Lump in throat from IBS??

friendlygal,

Sorry i can't help with that. You have had a lump for 7 months? Did you talk to your doctor about it? I have had that feeling alot, but i always thought it was the GERD and it never lasted more than a couple of days. Plese, have it checked out.

Good luck and best wishes

It is constant? If it is you should see an ear, nose throat doctor and they can take a look. If it isn't my guess would be backup of acid and gas. Have you tried taking Maalax Max. I find when I get the lump feeling that is one of the few things that helps but I have never had it continuously for that long, just hours at a time. See and ENT Dr. and have them scope it in office.

I find it helps the throat thing for me. It seems that my problems are from acid reflux and mucous forms for some reason. I dont' know worth a try. Didn't the ENT look down your throat at your vocal chords,etc with the scoper.

Have you had your thyroid examined? Sarita recently found out that hers was swollen and over-active and that thyroid problems can cause a lot of GI problems.

Also, have you been tested for allergies? If you have a food allergy, that could be causing both the GI problems and the throat swelling (assuming that's what's making you feel like there's a lump back there). And sometimes regular allergies can cause that sort of problem too, so you may want to try some Claritin or something similar for a few weeks to see if that helps. 'Tis the season for pollen allergies. You can also develop allergies for no reason, so while you used to not be allergic to the cat/dog/bird/rabbit in your house, you now are and don't realize it.

Make sure you get some yogurt or probiotic pills to take while on the antibiotics and for about 3 weeks afterwards to help re-populate the good bactiera in your guts. If your lump is somehow connected to the bad bacterial overgrowth, putting good stuff in there will only help.

Friendly, have you ever had an EGD (upper scope) of your esophagus, stomach, and first part of the small intestine?  Did you ever go on any proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like Protonix, Prevacid, etc. for at least two weeks straight?  The lump-in-the-throat feeling is usually caused by acid reflux, so you might find that a PPI would work for you - even something over-the-counter, as long as it's a long-acting drug. 

Has anyone physically palpated your neck?  Keri was right to ask about thyroid issues; and though it's pretty unlikely that you'd have any thyroid abnormality if your bloodwork was normal, your PCP should make sure that your thyroid is of normal size on palpation...a goiter (enlarged thyroid) can cause a feeling of a lump in the throat.  Hyperthyroidism can a myriad of other issues as well: rapid heart rate, diarrhea, weight loss, insomnia, etc. 

I had my thyroid levels checked three times over the course of my two-year-long illness and only six weeks or so ago was my bloodwork askew.  And it was VERY askew.  So if it's been longer than 6-8 months since you've had your thyroid checked, you might want to get it checked again: you'd need a TSH, T4, and T3 counts at the very least.

Unless they feel something blood work is the way to check Thyroid. I think I asked this before but do you have this all the time. I get it but only when I have acid problems or a lot of gas. Burping releases the pressure but it comes back again. I don't know about the lump in throat being IBS. Never heard that. It sounds as if you doctor is checking every thing they can. I think you said you have seen a ENT doctor also. I bet eventually they will find the cause. Have you had a barium swallow? Just a possibility.

Canyonbabe711, I haven't found ENTs to be helpful at all.  They check me and if they see any inflammation, they just say that I have to go to a GI doctor.

Sarita, I've already been checked for gastroparesis so I know what it is.  I ate radioactive eggs (I brought in two eggs for them to cook).  It came back negative.  I do have a motility problem in the colon, but not in the stomach.

I guess that only for a small portion of people IBS causes GERD-like symptoms and since I have food coming up, it must be keeping the lump their constantly.

I had a barium swallow and the results said "rigorous reflux."  But since the GIs who scoped me saw nothing wrong with my esophagus, they don't think I have acid reflux.  That's why I did the PH testing.  That is done when you're not sure what is going on.

