I'm on a quest (like many of you), with my doctor, to narrow down possibile causes of some symptoms I've been having. I'd appreciate any thoughtful input from those who may have experienced similar.
I'm a 45-yo male. I've had excellent health all my life - just Hay Fever is my only chronic condition and it's subsided some with age.
About 4 months ago, it felt like I had a small canker sore near my gum next to my furthest back tooth in the upper right. At the same time, for about 3 eeks, I found I couldn't close my jaw completely on that side. The severity came and went for those 3 weeks but it eventually totally subsided. This was in February (winter).
A few weeks later I started to feel like I had a lump in my throat. It felt like it was right below my Adam's Apple. This is a classic sign of Globus Pharygneus. And it did indeed have that feeling you get in your through like when you are nervous. This feeling has persisted for 4 months now and at times it has subsided somewhat to almost being unoticeable but has not subsided the last 6 weeks. Note that I was going through a divorce so stress/anxiety is definitely a potential cause.
However, in general, one knows one's own body pretty well. During this time I had feeling of moderate fatigue and tiredness (could be from the stress/anxiety.) But the divorce concluded in a satisfactory way and symptoms still persisted.
In additon, during most of the 4 months, at times my lymph nodes in my neck and jaw area have felt inflammed to the point I had a 4-day period I could barely turn my neck it hurt. It subsided, but I've noticed it recurs. I also had local pain in other areas of my body at times where other lymph nodes are located. However this is happening as I entered allergy season but antihistamines did not help eleviate it. This was also accompanied by headaches that felt like the top of my head and sinuses were in pain, like tension headaches eminating from my neck.
I've run blood tests and they all came back normal, although we didn't do a TSH test to see if I have subclinical hypothyroidism. This seems unlikely though, although I do have elevated cholesterol.
I took antibiotics to rule out any sort of infection, and it made no difference.
I've noticed that I've had a moderate dull ache in the tooth near where I felt like I had a sore at the beginning of all this. It would seem to me if I had a mild tooth infection that was inflamming my lymph nodes in my neck, giving me the fatigue and the lump feeling, the antibiotics would temporarily eleviate that by fighing the tooth bacteria, maybe not. I'm off to the dentist for xrays next but the tooth pain is very infrequent, very mild, and not getting any worse. I do still have my Wisdom teeth because I had 4 permanent teeth pulled when I was young to make room for braces but the dentist a year ago did recommend I get those back teeth removed as they will most likely cause problems down the road. Maybe his prediction is coming true?
At this point after two trips to the doctor with no diagnosis and lots of readying, my best guess is that it is indeed some sort of low-grade tooth infection (would explain the cause of almost all symptoms) or lymphoma. But both doctors said my lymph nodes were palatable but not that large or that hard. One also said that typically, to be honest, they can't make a diagnosis in about 50% of all patients they see! Maybe I just need to deal with getting older and not having perfect health, relax, and learn to live if a few oddities. lol.