spots and swollen. I couldn't get a second opinion because I lost my job and health insurance. So here I sit today still in pain and the lymph node under my left jaw still swollen.

You sound quite a bit like me. I have had a left sided sore throat for 2 years (tonsil stones, took me ages to learn how to get them out, now that side doesn't hurt as much), and now my right side has been sore for months. I can't see any stones, but it looks swollen on the right side, tonsil, etc. I would get the node checked out. It's probably nothing, but could it be mono going undetected, etc.
If your tonsils were covered in white spots, etc, something was up. Find a new ent when you can. Mine is good. At leasts he keeps doing the scopes, seeing me on a regular basis and gives me ideas to help with the pain. Try a waterpick on your tonsils (very gently), gargle three times a day with baking soda and salt, have you tried advil or tylenol (they usually work for me when I can't alleviate the pain).
Anyway, I haven't had any pain for a few days which happens periodically, so i'm going to enjoy. It will come back, it always does for me.
Take care and I hope you are feeling some relief soon.
Michelle

Sorry, pmarie, to hear that you are still having this maddening problem. It is very strange. It's like there's a chronic infection that your immune system isn't eradicating completely--but just keeping in check. One interesting thing about lymph nodes is that I read on the web (dr. Walt stoll) that lymph nodes tend to swell if you touch them (even once according to Dr. Walt stoll--some sort of built-in protective mechanism) and it takes them 6 weeks to shrink again...
One suggestion I thought of--have you tried aerobic exercise? It raises your metabolism and maybe helps fight off lingering infections? Haven't researched this but I just thought of it.

I was a bit more active today, and I notice that when i'm more active I tend to feel better and have more energy.

I can relate--about 2 weeks ago I woke up one morning with my nose running like a faucet for about 3 hours. I even felt it running into my throat, and I remember thinking "oh! Oh! I hope that doesn't start something" strange... Well, it gradually subsided, I went outside and it cleared completely. That evening I suddenly developed a sore throat which got worse quickly and was very painful the next day. I think that the day after that it was so bad that I woke up with a swollen uvula as well. I also noticed that my left tonsil seemed swollen.

I always am aware of the possibility of strep, but I had no fever at all. Well the sore throat cleared up by the third day and the uvula swelling subsided. But the tonsil remained swollen. After about 3 days, I again had a sore throat for a day, and it went away again.

I was touching my lymph nodes on the neck--(a little nervous after finding leukemia 10 years ago like that), and I suspect that I feel one a little swollen on the left side below the jaw as you describe.

My left tonsil remains swollen with no change. The right one is pretty flat and recessed, but this one is enlarged (maybe twice the size of the right one and looks more "bulbous" on top.) it has one little white spot on the top--like it's a bit injured. The right one has 3 white little spots on it. Regarding my tonsils--i noticed about a couple of months or more, ago that I got these mysterious white cheesy things that everybody describes and tries to remove--and I noticed some white spots and thought that I might have some kind of low-level infection. Now there aren't any more of the cheesy things though. I did see one (they are annoying--when they are there I could feel them like something in my throat), but not for the past few days. I also suspect that I am feeling a little bit "sick" like a bit sensitive--like when I have a cold, but it gets better when I eat. I also tend not to sleep as well these days for some reason. I wake up after like 6 hours and can't get into deep sleep again.

I was searching like crazy on the web trying to see what it could be, but it's really hard to tell. I check my fever daily--like twice or three times and it's always a bit less than normal. The swollen tonsil worries me and I check it like 3 or more times a day, but it doesn't seem to change.

I also seem to spit up some green, and today brownish phlegm in the morning--just a bit though, and if I try, a little slightly green or white during the day.

I understand that swollen glands can take weeks to subside.

I think that I have some kind of allergic reaction to something, maybe mold spores from outside, or some viral throat infection that caused my tonsil to swell up. Whatever it is, it appears that it's just lingering and not being cleared up quickly by my immune system.

Very worrying and annoying--never noticed such a thing before...