It looks like its possible to be many different things. When I get a lump in my throat, I immediately think that I am getting an infection or the flu. My advice is to definitely get it checked out so you can get to the bottom of it.

Canyonbabe711 said...
I had never heard of Zenkers Diverticulum and now realize that is what my Dad had in is old age and now wonder if I have something like that as I seem to have all the symptoms but not daily. I would guess that that would have shown on your barium swallow though.

At first my symptoms were not daily. Occasionally one of my large pills would get "stuck" in my throat. When I took a vitamin before dinner one night (instead of my usual after dinner) and I felt it until one hour after dinner, I went to the doctor and had my first esophagram. Interestingly, the gastro's first comment was that if food wasn't getting caught, it was probably "nothing." Surprise, surprise -- it was a Zenker's diverticulum. At that point I simply stopped taking large pills and substituted chewables. Eventually, however, I had the lump-in-the-throat feeling, gurgling, etc., . . . and the rest is history.

I agree that it does seem as though it would have shown up on the barium swallow. Depending on when that was done, it might be worth a "repeat performance." When I had an endoscopy after the first esophagram, I was told the Zenker's was "small." Since then I've read that the scope tends to "flatten out" (my term) the Zenker's and make it look smaller.

Post Edited (Judy M.) : 4/20/2007 7:13:37 PM (GMT-6)

Canyonbabe711 said...
I am going to ask my Dr. about Zenker's at my next endo which is coming up. I think hiatals can cause food to regurgitate also. Thanks for the info.

I posted my original message because I had never heard of a Zenker's until I was diagnosed. Many people seem to have problems with pills and/or food, and I can't help but wonder how many have Zenker's and don't know it! OTOH, a Zenker's is only one possibility. It certainly can't hurt to ask a doctor!

friendlygal said...
JudyM, How did you find out that you had Zenker's?

The first "sign" was that I had the sensation that big pills were getting stuck in my throat. When I went to the doctor, he said, "It's probably nothing" because food wasn't getting caught. However, the esophagram showed the Zenker's. At that point I started taking chewable pills instead of any large supplements I was taking (e.g., vitamins, calcium, fiber). about six months later, I felt like I had a lump in my throat. First I went to my internist, thinking maybe it was my thyroid. Finally, I returned to my gastroenterologist (for some reason I thought I should go to him rather than my ENT), he implied that it was stress-related (after all, I also have IBS -- and I'm a woman!!) but ordered another esophagram. When he saw the results -- that the Zenker's had enlarged --  he sent me back to my ENT who sent me to the doctor who invented the endoscopic stapling procedure. Because I'm so crowded, he had to use sutures instead of staples, but I'm all fixed now!

friendlygal said...

JudyM., I HATE when doctors try to blame stress when it's not the only cause for some of us! 

So your first esophagram was normal??  I wonder why!  Was the detection with a barium swallow or an endoscope?

Are the scars from the surgery visible? 

Sorry for all these questions, I'm just really curious now if I have zenker's too, and if I have to have the same procedure...but I was scoped twice so I  probably don't have it.

1. I hate that too. He should have kept his mouth shut and simply ordered the esophagram.

2. No, the first esophagram showed a Zenker's. The gastro then did an endoscopy and claimed that the Zenker's was "small." However, I've since read that the endoscope tends to "flatten out" (my term) the Zenker's, so it might not have been as small as he thought. The barium swallow was actually a better test from what I understand.

3. Okay. The surgery. My situation was extremely unusual. There should have been no scars since the surgery was done endoscopically. Unfortunately, I experienced severe shoulder pain afterward. That could have been for any number of reasons (anesthesia; my CPAP machine, which they put me on right after the surgery . . . or a leak). Because there was a possibility of a leak, the surgeon went in through my neck, so I have a scar that I shouldn't have. BTW, there was no leak, but the surgeon couldn't take that chance.

Even though you "probably" don't have it, it's worth asking about. The worst that can happen is that you'll learn . . . that you don't have it.