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Giant lump at the very top of my throat. Help or advice?
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: 4 days ago | Replies (37)Comment receiving replies
@bruizersmom, thank you for explaining all of that. You really have worked through a series of options—removal and biopsy, medication for the pain, the mouth guard to protect the area—and now you’re waiting to see what the hospital surgeon thinks about both the non-healing area and the second lesion.
I’m glad you shared the coughing and choking sensations you have in common with @brcc, because it shows how similar symptoms can sometimes have very different causes. In your case, you know there is an actual lesion, while @brcc originally described the sensation of a lump while trying to understand what was causing it. @brcc had reached the point of seeing ENT and was heading to GI when we last heard from her.
You mentioned that you’re not sure the surgery they’ve discussed will even be possible once they see both areas. Has anyone talked with you about what the next step might be if another surgery isn’t recommended?
I also noticed on your profile that you live with Parkinson’s. With the coughing and choking you’ve described, has anyone on your care team evaluated your swallowing or talked with you about whether that could be contributing?
Replies to "@bruizersmom, thank you for explaining all of that. You really have worked through a series of..."
@jlharsh I've gone thru the swallowing tests and associated therapy. The lump-in-the-throat feeling isn't related to either Parkinson's or to a swallowing disorder; this is exactly what @brcc mentioned, a clogging in the throat, down by the adam's apple which feels like it's choking me and the automatic response is a deep, gutteral, loud forceful cough (Imagine your uncle or dad doing what we called Hocking a loogie. Absolutely gross, and followed by spitting out a wad of goo) I was just telling her that she may get an ENT response she doesn't want: there's nothing wrong. Exactly what I got. While the surgery at Yale's cancer face-and-throat center giving me another biopsy which was cancer-negative, I now had a bigger open wound. It was this cough I just described which cannot be stopped with a cough-suppressant that set back my healing! Just days after going home with instructions to forget the oral paste, miracle mouthwash and topical lidocaine and switch to saltwater rinse I coughed. Just ONCE. This was enough to undo all the healing I'd done.
So far no ENT or GI or PCP had been able to say what that choking feeling is all about, and is not in eachs field of expertise. If @brcc gets an answer, I'm all ears!
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@jlharsh, yes, I've been to an ENT, yes I've been sent by one of my neurologists for an endoscopy plus I've worked with a therapist on my 'swallowing' problem.
I do have a problem sometimes, mostly when taking my meds. Bear in mind, when having thqt therapy I was unaware of the lesion which sometimes catch pills, so I accepted that this was a minor problem, shown by a recorded barium swallow test. Everyone thought this was what they saw from test pictures, but now I'm guessing that they couldn't see the lesion if it was there.
Now it's more than swallowing - it's pain, instant response (autonamic?) of gagging, instant urge to vomit, which I actually do on occasion, and yes, I've had my smallest pills lodge atop the post-removal site.
Also, @brcc and I have the same sensation. When I swallow anything, even lukewarm water, it feels like a lump in my throat, but when I palpitate the area, it's actually a swollen area (lump, if you will) not in my throat, but actually a swollen area at the gag-line of the soft palate. Even before the removal of the 'unhealing wound' as the surgeon called it I had the lump-in-the-throat feeling... .. it's just now bigger, larger, touchably swollen, more pronounced, and painful.
I am taking meds for acid reflux, am under the care of a motility-specialized GI who is familiar with Parkinson's. My neurologist handling my Parkinson's is a Movement Disorders Specialist and refers me to others for any PD symptoms other than balance, walking, etc.
At this point I eat very little since everything is so painful - my mouth, my neck, my teeth, my ears all react to swallowing! Cold is bad. Hot is bad. Lukewarm? yes, bad. Everthing is a mind over matter thing.
@brcc and I share the weight loss, nausea, 'lump', and pretty importantly I was drawn to the 'thick mucus' and 'hawking'. I've been taking guafinesin for over 20 years, yet I still was 'hawking', that deep noisy sound that a guy would call 'hawking a loogy'. There's no feeling of it coming from the lungs but rather from deep in the esophagus, and I also spit out little squishy but solid yellow-green things which smell of rot if they're crushed. Someone on my PD forum called this tonsil stones and later I took a look and ther it was a sone on my tonsils. Of course there was nothing stuck there when I saw either of the two ENTs.
This morning I finally got the phone call and I'm scheduled for a pre-lim visit with a surgeon on 10/09/26 at the Yale-New Haven Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, CT.