Tek.

P.S. I'm adding this several hours later in the morning: before I went to sleep, I took the advice I saw somewhere and added baking soda to my salt gargle. I feel better and my mouth feels cleaner. Is baking soda as good for the mouth as for the fridge/freezer? Magic remedy or coincidence?

Hey tek, thaks for talking to me! I know how you feel it is very disruptive to life to live in throat pain every day. As I said before I have lost my job and as a result lost my medical insurance so I was not able to go back to my doctor I usually see. I went yesterday to the free clinic. It is sad that they took better care of me there than my paid doctor did! They put me on a high dose of antibiotic to see if it is an underlying infection and also some allergy meds to see if it is an allergy. If these dont work in 14 days I am scheduled for a scope to look in there {finally}. I makes me very mad that I begged my doctor for a scope for over a year to look in there because I felt something in my throat with my finger, a rock hard mass now, just below my left tonsil.She kept puttng me off.I go to the free clinic and they insist on it. Makes me wonder what good medical insurance is, huh? No wonder west virginia is the highist in the nation for medical malpractice lawsuits!But yeah I am very worried about cancer, cause as I said I can feel a rock hard, almost bony growth of some sort just as far as my finger will reach into my throat.I got desperate is why I jammed my finger in there! I just had to know what was in there hurting! I will try these pills, but I feel that it is something worse. When I gargle there is always some blood that I spit out and I am running a fever now and my blood tests yesterday showed that my liver enzymes were up and that my thyroid is swollen. Who knows! I am so frustrated! Well, gonna go now. I will keep in touch with everyone. Thanks all for sharing your stories and I hope we all are well soon!!!!

Hi pmarie, i'm sorry to hear you are feeling even worse. It's a real shame that there is no national health insurance, a real irresponsibility on the side of the government. I don't think the amount of $ a doctor gets paid has any bearing on their will or ability to diagnose. I doctor won't say "i'm not a very good doctor so i'll go work in a clinic". In fact I think that human nature is that the stupider you are, the more you think of yourself. I have been truly shocked and horrified by how badly informed some doctors are about current medical procedures and erroneus decisions through personal experience. Good thing I tend to do a lot of research myself--thanks to the internet.


Regarding the mass in your throat, lymph nodes can feel rock hard when they enlarge. There are two sets of tonsils--the lingual tonsils which you can see and the palatine tonsils which are located behind the tongue in the back of the throat. I understand there are many lymph nodes in the throat and in the neck.


I believe that elevated liver enzymes and a swollen thyroid can be indications of an infection/virus. If there is some blood in your sputum it could be related to the infection. Not everything is cancer. But since I am going through the same fears and have had leukemia, which really helps one become a hypochondriac, I can believe how terrified you must be.


I truly hope it's really nothing bad and gets resolved soon. Please keep us updated.


Warmest wishes,
tek.


P.S. I made a mistake about that Dr. I mentioned in my previous post--it's Dr. Walt stoll. He is Dr. With 30 years experience who left his medical practice to run a website answering people's questions for free. He hates the medical "establishment".

