I'm meeting with a GI tomorrow to begin the full gamut of testing. If I find out my lower esophageal sphincter is not working properly as was already verified by a barium swallow test, I'm going to pursue the path of surgery rather than being on medications or rigorous protocols for the rest of my life. Anyone know about this surgery or other surgeries?
I'm not sleeping nor am I having good, consistent bowel movements because of the LPR.
I'm going to stop taking metamucil as well as pepcid tomorrow as things have gotten worse in both of these departments since starting these. Please help me. I'm getting a new appointment with an ENT doctor and a GI doctor on Monday. The stress of this is really getting to me.
On June 14th, I played a show with my band. I'm the singer and guitar player. During the show, it felt like I strained the left side of my vocal cords. The following day I was having a hard time swallowing. Since we had a show coming up right after, I went to an ENT doctor and she looked at my throat with a camera and said I have LPR.
I have basically all the symptoms. I'm hoarse. I'm straining to speak. I need to clear my throat constantly. Some postnasal drip. What feels like swelling in my throat. Burning in throat and mouth. And the worse is trouble swallowing. I've been drinking a ton of alkaline water, doing saline nasal rinses, and taking alginate gel after meals and before bed. I'm eating better. Smaller meals. Already lost 12 pounds. Not eating before bed, etc, however, I don't feel like my throat symptoms are really improving.
I've had two swallow tests done, video swallow and barium. The video swallow speech therapist said the pudding went down my esophagus slowly. The doc at the barium just said I had signs of reflux in my lower sphincter when laying down. Nothing else was abnormal. They referred me to meet with a different ENT who is an expert with vocal cords and a GI.
I'm feeling very hopeless at the moment. I feel like I'll never eat food I enjoy again and that my throat will never allow me to speak or sing normally again. Please help with next steps.
I have some questions for some folks who healed or possibly anybody with knowledge.
The main symptoms I'm having are mucus building up in my throat after I eat that makes it so I have to clear my throat all the time. It makes my voice hoarse. This seems to happen no matter what I eat at the moment even if it's low fat, low acid. It happens literally minutes after eating, so the food hasn't even begun the digestion process yet. Why is this happening if it's low acid? The food hasn't had enough time to be pushed back up from stomach yet. And does the duration of these symptoms after eating correlate with trigger foods or not?
Is what feels like a swollen throat a sign of healing? Sometimes I'm getting the swollen throat after eating. Or is this a sign that certain foods are trigger foods if I'm getting it?
Does pepcid also make less pepsin come up into the esophagus and throat?
And finally, I'm feeling pretty constipated unless I use a laxative. This just started with the flare up of silent reflux. I've even been taking metamucil for the past week. And the only time I pooped was the day I took miralax too. I'm obviously eating way less food too.
Thank you
I have been having all the symptoms of silent reflux. Hoarseness, burning throat and mouth, need to clear throat all the time, postnasal drip, difficulty swallowing. Now I'm even noticing heartburn. I can't understand how all of this just happened all at once.
I had a Barium Swallow test today and the only thing they noticed was that my lower sphincter had some reflux when I was laying down.
I did the video swallow test today. They are not worried about aspiration from the results. The only thing she said is the pudding was moving very slowly down my windpipe. Because of this, she recommended I see a different ENT at the hospital and also a GI. I have the barium test tomorrow.
I'm wondering more about root causes and solutions to this condition.
Speech and Physical Therapists: Is there anything that speech or physical therapists can do to help this condition?
Surgical: Are there any actual surgeries that help the condition once the root cause is found?
Medications: Are there medications that help this condition? My dad has been on PPIs for GERD for 40 years and he's never had problems.
I'm realizing that all my bad habits with eating has led to this.
For one, I'm 5'7" and weight 195 pounds so I'm clinically obese. I've already dropped 10 pounds, so I guess in some ways, maybe this is a good thing. I'm still technically overweight even after dropping ten pounds. I weighed 185 this morning.
Secondly, I've been going to bed full like 3-4 nights a week full for a very long time. It's one of my biggest vices over the years. This has either been from eating too much at dinner or eating something before bed. I'd wake up constantly with the feeling of undigested food in my stomach.
And finally, I've been eating a lot of fast food for years. I tend to think going to bed full too much has caused this though and eating the fast food in moderation during the day wouldn't have mattered. Also, I started drinking a La Croix every day at work for the past year or so and I'm sure that hasn't helped.
I just hope my throat heals and I figure out the reflux so I can eat some food that's acidic and fatty again in the future. It's day 3 of the protocol I've implemented and my throat already seems to be healing.
Are there any people who would be willing to share success stories who healed and were able to go back to eating the things they liked in moderation? I'm feeling hopeless at the moment.
Today, I made banana pancakes with ingredients that it said would not cause any kind of a flare up. After about an hour of eating them, it still feels like my throat is swelling up. I really don't know what to do.
I now have the globus feeling in my throat. It starts right after I start eating food, even if it's food that is low in acid and fat. I guess I need to go to the fully pureed diet. This fucking sucks. I can't implement a low acid diet if I can't eat anything. What can I eat beyond oatmeal, apples sauce, and cottage cheese?
