Longterm issue; thank you for reading

[Suitman55]

Hello everybody, I'm new and utterly mortified, unlike everybody else here of course.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to tell you all a continuing story about my health 'issues', which have been going strong for about 2 months now. I honestly don't know where to begin, nor where to go and post this, as I've already visited many other forums and consciously insulted people there with 'real', physical, life-threatening conditions by talking about MAYBE having something serious. So, until I get to the bottom of this, I'll be here if that is fine with everybody.

I'd like to preface my story by just saying that I am a 19 year old male, have been generally nervous and anxious my entire life, never smoked and drank a handful of times in my entire life, never got drunk or even tipsy, became a hypochondriac as of recently due to isolation, as I finished high school a few months ago.

I am currently stuck in limbo in every concievable way. I can't move my life forward, nor get comfortable in the stagnation. Lastly, I ocassionally 'suffered' from acid reflux as a child, though this was extremely rare and I never needed any meds, usually went away on its own after a few hours -- this detail will come into play later on.

Now, as for the story itself, here are my symptoms:
It started about 2 months ago as I was browsing dank memes, I noticed a slight ache in the right side of my jaw. It was annoying, as it lasted far longer than it should have. Convinced I had dental issues, I visited my dentist and was told I'm clean. That confused me, since I have notoriously sensitive teeth, which can go bad within months of even good hygiene. So to skip a tedious part of all this I ended up worried to the point where I visited multiple specialists, only to be told in the end that a nerve had gotten inflamed due to an underlying throat condition. Fair enough, I went to my family doc and she immediately noticed that my throat was very red, and gave me antibiotics.

I went through them and it certainly helped. I'm not completely sure, but I believe it did actualy heal my throat, as some inflamed, painful nodes on my neck went away after the throat thing. However, what I noticed during the process of drinking my antibiotics is that I had a consistent, constant and unwavering low-grade fever(always between 37.3C and 37.5C). That scared me, since it persisted even after my throat had cleared, and I know that anxiety typically doesn't cause fever.

Forgot about it all for about a week, seemed generally fine, until the dreadful day I started feeling chest palpitations, with the easiest way of describing it being the feeling of bubbles forming underneath the skin and then eventually going away. This usually happens when I think about stressful things, though it also comes randomly sometimes. This kept me worried for a good week, until something else started happening: dry coughing(tickly throat), and the sore throat returned.

The dry cough persists with about the same intensity even now, nearly a month and a half later. It was worse when it started but never became productive.
Worst part is that nothing makes it go away, not meds, not distractions, not breathing control, nothing. I'm on my second round of antibiotics and I'm already aware they're not working(day 3 of 5). Soreness in throat moves from place to place, day by day.

I had enough, I went for a full blood and urine analysis and a chest x-ray, everything clear and surprisingly stable, with the exception of there being some bacteria in my system, but I know that was an excuse for my doc to not send me to the hospital, just to give me more antibiotics. As I already said, they don't seem to be working. (She said I may have a urinary tract infection.)

Now, I believe it's worth mentioning that an epidemic is going on here, with people coughing really hard and even losing their voices, as all my close relatives were affected severely by it, but antibiotics worked on them to some degree, while they seem to have less or no effect on me. The first symptoms I had came slightly before this epidemic started and might have just been prolonged because it, but my case slightly differs from the rest (even though it's different with everybody, but not too different), and it's enough to cause me major ditress.

To end it off, and this started like 2 days ago, I started noticing I had very slight trouble swallowing solids and liquids. Mostly solids, and it only happens about 50% of the time I swallow. Worst part is I can't tell if I genuinely have trouble or if I'm consciously swallowing and therefore disrupting the automatic rhythm of the process, but then again that's why I'm here.

I looked at my throat and it's slightly red, but nothing else. Feels like mucus is draining in the back of it, it's numb and slimy, have to clear my throat sometimes and it's hard to do so.

I had ocassional runny nose but mainly it just feels stuffed up and crusty.

Now, to summarize: sore throat, dry cough, chest discomfort and low-grade fever for more than a month, trouble swallowing and slight discomfort above my right collarbone whenever I swallow or flex that area. Antibiotics don't appear to be working so far.

Here comes the paranoia and my self-diagnosis:
First I believed completely I had multiple sclerosis, but cleared that up with an MRI. Then it was heart problems and lung cancer, but I had an x-ray and it showed no signs of anything, I was genuinelly surprised. Finally, and this is the last thing I could possibly think of, I think I have esophageal/throat cancer.

To be honest I'm even more afraid of finding out what it is because I don't have any risk factors for these things, none of them, and a large amount of things point against them, such as how this all started, my tests, etc. It doesn't make sense in the long run but of course I'm still worried my life will end before reaching 20, one way or another.

The only benign thing I can think of which encompasses all of my symptoms is sinusitis, which seems likely because I appear to have post-nasal drip, which could also explain the swallowing problems due to mucus buildup and one-sided neck pain from dried up mucus stuck in my throat. But, there I go self-diagnosing again. I think I have drip also because every time I lie down in any position it either exacerbates or causes my dry cough, and all my teeth are overly sensitive to touch atm and hurt a bit while eating, so jaw pain when chewing.

Alright, that's it. I know this is hard to read through but I appreciate every single read and reply, as this is driving me beyond crazy. So, in the meantime, before I go do additional tests to try and get to the bottom of this, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. I know I'm not the only person here feeling like this and don't like wasting people's time, but I couldn't put this any simpler, apologies.

You can say anything, really. You can post a reply and say if I'm just going crazy or am actually dying or both, OR, you can just as well post your own story. I'm just seeking comfort like everyone else.

-Thanks, again, and happy new year.