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Throat issues, very concerned.

11/05/2008

Question:

For the past couple months, my throat has been acting really weird. These issues would happen on and off. Halfway down my throat, near the adam`s apple, I get this weird pain. It`s not “sore”, it doesn`t feel like anything is stuck in my throat, it`s just some pain. It`s not unbearable, but more annoying. It feels a bit irritated. Sometimes it would be on the right side, sometimes on the left.

Another thing that happens, which has been happening for about the same amount of time, I would get this weird sensation in the back of my mouth/tongue/throat. It`s kind of like a prickly feeling. Like I`m being LIGHTLY poked with thousands of needles. Not painful, just uncomfortable. When this happens, sometimes my jaws will ache a little, and under my ears. Other times, I will get a mild (but very annoying) sharp pain that shoots from my mouth/tongue/throat up through my jaws to my ears.

A week ago last friday, I had a little “episode” what what I described in the above paragraph. The next day, I started getting an ear ache in my right ear. Some of my family had strep throat. My ear ache continued, after a couple days, my throat started hurting real bad, like an actual sore throat (I assumed I got the strep). A day or two later, the sore throat pretty much went away, but still felt scratchy. The ears still ached, but felt mostly like pressure. The pain in my throat got worse though, and stayed on the right side. This past Saturday, still having ear pressure/ache, and throat pain. I also started getting a bit of tightness in the right side of my chest, below the collar bone. But it wasn`t bad. I also started getting this pain the the middle-right of my back. I felt my neck to see if I could feel any swelling or lumps. It did feel like something was a bit swollen on the right side of my neck, right by my throat. So, I decided to go to the E.R.

The doctor ran a blood test, urine test, chest X-Ray, EKG (because of the chest tightness), swabbed my throat for strep and mono. All came back fine (so no strep). He looked in my nose and back of my mouth and seen that it was red. Later, he sent a nurse in to give the results, and she said he couldn`t come up with a diagnosis, so he`s just going to put it down as an Upper Respiratory Infection. He gave me prescriptions for antibiotics, motrin, and cough syrup (which I didn`t need since I have no congestion, coughing, etc). He referred me to a doctor, which I will be calling.

But he just went on my current sore throat, but not the long term problem I had, which was my main concern. I`m worried I could have throat cancer, or something similar. I know you cannot give a diagnosis, but I would just like to know if there`s other things that could be causing all this. Any help would be appreciated.

BTW, I`m a 27 year old smoking male.

Thanks in advance.

Answer:

If these symptoms persist for 3-4 weeks you should see an ENT doctor.

For more information:

Go to the Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders health topic.