Surgery consult this december
Hi, so I (18 F) have had pain when speaking and singing since I was around 12 years old. I've been diagnosed with severe LPR which has been cited by a laryngologist as the likely cause of all of this. I also have MCAS, an allergy related chronic illness that I have primarily throat/mouth symptoms with. I'm on all the meds, the super bland diet, the acid reflux lifestyle, etc, but still cannot really sing, do theater, read out loud, and I struggled going to school even 9 hours a week due to speaking (I was part online and switched to fully online partly due to pain). I'm going to college this fall so I guess we'll see what happens there and if I have the same issues. (I also have laryngospasms, trouble swallowing, occasional choking, lots of fun stuff)
I'm not really satisfied with the care I've gotten so far. My 24 hour PH test results were so bad my laryngologist was impressed, and yet all he told me to do was drink alkaline water which I tried for 3 months with no improvement. I kind of assumed that this would be my life and I'd have to either never work in a job where I have to speak or be so tired I can't talk to my wife/kids at the end of the day :/
anyways I was telling my GP about this and she referred me to a laryngologist head and neck surgeon. She seems nice and has really good reviews, but they're all vague like "she explained things well and my results were good." I'm having trouble actually finding out what exact surgeries she does or if she would be able to help me? Also- it's been five years of my voice hurting, and I'm afraid of getting surgery there because wouldn't the pain be way worse in recovery??
Anyways, any anecdotes or advice or resource recommendations would be appreciated. I've been scrolling through this subreddit for some time and see mostly paralysis, laryngitis, nodes, etc. I feel like I'm a weird case.
I'm worried she's just going to refer me to get acid reflux surgeries, but they seem really daunting, have a so-so improvement rate, and some include having metal put in your esophagus or making you unable to throw up (which as a chronically ill person I need to do sometimes and would not like to be unable to).
Anyways, sorry for just putting this all out here, I know I should just wait for my appointment and see what happens, but i've already been waiting several months and there's a whole semester of potential pain and struggle looming over me before the appointment
I just keep hoping someone will comment "omg I had the exact same symptoms/cause and got x surgery and it went well!" lol