I have a few symptoms of LPR but the primary and most obtrusive is difficulty swallowing. I believe I injured my vocal cords singing a show on June 14th. I believe the injury happened because of excessively dry throat and mouth do to the silent reflux mixed with allergies.
I am now going in this week for two swallow tests and hope they can find some reasons as to why my swallowing is so bad and possibly also an underlying reason for my bad reflux. What am I to expect for these swallowing tests?
I have been sipping on alkaline water this morning on a fully empty stomach. Ate last night at seven PM and still burping after a few sips. Is this showing I have an underlying condition that can be identified?
I'm not going to the bathroom like I should be since this LPR flare up started on June 14th. I did take laxatives for the past four days and had two bowel movements finally, but I'm discontinuing. Started the flavorless metamucil today. Is this normal?
I'm on day 4 of implementing changes for reflux. Because I can't swallow well due to what I think is left vocal cord hypomobility due to singing too long at a show while I had reflux, I can only really eat mushy foods. I'm starting to feel very weak in my muscles with a lot of fatigue, and I'm having muscle cramps in my legs, I believe because of these dietary changes.
What should I do about food in the situation I'm in to maintain energy? And what can I do for the muscle cramps? I've been eating a lot oatmeal, avocados, cottage cheese, and I tried eggs whites today. I have had some mashed potatoes too the past few days. I just can't eat much because I can't swallow properly. It's clear I'm going to lose a ton of weight during this.
I'm in a bad flare up of silent reflux at the moment. It's the first I've been made aware that I have this and my symptoms include hoarseness, throat clearing, what feels like swelling in my throat, trouble swallowing (I believe from a mix of the reflux and a vocal singing injury), etc. The mucus pooling up in my throat has gone way down since doing the nasal rinses twice per day.
My question is will I ever be able to eat normal food again without restrictions. I don't drink alcohol, coffee, and I can quit carbonated beverages easily. But will I be able to eat bread again or most meats or the occasional fast food meal?
I've been pretty miserable tonight after having a pretty good night last night. And I slept pretty good going into today.
Started my day with the same swollen feeling in the front of my neck that seems to be the reason I'm not swallowing. Feels like my neck is tender, raw, swollen, and not moving when I swallow. I had instant oatmeal for breakfast. Yes, it was maple and brown sugar instant oatmeal with milk. I got some regular oatmeal today and will use real maple syrup with skim milk tomorrow.
For lunch, I had an avocado, cottage cheese, and I tried to eat some beef and barley soup but couldn't chew the meat in it. I mostly just ate the broth and barley with the softer vegetables.
I went to a speech pathologist today. Just before I went in, I got a call from the ENT office saying that they want me to do a barium swallow and another swallow test. The speech pathologist said I'm showing signs of reflux but wonders about the swallowing thing. I injured my throat while singing at a show, like I felt the physical pain start when I was singing in the exact spot my throat hurts and that seems to be what is not allowing me to swallow. She wants to keep working with me after the results of the swallowing tests and even wants me to have the physical therapist take a look.
For dinner, I had mashed potatoes with gravy and some tomato soup as I was at a restaurant with my family for my dad's birthday and that's all the soft food they had. It kind of made the top of my mouth feel like it was burning like I'd just eaten too hot of food and it was uncomfortable.
Things I'm doing: Gargling with and drinking alkaline water, the alginate gel after meals, elevating my bed a few inches last night, stopping eating like four hours before going to bed, nasal saline rinses.
Two big questions I have. Is this whole swallowing thing only related to LPR? And also, I have been constipated for about a week. Why did that all of a sudden happen and is it related? I took Miralax for the past few days and had a bowel movement yesterday but not today.
Can people explain root causes of LPR to me in simple terms? Again, I'm new to this and trying to learn as much as I can. I want to be proactive about healing. Mostly, I just want to be ablet to swallow food again and get my voice back.
I'm going to start keeping a daily progress journal as yesterday I was diagnosed with LPR.
Today, I didn't feel much better than yesterday. Things I did today were three saline nasal rinses, one with alkaline water. I also gargled with salt water once and garagled with alkaline water once. I drank 1.5 liters of alkaline water in the morning. I have been using the algine gel after every meal. And that's about it today.
For meals, for breakfast I had a bowl of cinnamon and sugar oatmeal with milk. For lunch, I had some cottage cheese, a whole avocado, some watermelon, a pudding pack, and some cheese. For dinner, I had a smoothie from costco and tried grinding up a hotdog. It was too dry and I had trouble eating it. I had a few small bites of cheese pizza that I had to grind down each tiny bite in my mouth to swallow. I had a few bites of a the center of a chocolate chip cookie. That surprisingly easy to eat.
I called a speech pathologist today and am going to do a consultation. I think part of this is LPR and part of this is a vocal cord injury I sustained while singing with my band on June 14th.
My most troubling symptom is I can't swallow hard food well. Kind of hard to implement changes in your diet when you can only eat a few things. Will this resolve eventually?
Also, I've noticed I've been super constipated since this all began. I took a small scoop of miralax and had a small bowel movement today. Is this related? It seemed to start after the reflux symptoms started. I will do a few more days of miralax. Also, my throat and mouth just feel very, very dry. And I'm still getting phlegm in my throat all the time. I guess this is my new life now. I'm a 39 year old male and this all came on out of nowhere.