Ok this is a bit long but it might ring some bells for someone. I have posted a similar piece on some other message boards but this is the most up to date. It sounds like many of us have the same sort of sore throat, pmarie and I are old friends.... :d ok, here goes. I started getting the symptoms about eighteen months ago. Before I go any further I have to say that I was diagnosed with cfs and fibro about fifteen years ago and have had most of the symptoms that go with it, the constant sore throat seems to be the latest. When I got it I had the flu at the time so I thought it was from the flu because it was still sore a week or so later. I went off to the doctor and they gave me some antibiotics, that did no good so they did a swab of the throat to see if there was any bacteria there. All clear there, so they put me on another course of antibiotics but still no joy, in the end they sent me to an ent, ears, nose and throat specialist. He checked down my throat to see if there were lumps to rule out cancer then after finding nothing sent me to a get a scan, a ct scan where they inject you with a warm liquid and then slide you into a machine that takes x-rays, or something like that, of the area they are checking out. That was again to rule out any cancer. Nothing showed up and I still had no answer so I asked to see a second ent specialist and after he examined me he said the other specialist was right that there was no cancer and he thought it was "post nasal drip". Well I have taken the product called "fess" that is to spray up your nose for post nasal drip but again no joy. Since then I have been to two other doctors and they have not offered any other solutions either, it is so frustrating!!!!! I went to the third ent in august and he said he felt I had "reflux" even though I did not have the symptoms for it. He checked up my nose and down my throat with a camera and ruled out any lumps as far as cancer went. I go back to him this month (october) for a follow up, nothings changed so it will be interesting to see what he suggests. Anyway the throat is still very red and inflamed at the back and my voice goes hoarse when I talk more than fiffteen minutes or so, nothings changed. Just before I started having the throat problems I had some teeth extracted from the top and bottom of my right had side because I was getting pain there, my dentist said there was nothing wrong with the teeth but I said take them out because they were killing me. Anyway to cut the story short after they were taken out the pain,although a lot less, was still in my right hand jaw. I ended up going to a oral specialist and he said that the original pain in my teeth was not from the teeth but from fibro myalgia and myofascial pain, which is what I have had for the last fifteen years since I had a motor cycle accident. Now, as you know, when you are sitting there with your throat aching you try and think of things that could of caused it or be causing it. For me I am thinking maybe getting the teeth pulled out caused more damage to the jaw which in turn has irritated the throat, the again maybe this had nothing to do with it. I am only clutching at straws but when you have this pain continuously what else can you do. Have you had any jaw problem? I have tried all the things in alternative medicine books for sore throats but still no relief. I have had some times when the pain is not as intense but it is still there, other than that it is full on and driving me up the wall. Well I am sorry if I went on but maybe if any of you guys recognise something that I am experiencing that you also are going through I would love to hear back from you with your thoughts and if you have had any luck with finding out what is causing yours.
By the way, I would really appreciate any feed back.
Thanks
shane

Hi, I don't have the sore throat but I empathize with you being a test bunny for the medical system and them unable to help you after all of that!
First, I would suggest you get on a nutritional program to build up your immune system. What do you eat?

The aloe vera juice (without sugar) has come highly recommended from a friend who has had throat problems as she is a public speaker.

Wow. It took me a while to find anyone with a problem similiar to mine, and moad seems the closest. I have had a sore throat for 6mos but the last three has been nearly unbearable. My doctor gave me allergy meds, steroid spray, and reflux medicine even though I never have stomach problems. I do feel drainage, though. When the throat pain got really horrible, he sent me to an ent. The ent did a scope and saw thrush. (thanks to the steroid spray!) I went on nystatin, then diflucan. Then I had blood tests to check for allergies and a ct scan. After 3 weeks, I couldn't even sleep or eat so I parked my fanny in the ent's office until he would see me. He did another scope and this time since the thrush was gone, he could see my lingual tonsil was very infected. I went on augmentin and it improved but I have been on augmentin for 30 days and every time i'm off it for a few days, the pain becomes unbearable again. He said I may have to have my lingual tonsils out. They are located back behind the tongue and can only be seen with a scope. Has anyone had this surgery? What causes lingual infections and please tell me how great it is afterwards! I looked back in my charts and found I have been to the doctor 4 times in the last 18mos for my throat. This must've been going on forever! Any help would be appreciated-

Hi I am a pro singer and 3 months ago I experienced over the course of a week severe pains in my throat when singing.This stopped me from working for the past 3mths although the doc said it was acute layrngitis.They put the camera down and said it was all clear as I had feared the dreaded nodules.I'm not the type of singer who puts exessive strain on my voice so I didn't think it would be nodules anyway so I was relieved when they said it was ok.
However I now have this feeling of something in my throat ,a dryness,ache,i find it hard to describe but the doc keeps saying they can't find anything but you know yourself when it just ain't right.I'm extemely worried and upset about this now.I've asked to see another specialist but that could take up to another 3mths and i'm due to go to in austria in january to sing the winter season.My voice keeps breaking down with one thing or another which I believe are connected to the original thing although the doctors won't,can't confirm this.I am able to sing now without the awful pain that brought this all on but there is a constant feeling of something not being right.Also with the austria thing coming up i'm worried that I won't be able to complete the season.
Help

