Feeling of lump in throat, swollen glands, throat/jaw aches in different places

[JSElliott]

Hi, hoping to get some insight here, because I'm really afraid.
It all started about three months ago with a feeling of a lump in my throat. Not an actual lump, but the feeling of one, right below where my adam's apple would be (I'm female though). I'd feel it on and off through the day, sometimes not so bad, and sometimes very noticeable. When I eat or drink anything it gets better though, the feeling of the lump goes away. Just a few weeks later, I began to feel an aching in the right side in one of my glands, about an 1 - 1 1/2" down from where my jaw line is. Soon after that I felt the gland swell, it feels round and squishy and I can sort of roll it around. From that point, the aching basically stopped at that location, and I started feeling aching just under my ear. The aching comes and goes. I noticed after that I could feel the gland, but this gland feels different, it feels a little harder and less moveable, although I can move it a tad. I also started to feel aching in the same point under my left ear, but I cannot feel any sort of swollen gland there. From that point I got sick, lasted a weekend, had a mild sore throat, was tired, and at one point I coughed up some white mucus, which greatly relieved the feeling of the lump in my throat.
Everything seemed to get better for a little while, but then the symptoms came back (and the swelling of the glands stayed, had never left). I went to the ENT, he felt everything and confirmed the gland in my neck was swollen (cervical node), and put a little tube through my nose to check my throat. Said he could see no sign of anything wrong, but he did prescribe amoxicillan for seven days in case of an infection. I took them, felt like I was getting slightly better, but then they seemed to stop working, and I have the same feelings. In addition to this, I have developed pain in my different areas of my throat. Sometimes it seems to ache under my neck and jaw, sometimes in the front of my throat, and the achiness seems to get worse as the day progresses, I will often feel a lot of pressure by my ears, a headache on the right side, feels like my ears pulse sometimes, achiness all in neck. I don't have any sort of fever and generally feel ok otherwise, no cough, can't seem to bring anything up when I try to clear my throat, sometimes my throat feels ever so slightly sore, but it's hard to pinpoint.
I've been doing a lot of research, finding things on GERD (but I don't have any heartburn), and LPR (but can't figure out why my glands would be swollen because of this or the achiness up near my ears), and a thyroid problem (but still can't figure out why gland in neck would be swollen, and I don't feel any sort of lump where the thyroid would be).
Please help, any insight would be greatly helpful. I'm scared beyond belief, getting married next week and have postponed having a CT scan (doctor said that would be the next step if antibiotics didn't work) because of the fear.
Please help.
Thank you.

[meghanald]

I have almost identical symptoms. I see that you posted this almost a year ago. Were you able to figure out what was wrong?

[JSElliott]

I really appreciate your help. I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about the types of swollen glands you were dealing with, and if there was an achiness to them - I feel an achiness in them, or maybe it's the glands pressing on something in my neck, I'm not really sure. But certainly worried.

[Smiley2000]

Hi there,

I hope I can help you today.  I have been battling with my throat, that all to familiar lump feeling, clearing the throat, neck and jaw pain and swollen glands and I even had voice issues since 2009 and eventually got diagnosed with Chircopharengeal muscle dysfunction.

I used to sing on a freelance basis (Old-age homes were my favourite!) and then my voice coach noticed that I could not reach my normal ranges and I had a consult with ENT that noted my pharynx and larynx (voice box) had acid damage.  Well, long story short:  I had severe GERD issues but had Nissen fundo surgery but it did not solve my ENT issues.

In the meantime I've had an Otolaryngologist looked into it and he started me on meds (Endep and Diazapam) but I could not function on it and it did not work.  I then had some botillium injections into the Chrico muscle and I consulted a Speech Pathologist that gave me exercises to do.  That made a significant difference in the quality of my voice and I do Sing Australia now :)

If you read up on Chricopharengeal muscle dysfunction then you'll realize that you don't necessarily get it from severe GERD, you sometimes just have it for no real reason.

I would recommend that you see a Speech Pathologist as the exercises will help.  The type of exercises that I do:  yawns with a lot of technical direction and stretches of the tongue against my front teeth. Worse thing to do:  clear the throat!  try not to do that and drink lots of water.

You may benefit from these exercises and some more tests may be needed.  

Don't worry to much about things now:  get married and then focus on getting a diagnoses.  It rarely is life-threatening or cancerous or glands of any concern.

Please let us know how you are doing.  All the best!