Strange lump in throat, Opiate related??

[UpdownUP]

Hey guys, TDS seems right for this...

I've been a heroin user for several years, been clean for 6 months or so until recently when I started using pills again, IV mscontin, iv oxy, and insuffulating oxy also...

Now, this has never happened before, but I have a really strange feeling in my throat, similar to having a pill or something stuck (almost certainly isn't something stuck) It's very low down and I've been experiencing a sharp pain just above my stomach..It feels difficult to swallow food and drink, just like it's blocked a bit. There's no sore throat, no excess mucus, or any other symptoms...

I've done some googling and I have found a few threads and discussions related directly with opiate use, but many conclude with it being 'panic' which is certainly seems unlikely, it's there constantly, straight or not... It's been ongoing for over a week, and I have been taking a lot of binders in, although every injection has been well filtered through cotton and a wheel filter...

Has anyone had or known anyone with an experience akin to this, it could well be unrelated, but it all seems a bit coincidental....And I'll admit, I am a touch concerned now...

Regard, and thanks in advance....

 

[Symmetrical Daze]

Opioids decrease the activity of certain smooth muscle, so possibly the throat clearing cilia could be my guess, I currently have a strange lump I can't cough out, but wondered if it was from insufflating methylphenidate. Maybe stuff like mouth plaque has built up in pockets of your throat. But if it persists I'd see a doc.

I've coughed up lots of white balls while on opioids, but then again before opioids too, maybe its a normal thing, not sure.

 

[medicus]

The long and the short of it is that you won't get good medical advice from a forum.

You have loosely described a single symptom. Nobody can diagnose you from that. If they think they can, then you shouldn't be taking medical advice from them.

"I never saw fool yet that thought himself other than wise" - Sir Thomas Moore (I love that quote).

It doesn't sound like anxiety. It could be something completely unrelated to drug use or it might be some kind of damage to nasal mucosa. Either way, if you're worried, you need to go an see your doctor.

You could try gargling and gently flushing your nose with warm 0.9% saline (available from any drug store/supermarket) while you wait for the drs appointment.

 

[UpdownUP]

The long and the short of it is that you won't get good medical advice from a forum.

You have loosely described a single symptom. Nobody can diagnose you from that. If they think they can, then you shouldn't be taking medical advice from them.

"I never saw fool yet that thought himself other than wise" - Sir Thomas Moore (I love that quote).

It doesn't sound like anxiety. It could be something completely unrelated to drug use or it might be some kind of damage to nasal mucosa. Either way, if you're worried, you need to go an see your doctor.

You could try gargling and gently flushing your nose with warm 0.9% saline (available from any drug store/supermarket) while you wait for the drs appointment.

I'm not after medical advice, just other situations, it's always helpful if someone who gets up to similar recreational activities as me may turn around and say, 'yes I had that once, it just went away', or 'I needed a throat transplant' ya know? lol

It's not concerning me enough to see a doc, besides I can't really rock in there and tell them the truthful course of events that transpired prior to my noticing a peculiar lump in my throat.

Like you say, chances are it's completely unrelated, it's just that a quick google search indexed with the word 'oxy' lead me to a few threads (none of which where helpful, hence my own)
I struggle with coincidence, and for the first time in my life, I have a reason to look after myself....

 

[14036]

This syndrome results from a spasm in the cricopharyngeus muscle. It is a self limiting disorder that will resolve on its own.

