Your rheumy is asking about difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), because that is one of the most common problems in scleroderma. What happens is that gastric reflux (also common in scleroderma) causes irritation (sore throat), and eventually scarring in the exophagus that can compromise the ability to swallow. Your sore throat is likely due to gastric reflux, and in order to prevent scarring damage you may need to be on something like Nexium.

I am on pariet. because most of the meds I am on upset my stomach. It is not an internal pain, it seems to be almost muscular pain when I swallow. It is painful whn I touch my neck. Nothing is swollen. My mouth and throat do feel dry though. Advil or tylenol sometimes helps but not all the time. My scleroderma has affected my lungs but nothing else so far.....

Along with scleroderma can also come thyroid problems, and some people with that complain of that kind of tenderness. Is your thyroid changing in size? Have you had a recent TSH test?

I am going for blood work this week and thyroid is one that they are checking. My mouth feels like it has a mild burn, like when you burn yourself on a coffee, but my whole mouth and tongue feel like that all the time. Would thyroid do that? It is driving me crazy, I am taking the omegas and that helped a little bit at first but not any more....

Along with scleroderma can also go Sjogren's. That makes the mouth burn and feel dry. It can also make the eyes tend to feel dry. Ask your Rheumatologist if you could have Sjogrens'. I am presumed to have it, because my Schirmer's tear test, done by an ophthalmologist showed a tear volume only 1/3 of the normal minimum. It can be confirmed with a lip biopsy, but I opted not to do that. The only time it really bothers me is when I am driving and the windshield defrost air is blowing in my face. Then my eyes are so dry that I can hear them "click" when I blink.

so far my eyes are fine no dryness at all, I have tov have my eyes checked in another couple months because of the plaquenil, i'll ask him to check my tears too. I am going to see a natraupath I am hoping they can do something about it, all the doc's just shrug it off but they don't have to live with it either. I know it is not life threatening or anything but it is always there anymore and it just takes the fun out of things.....could always be worse right!
thanks for the advice

My throat bothers me same as yours.. I do have sjogrens too and sclerederma is affecting lungs and heart. Often people with sjogrens have the dry eyes and mouth as a last sympton. hugs. m

I had pain on the outside of my neck, and my doctor said it's probably just the muscles. then I had a sore throat for about 3 weeks, and my ear felt uncomfortable. I was put on an antibiotic because I was feeling generally awful, and I had a slight fever. Still feeling very weak, but my sore throat went away so far. I'm sure its seasonal allergies more than anything. But, funny, I have had 3 eye infections since the beginning of the year, I had several refills on the antibiotics for the eye, so I have been doing the drops for the eyes too.

There are certain autoimmune diseases that can cause a conjuctivitis or uveitis or iritis that may be interpreted as infection, when in reality it's really eye inflammation from the autoimmune disease, and not infection at all.

I was treated for a sore throat but pain never left and seems - as you say - to be outside the throat in the muscles. I am also being treated for thyroid problems.

This is my first time on the support hotline. although I have had scleroderma for about 15 years. It is now affecting feet and legs and I feel off balance.