I am so happy I found your posting. I am also a professional singer currently on tour. My role is vocally strenuous however I am a trained singer and never thought I could have developed nodes. I have had this awful soar throat thats been sitting in the back of my throat for the past month. The pain is even stronger when I sing. I went to my ent who told me that my chords are completely clear. Even though I would never want a node, I was so upset that he said nothing is wrong because it just doesn't feel right when I sing. Luckily I am on a break from tour so i've been able to rest for two weeks. However i'm supposed to go back on saturday and I don't know how I am going to sing 8 shows a week again. The worst part is that I don't know if I should get out of my contract when I can't prove that something is actually wrong with me. :( I just don't know what to do!

Hey I replied to your letter yesterday but incase you didn't get it here's a brief summery.
I went to see a specialist last friday and had a camera down my throat again only to be told that everything was fine.I know its not fine and I have had to cancel my winter season in austria so far,i also have a summer season in greece looming and i'm doubting whether i'll be voice fit for that either.It is so unfair,i wonder what would happen if I was someone famous,would they be able to get to the bottom of it then?I even thought of writing to a famous singer and asking for some advice but whether they would reply or not who knows?I may give it a try yet.
Anyway thank you so much for responding to my original note it means a lot to know that there are people out there who truely understand.Its been 5 mths for me now since this horrible thing happened to me and it remains an ache,dryness,a lump in the throat,i'm at a loss as to how to describe it other than it just isn't right.
However I refuse to believe that my career is over and I will find the answers i'm looking for.
I wish you all the best of luck with your own problems and i'm hoping that someone will come along soon and say,"hey I know what that is" instead of some idiot doctor saying "well it looks fine to me maybe its stress,"well excuse me, all I know is that when this happened 5mths ago I wasn't stressed so for gods sake take my word for it,it's an injury of some sort and get to the bottom of it.
I know i'm loosing my mind but you know when you get sick of patronising doctors who just don't listen.Maybe if it was their future on the line they might take a bit more interest.
Sorry again folks but you know what I mean.
Best wishes
mick :cry:

:d

i also have the some of the same problems pmarie has with the constant soar throat the red swollen tonsils and white debree in them. Its called cryptic chronic tonsilitis. And if antibiotics dont help the only thing to do is get your tonsils out. And I too felt the rock hard mass in my in my throat when I stuck my finger down there. I was concerned about cancer but was told its my lymphnodes swollen to try and fight the infection cuz its viral. And antis cant do a thing about it.
Try some boosting of your immune system. Vitamin c pills zinc and magnesium to help. And the antibiotics do more harm them help if your pain does not go away and neither do the symptoms. There is a web site call coqui in winterfalls that has helpfull testimonys from people that have the same problems and had there tonsils out.. I have had this for 3 months and it just wont go away. Also mind over matter the more you think about it the more it just wont go away....

:d

i also have the some of the same problems pmarie has with the constant soar throat the red swollen tonsils and white debree in them. Its called cryptic chronic tonsilitis. And if antibiotics dont help the only thing to do is get your tonsils out. And I too felt the rock hard mass in my in my throat when I stuck my finger down there. I was concerned about cancer but was told its my lymphnodes swollen to try and fight the infection cuz its viral. And antis cant do a thing about it.
Try some boosting of your immune system. Vitamin c pills zinc and magnesium to help. And the antibiotics do more harm them help if your pain does not go away and neither do the symptoms. There is a web site call coqui in winterfalls that has helpfull testimonys from people that have the same problems and had there tonsils out.. I have had this for 3 months and it just wont go away. Also mind over matter the more you think about it the more it just wont go away....