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sneezed hard, mass appeared in my mouth

I've been sick for about 10 days with a lingering cold and cough -- not a big deal except in the last couple of days, instead of feeling gradually better, I'd started feeling progressively worse again -- very fatigued and "sick feeling" although the cold symptoms just seemed to be a lingering cough and an occasional need to blow my nose. In other words, it didn't seem to make sense that I was feeling so ill, because the cold symptoms were mild.

By this evening I was feeling terribly sick again, like I just wanted to lie on the couch. Definitely not normal! This evening I sneezed once pretty strongly, and all of a sudden I felt kind of like I was "choking"/gagging on something (hard to describe the location) on the "ledge" so to speak between the back of my nose and the upper/back of my throat.

I kind of "gagged it out" and it was a foul-smelling mass, more or less spherical, whitish and fatty looking, the diameter of a nickel. At first I thought it was mucus but it seemed much more solid than that. It also had what looked to be a thin "stalk" on one side, about half a centimeter wide, which looked pinkish and bloody. There was a faint pinkish tinge to that whole area.

It was so repulsive that I flushed it away down the toilet and spent a long time brushing my teeth, washing my hands, gargling. Now I'm wondering what it was. It seemed to come out of nowhere -- I hadn't had a stuffy nose or anything. And there doesn't seem to be any drainage (well no additional drainage -- I'd been having a bit of postnasal drip with the lingering cold symptoms, which seems to have continued).

I have a lingering "bad smell" in my nose and mouth that seems resistant to brushing and gargling. I'm just wondering what the heck this was and what if anything I should do. Never seen anything like it.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello and hope you are doing well.

Your symptoms of bad foul smell in the nose and the secretions could be due to sinus infections. They are due to stasis and infection of the sinus cavities, and the resultant drainage into the nose causes the bad smell. Facial pain, fever and nasal discharge are the other symptoms of sinusitis. You will need to consult your primary care physician for proper assessment. In the meantime practice good breathing exercises, humidify your room and do steam inhalations.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
Have you ever had a nasal polyp?  Kind of sounds like it might be one, because they have that stalk thing.  I also once read about a guy who was doing a yoga move that involved the face, and out of his nose came a spongy mass about the size of a pink pearl eraser, and he bled hard for about 10 minutes, and then it was all done.  Turned out it was a cancerous tumor, and *all* came out, none was left behind, he was cancer-free.  

But my guess would be a polyp.  Talk to your doctor or an ear, nose throat doc.
Helpful - 0
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