Hi all. I'm 35, somewhat overweight, Asian heritage and male.
I'm currently dealing with chronic rhinitis of an unknown cause. I haven't had the allergy test yet, ENT wants me to take it at some point but Flonase has been keeping it at bay.
Of course, I thought I could get off Flonase for a few weeks once I felt better, and when I did, it was ok for a week, then got worse. This was in early September. A day after that I woke up with an extremely sore, hoarse, scratchy throat with a feeling of phlegm. There was pain on the left side of the throat (where the tonsils are) and it felt like there was something there - like mucus or phlegm. The next day I woke up feeling like there was something hard there - like a rock or a piece of rice stuck around my tonsils, but wouldn't go away. I went to a MinuteClinic that Saturday and the RN said she didn't see anything on my tonsils, but she said my throat was "very red". She gave me a nasal spray for when it gets really bad and told me to take the Flonase I have.
The lump in my tonsils feeling spread to the right side a few days after that, then a couple weeks later it went away, but now for the past week it's back again.
It's been a month since that and that feeling is off and on, and it almost always comes back to the left tonsil side. I also suspected I might have GERD, saw a GI and I'm going to have an endoscopy in 2 weeks. Read up on GERD and a lot of the symptoms I'm dealing with seems to be a side effect of that too.
Obviously Dr. Google said it might be this or that, but I am trying to remind myself that despite my weight, I'm in a low risk group. Seems like African Americans have the highest risk, and that this is more common in people 65 and older, though males have a higher risk. I don't work in any high-risk jobs where I expose myself to fumes for a long time, I don't drink, I don't smoke (though I drink a lot of soda), and I'm fairly young, but my irrationality is getting to the better of me. I know throat cancer is not an on-off thing and that it progressively gets worse very rapidly according to Dr. Google.
I got this sore/dry/hoarse throat feeling awhile back in March/April when my rhinitis was pretty bad, but then it went away, again - rationally I know this most likely means it's something related to my rhinitis but the healthy anxiety just won't listen. Right now my rhinitis has gotten *really really* bad (eyes keep tearing up), and I'm wondering if all those sinus infection-like symptoms is moving down to my throat, and that being coupled with my GERD could be causing things to feel worse than they already are.
Does anyone have any experience with that "rock/lump/mucus on the back near the tonsils" feeling in their throat? No matter how much I clear my throat it feels like no mucus is coming out and it's infuriating. Has anyone had to deal with GERD at the same time as this?
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