Symptoms
Lump in the throat sensation

feels like a golf ball, tennis ball, fur ball... is stuck in my throat
feels like my tie is too tight
feel like I am being strangled
my throat feels swollen
The symptoms can be mimicked by pushing on the cartilage in the neck just below the Adams apple.
The lump comes and goes depending on the day.
Symptoms are usually best in the AM and worse later in the day
Stress aggravates the symptoms.
Saliva is difficult to swallow yet food is easy to swallow.
Eating, in fact, often makes the tightness go away for a time.
The symptoms are similar to getting choked up at a wedding or a funeral.
Physiology 101
There are two valves in the esophagus or swallowing tube. They are normally lightly contracted and they relax when you swallow, so that food can pass through them going to the stomach. They then squeeze closed again to prevent regurgitation of the stomach contents. If the normal contraction becomes a spasm (like a charlie horse of the calf muscle) these symptoms start. Stress often makes these spasms much worse. Many people have experienced neck tightness when stressed and this is similar. Even if not caused by stress, stress will make the spasm much worse. Relaxation in many forms (from alcohol to meditation) may improve the symptoms.


[B]An exam of the neck and throat is extemely important to eliminate serious problems. In fact, it enters most peoples minds that a lump in the throat might be a cancer. In practice, real lumps in the throat, such as a cancer are not felt. It is one of the reasons that a cancer can get so big before it is discovered. It probably is fortunate that we don't have great sensation in the throat as we would then feel every particle of food, with every meal as it travels down the throat. So lacking great sensation in the throat, problems are a little mysterious there.

 

[UpdownUP]

This syndrome results from a spasm in the cricopharyngeus muscle. It is a self limiting disorder that will resolve on its own.

Symptoms
Lump in the throat sensation

feels like a golf ball, tennis ball, fur ball... is stuck in my throat
feels like my tie is too tight
feel like I am being strangled
my throat feels swollen
The symptoms can be mimicked by pushing on the cartilage in the neck just below the Adams apple.
The lump comes and goes depending on the day.
Symptoms are usually best in the AM and worse later in the day
Stress aggravates the symptoms.
Saliva is difficult to swallow yet food is easy to swallow.
Eating, in fact, often makes the tightness go away for a time.
The symptoms are similar to getting choked up at a wedding or a funeral.
Physiology 101
There are two valves in the esophagus or swallowing tube. They are normally lightly contracted and they relax when you swallow, so that food can pass through them going to the stomach. They then squeeze closed again to prevent regurgitation of the stomach contents. If the normal contraction becomes a spasm (like a charlie horse of the calf muscle) these symptoms start. Stress often makes these spasms much worse. Many people have experienced neck tightness when stressed and this is similar. Even if not caused by stress, stress will make the spasm much worse. Relaxation in many forms (from alcohol to meditation) may improve the symptoms.


[B]An exam of the neck and throat is extemely important to eliminate serious problems. In fact, it enters most peoples minds that a lump in the throat might be a cancer. In practice, real lumps in the throat, such as a cancer are not felt. It is one of the reasons that a cancer can get so big before it is discovered. It probably is fortunate that we don't have great sensation in the throat as we would then feel every particle of food, with every meal as it travels down the throat. So lacking great sensation in the throat, problems are a little mysterious there.

Well I have been under an incredible amount of stress lately, and it does seem to get better when I'm more relaxed...The only thing that doesn't match is the bit about the food, I'm finding it quite tricky to swallow anything at all..

I wonder what causes it, this spasm certainly seems to be the answer, I wonder if it is tied in with the opiate use in anyway?

Thanks though, you've certainly eased my mind somewhat!

 

[unsettled]

I've always noticed that it's harder for me to swallow things when I'm opiated, I even read someone else complain about the same thing on this forum a while ago. I didn't notice this phenomenon until I got into heavier opiates like morphine and heroin.

It's never really felt like a lump to me, but I guess I could see it being thought of as a lump because it makes it harder to swallow.

Anyway, obviously if you're truly concerned see a doctor, I'm just saying I experience something similar to what you're describing when I'm on a lot of opiates.

What you're experiencing may be completely unrelated, obviously we have no way of knowing, see if it goes away if you stop taking them for awhile, even if this means going into withdrawal. For me it's always disappeared by the time I'm in WD's.

 

[Tiesto]

I've had this a few times. Although I was using opiates heavily during that time period (and addicted at some points), I would also be binging on stimulants, and that was when the lump would occur - which I ruled out to malnutrition and dehydration. But whether or not it was actually from the opiates...I'll never know, since it hasn't happened in over a year now.

