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This is my first time using this forum. I had my surgery for fap about 13 years ago and recently had a tightness in the throat and difficulty swallowing. My doctor says that I don’t have any swollen nodes. I just curious to know if any one has had similar problems or if this is just in my head.
It's probably not in your head. Have you ever been scoped down your throat? I've had it done twice and each time my GI stretched my esophagus while down there. It's easier than a colonoscopy but still not fun because I always remain conscious. After I swallowed much better.
Hi Te Marie, I have gastroscope to monitor the gastric gland polyps and the doctor hasn’t seen anything in the esophagus
My 13 year old daughter , who does not have digestive issue at the moment and hopefully never will, was diagnosed hyperthyroid last year and also Graves disease. She has been on a low dose of antithyroid meds called methimazole daily. Her thyroid levels have been in range for over a year and a half but her Graves antibodies (TSI) are still sky high and not sure why?
My mother and sister both have thyroid issues (I think hypothyroid), but I never did until I ended up with stage 3 thyroid cancer in 2015. I ended up with surgery to remove the thyroid (thyroidectomy to go along with my colectomy), and 2 lymph nodes into which the cancer metastasized. I then got 157 millicuries of radioactive iodine to kill the remaining cancer cells. I take 175 mg synthroid daily and it’s like I don’t miss the thyroid at all. My TSH and tumor markers are checked by blood tests every 3 months, all my labs have been good.
The thyroidectomy was a breeze as compared to my colectomy. My scar is very small and barely visible now.
My cancer was detected on an annual physical and my PCP’s manual feeling of my throat in which he detected swelling which I couldn’t see with my bare eyes nor feel. For this reason I recommend annual exams and your PCP should always inspect those throat glands. If the lymph nodes are swollen they will know even if you don’t. The PCP sent me to an ENT doctor who felt my thyroid and immediately felt a “firm nodule” which turned out to be cancer. They did an ultrasound on it and a needle biopsy with aspiration in which tissue is sucked out of the thyroid with a vacuum cleaner type instrument.
BTW prior to surgery my ENT surgeon/olotynarologist did put a NG tube down my nose into my throat to inspect my vocal chords and throat. It brought back memories of the post colectomy Ileus and the dreaded abdominal NG tube, but was not as bad, because it’s a thinner tube and has a camera and just goes down nostril and throat and not into stomach. Not a great experience, but tolerable.
Sophia,
Dah I should have known that! So I am wondering if they did test your thyroid function in a blood test? I don't recall having any problems with my throat, like swallowing, when Hypothyroidism was caught in a routine blood test decades ago.
(I did have a lot of problems with it after my j-pouch surgeries. When changing my dose all the time because of testing results wasn't working they sent me to an endocrinologist.)
Hi everyone and thank you for your replies. I just got my results back from the ultrasound and it looks like there is a dark mass on my right thyroid node and a small .4 cm module within the right isthmus. I’m beginning to wish I didn’t get my copy of the results cause all I have been doing is googling.
Yea, it's like good news that they found out what's wrong but you have a problem 😣 Please let us know what's going on.
Sophia,
My initial ultrasound had a very similar finding. I believe the nodule was .9 cm. I assume they told you the next step is to do a needle aspiration to biopsy the mass? Many nodules are benign and they won’t know until they biopsy it and the pathology comes back positive or negative. Mine was positive for papillary thyroid cancer. You may just have a benign nodule. Let us know what happens. If it’s not benign, thyroid cancer is very very treatable and the treatment isn’t that bad. I have been through it and the worst part is the low iodine diet for like 3 weeks which really sucks.
