Weird feeling in my throat

[laker]

Hey doc let me explain to you my symptoms, About 9 weeks ago I started to feel this sensation of a lump in my throat everytime I would swallow my saliva, which was kind of a weird feeling because it has never happened before. I went to the doctor after 3-4 weeks and he examined the back of my throat and checked my ears, nose and the regular check up but did not perform any other tests on me. He said everything seemed fine and I probably just had an upper respitory infection, he gave me a 7 day course of antibiotics and it seemed to of gotton rid of the infection. SInce then I have quit smoking and it has been 3 weeks. I should probably tell you that when my throat symptoms first happened I had alot of anxiety because I thought that I contracted an std or something from an incidance I had a few months back, but all test proved to be negative so I ruled that out. I read on the internet that there is an anxiety related disorder called globus hystericus or dysphaiga, when your nervous and tense the muscles in the back of your throat start to stiff up making it hard to swallow. Have you ever heard of this? Also another doc that I went to when this first happened looked at me and said that I had a low grade fever and a little of post nasel drip. Can post nasel drip of caused this? Right now its not so bad but occasionally I feel a little soreness in the throat and sometimes the sensation of the lump comes and goes. I just want to know if there is any tests that I should take, maybe for Strep or bronchitis, etc... Do you think its anything serious. Im a healthy male and 24. Thanks

[National Jewish]

Your symptoms are not suggestive of any serious disease and could be globus, secondary to anxiety, or related to post-nasal drip.  If you have any soreness or fever, a throat culture for strep would be appropriate.  Otherwise, you should just await the passage of time.
Postnasal drip is drainage from the nose and sinuses dripping down the back of the throat.  This would explain the mucus that you feel in your throat.  The drainage could be due to inflammation in your sinuses lingering after the infection from which you’ve recovered.  Drinking plenty of fluid will help to thin the mucus so that it moves more easily.  Generally you should be drinking 6 to 8 8-ounce glasses of non-caffeine fluid daily.  Also your doctor will be able to let you know if there are medicines that would be helpful for you.  A nasal wash helps remove mucus from your nose and sinuses.  Please read our Nasal Wash MedFact at http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/nasal.html for more information about this technique.