Did your endoscopy reveal anything? I have this same issue; thyroid cartilage rubs against trachea when swallowing. Dry swallowing produces the symptom, however, food or liquids wont. I believe this is due to the forward pressure of the food when swallowing. Other symptoms include: loss of temperature sensation on the problem side, and of course the friction of the two structures which produce the symptom. I myself have had a CT (w/contrast), Endoscopy, Laryngoscopy; I've seen two different ENTs, an Anatomist, Dentist, Family Practitioner, and one GI doc. The Family doc and Dentist don't know, and the two ENT's and the GI say I'm ok. One tried to refer me to a speech pathologist, but all say time will cure it. Personally, I believe it may be a combination of a few things. 1. Dental work I had done in 2011 has changed my bite, and at night I clench my teeth. 2. My jaw audibly "pops" when eating (people mention it when they're with me), this may be involved with the problem. 3. I started medical school last august, and there is a large amount of stress in my life that wasn't there before. I really don't know... It's annoying, even more so when the diagnosis isn't definitive. I've decided that I may need to see an oral surgeon, so that he can explain exactly whats going on. If you, or anyone else, have any input please respond.
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I have a similar problem as well and have not found any answers from conventional medicine. I have a question for all of you suffering from this issue. It may sound like a foolish question but I am wondering how many pillows you sleep with? Are you a back sleeper or a side sleeper? Over the past three years I have developed a need for sleeping on my back with two pillows to relieve my back pain. This puts my neck in a slightly irregular position by forcing my head forward. I don't have acid reflux so I am wondering if perhaps my sleeping position could be a potential cause of this issue?
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Hi Lulz, yes the endoscopy revealed an area irritated and swollen in my esophagus. The doctor still reaffirmed that she did not see anything cancerous. It still worries me though because now I am starting to have geographic tongue which the doctor said is not related, however it's on the same side of my tongue that the 'lipoma' (that the CAT scan found) is, and I've never had tongue issues in my life before and now I have geographic tongue which appears and disappears in the same place over the course of several weeks.
I asked for a biopsy so I can know for sure. The doctor said she wants me to go for an ultrasound first so that she can get better images of where the lump is exactly because she cannot feel it with her hands and wants to possibly take a bit of tissue from the base of my tongue along with some tissue from the lump to biopsy it to know for sure, however she does keep re-iterating that there are no white patches and I have no fever or other signs of cancer, but also I have lost a lot of weight and don't sleep well (due in part to the stress, but also I'm truly not hungry either).
I had full bloodwork done as well and the only thing out of normal was I had very high eosinophils which typically indicate allergies or possibly a parasite. I did live in a house that had a dog for the last 2 years and I am allergic to dogs, but as of 2 months ago I moved to a new place without animal fur and my allergies have disappeared (along with my sore throat and many other symptoms) but the small lump and click and (supposedly) geographic tongue and weight loss still persist.
Anybody similar to this in any way?
Additionally I usually sleep with 2 pillows under my head, on my side / front (to answer the other posters question). It's been six months since this lump started and it doesn't seem to have changed much or grown (that I can tell) so that's good, but the weight loss is concerning because I'm approaching 'unhealthy thin' type of levels.
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Hello guest, I'm assuming you are j4yd4wg. Have you heard of eosinophilic esophagitis? It matches some of your symptoms, but like I've said before I'm a student, and can't reliably diagnose anything at the moment. Well, maybe a broken arm, I could diagnose that. For the record my "click" is still there, and I'm going back to the ENT soon so he can have another look. I'm essentially saying "see doc, it didn't go away," so hopefully he'll pay closer attention. From what I'm finding unless a doctor specializes in "throat clicking," of which I know none, this is so rare a thing that your average ENT may only see it once or twice in their career. Best of luck, Ill post again after my visit.
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Hi Lulz,
Thanks for the reply. Yep you are right, I replied previously without realizing I was not logged in, so it came out as 'guest'. I will check out eosinophilic esophagitis. Thank you!