 

[AnyCouponWorks]

oh gosh - finally someone else with my problem.

after about 3 months on rx'd adderall - one night without sleep i reached over to take some benadryl on the nightstand and swallowed two or three pills while laying down (i drink and eat lying down all the time, terrible choking hazard but i do it) and i SWEAR one pill was stuck in my throat. i swallowed, and swallowed, and drank a gallon of water perhaps - to no avail. this thing was stuck.

much anxiety ensued as i eventually drifted off to sleep but woke up to it still being there! although felt like it had "shrunk". i told everyone, no one believed me. but then it turned into a regular occurance, that lump in my throat - feelings of being choked at times, etc. i am a heavy smoker, so then i was thinking oh god the adderall is giving me heart problems.

went to the doctor and got a complete physical, ekg, echocardiogram, etc - i was perfectly fine. was out of work at the time so, by the time i got a new (great) job and had that physical, the symptoms slowly disappeared.

its stress - and i believe might happen because of the changes in muscle function that occur with both opiates and in my case, stimulants.

i know its annoyign when people say "its anxiety" - but anxiety manifests sometimes as physical, with no corresponding mental awareness. i know you probably cant stop thinking about it but if you can, try and then look back and see if you notice that the symptoms were less severe while you were distracted.

you may not feel tangible anxiety, but having a drug problem/addiction is a source of stress on any human being. this just might be the way your body is reacting.

 

[paranoid android]

Ive gotten things like this while ive had the flu or some kind of throat infection. It usually went away on it's own but a few times i needed anti-biotics for it.

Ive been IVing pills such as dilaudid, various morphine pills (kadians, esslons, mscontin generics, MS IR's), demerol and clonidine. I havent used a micron filter at all (yeah i know kinda dumb) but other then a few tracks i havent had any complications. Guess ive been pretty lucky

The only problem ive noticed that makes eating a bitch on high doses of strong opiates is the dry mouth i get. That and the hiccups.

 

[burn out]

get this effect almost every time i took opiates. one of many intolerable side effects they would always give me. so far, i don't seem to have this problem with kratom though.

 

[UpdownUP]

So I guess that it's to do with drugs in general, I've done a lot worse than I've been doing lately, and never had anything like it, but maybe the stress/anxiety of something bad happening, even though for me, it seems that's not an issue, I guess it's a subconscious thing...7 years of heroin use, and I still get the odd stage fright, here and there...


Interesting....

 

[n3ophy7e]

Has anyone had or known anyone with an experience akin to this, it could well be unrelated, but it all seems a bit coincidental....And I'll admit, I am a touch concerned now...

Please go to the doctor and get it checked out. Random people on an internet forum can speculate and share symptoms as much as we like but that isn't going to make up for a proper medical examination

This syndrome results from a spasm in the cricopharyngeus muscle. It is a self limiting disorder that will resolve on its own.

You could well be correct but please refrain from definitively diagnosing someone over the internet. It is potentially a very dangerous practice.

 

[UpdownUP]

Please go to the doctor and get it checked out. Random people on an internet forum can speculate and share symptoms as much as we like but that isn't going to make up for a proper medical examination


You could well be correct but please refrain from definitively diagnosing someone over the internet. It is potentially a very dangerous practice.

It's ok, I think he knew that I'm not going to just take it as that and move on..

I'm not asking for medical advice, read my OP properly, I'm asking if anyone else has had the experience while on opiates, It's no different from asking if anyone has ever seen elma fudd while wasted...

 

[Lady Codone]

Poppy tea gives me a dry/sore throat sometimes and I've heard the same from others around here too. Insufflating things could reasonably cause strange throat symptoms, or it could be totally unrelated. I know the sensation you're talking about, and it's not pleasant. The stomach pain is what concerns me most. I suggest seeing a doctor ASAP just to be sure.