Could be...I have Hashi's and I had nodules and inflamation, I was getting hoarse and having swallowing issues, since we removed the thyroid, all symptoms have gone away. My swallowing difficulties were when I would take a bite of food it would get stuck near the base of my neck, then I would get rapid hiccups and feel like choking until I swallowed water to flush it down. I am a singer, so hoarseness was not good, I had a lobectomy to remove three nodules on the right side, hoping I could keep the left, but they found cancer, so the other side was removed, too. I am awaiting ablation with RAI 131. But after they removed the three nodules and the right side, I did not have the swallowing thing. I have not really tried to push my voice lately, but it all looks good so far.
Did they find your nodules with an ultrasound or something else? I was just wondering if I should look into this farther as the difficulty swallowing is getting harder. I could barely swallow my dinner last night as it took almost 4-5 swallows per peice to get it down and then I woke up this morning and I can barely speak!!
Nodules were found in 2001 in an ultrasound, we watched them for years. I started feeling crappy back in November of last year, so they investigated further. The recurrent laryngeal nerve is a nerve that controls your vocal chords, and IT RUNS THROUGH YOUR THYROID. If there is anything pressing on it, like a nodule...you will get hoarse, inflamation could also cause it. The swallowing could be because of the nodules. My issue was I would swallow food and it would get "stuck" at the base of my throat (right where the thyroid was) and I would get rapid massive hiccups until I could take in enough water and flush it down (that hurt). I would get hoarse after a 3 hour rehearsal, and if I was really tired at night, I would be hoarse the next day. One day I was really tired but fine when I went to bed, I woke up hoarse and it lasted for 5 days...that was when I decided I needed to have surgery. By the way, they did not find cancer IN the nodules, it was in the thyroid tissue itself.