My 'click' in on the right side of my throat just above the adams apple, feel like it's between the bottom tongue muscle and my esophagus. Anyway, I noticed if I kind of push two fingers up under my jaw into where the clicking / swollen lump is, and kind of massage it in a circular way, then the click goes away for about 5 minutes. Not sure if this is because of relief of tension or maybe I'm causing temporary inflammation and it just makes it smoother instead of clicking, but anyway, that's my observation.
I'm also trying what I read in another forum which is to try to sleep in a way that it doesn't click and/or touch (no pressure) my throat every time I swallow to prevent it from clicking and maybe the lack of clicking will help the swelling go down…
Ok going to go check out eosinophillic esophagitis. Best of luck on your visit. I will also keep you posted of what I find out.
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Wow I think you may be on to something with the eosinophilic esophagitis! I read up on it and it describes several symptoms which I have also been having which I have not mentioned to my ENT because I assumed they were unrelated, such as occasional skin eczema and schatzki rings.
Additionally I have been wondering lately about gluten intolerance (I know it's the big rage, gluten free, bla bla bla, but if you look into it, most people actually are fine with gluten and you should only try to avoid it if you have proven to have an allergy / sensitivity to it). I have always eaten a lot of bread, pasta, oatmeal, etc and particularly when my click started happening, I was working out and eating a lot of oatmeal to try to gain weight.
I'm going to talk to my ENT about the possibility of eosinophillic esophagitis and see if we can possibly try a short test with corticosteroids to see if it has an effect. I will still go for the ultrasound and probably just get my bloodwork done again since last time it was awhile back and I was still living at the old house with the dog. I'm curious to see now that I am in a dog free environment and my other allergic reactions have stopped, if my eosinophils are still high.
Thank you for making me aware of this possibility! Of course I know that a doctor is the best reference, but sometimes they are uninformed about things and anyway thanks for making me aware of this as a possible cause (whether it turns out to be this or not)!
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Nope not yet. After it originally happening, I started messing with my diet, cut out milk and gluten in case it was being caused by a persistent food allergy (swollen gland or lymph node). Also because my eosinophils continue to be high, (but slightly lower than previously). That didn't help and only gave me vitamin deficiencies / digestive issues (I realized this when other things started happening then I started drinking / eating normally again and quickly got back to normal / only having the click issue).
It does seem to slowly be getting better / less intense and less frequent with me (knock on wood). I believe the issue for me was allergies as I have since moved from a house that had a lot of dust, a dog, etc to a house that is much clear, newer and no animals.
Mine started (as Jarret mentioned) while I was sleeping, so I think it may be related to sleeping / blood flow too, also I know I'm a deep / heavy breather when I sleep, though I'm a thin guy, I've always had asthma or allergies since I was a kid, and I think the combination of a dusty house / dog hair and then my deep breathing when sleeping, set off some kind of lymphatic inflammation or chronic allergies or something. Anyway it seems to be getting better. The best advise that has worked for me so far is to get a hepa air filter, try to really make your sleeping environment as clean as possible, get a full night's sleep every night, eat a healthy balanced diet, and take a once-a-day multi-vitamin and just try to give your body the resources it needs to get back to normal, then be patient (it's taken about 2-3 months or me but it is getting better not worse).
But of course everybody is different and the best advise of all is to get it thoroughly investigated by one or more doctors / get scans / get blood tests / etc.
j4yd4wg
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i have the same disease too.i dont know its right or not but i read somewhere that injecting botox or surgery can cure that.
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Same problem plus trouble speaking. I have the strange feeling a muscle is pulling my throat on left side. Sometimes I can't pronounnce correctly some words like 'task'. Reflux and talkibg made it worse. This desease it's with me from 20 years and literally ruined all my life.
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Oh my god, thank you soo much. I've been having this for a while, and your cures are a good temporary fix, even if doctors can't figure it out. As soon as I turned my head to the right, after stretching for a few seconds, I had a huge reflux episode, but the pressure on my larynx decreased significantly. I have been so worried about this because the sensation was so foreign, I couldn't tell if the pressure was coming from my throat or my bronchial tubes. I admit to occasionally over-analyze wayy too much, but it honestly made me think it was going to affect my breathing while I slept or something horrible like that.
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