Calico409

Hello everyone,

Firstly my apologies for posting one of those annoying 'What have I got?' messages! I have read the relevant parts of this (and other) forum, as well as reading everything can find on the www, but still I have questions! I'm hoping someone can help:

4-5 months ago, I got a sore throat/infection, which also affected my sinuses - basically, a nasty cold and cough. This lasted around a week, with the mild sore throat lingering for another week or so. One evening, my Adam's apple became incredibly sore - in one hour it went from being tender, to being so bad that I was spitting into a glass because swallowing was so painful. And within another hour, it was back to being merely tender. This happened again twice over the next fortnight, though never as bad as the first time. Then the throat infection came back, having never completely disappeared. At this time I was smoking 20 cigarettes per day, a habit I'd had for three years. (I am 26 now.) I gave up, knowing that a doctor would only tell me to do so if I went to see him. That was 3 and a half months ago.

Since then, I have a had an almost constant sensation of a 'lump' in my oesophagus. It actually feels just like a wad of mucus - the sort that you get when you have a cold, and you can hock it up and spit it out. (Sorry to be crude!) However, it is not possibly to move this by snorting or hocking. I have had this pretty much constantly - sometimes it is mildly annoying, sometimes very much so. It disappears for around twenty minutes immediately after eating, (but drinking does not affect it), and it is rarely there when I wake up in the morning. (This contradicts reports of GERD, because the acid reflux should be a problem when lying flat.)

Another symptom is belching. Not audible burping, but quiet release of gas into my mouth. I have never been able to burp - that may sound strange, but it is true. I have audibly burped maybe 20 times in 26 years, and not once was it deliberate. These belches feel as though they are relieveing some pressure in my upper chest - I take a breath, hold it, and sort of tense my upper body until the 'bubble' pops out. When I do, the 'lump' in my oesophagus seems to disappear, although it returns very soon afterwards - seemingly the next time I swallow. This belching occurs for maybe four or five hours out of the day,and about twenty to thirty times per hour for those hours. (Yes, every two to three minutes. Annoying, I can tell you!)

Sometimes, the 'lump' is accompanied by discomfort behind my sternum - not very painful, but mildly annoying.

Six weeks ago I went to the doctor, who prescribed a once-a-day proton pump inhibitor (Ompeprazole) for four weeks. It seemed to reduce the symptoms a little, but the 'lump' and the belching were not really affected. Two weeks ago I finished the course - stopping the medication did not affect the symptoms at all. They got no worse, and no better. Food types also do not really affect it. The actual eating suppresses the symptoms for a while, and they return within half-an-hour.

So, does anyone know of (or experience) these symptoms? Much of it sounds exactly like GERD, but with some discrepancies - lying flat does not aggravate the symptoms, nor do particular food types. The sometimes constant belching and release of air, and the immovable 'lump' that feels like mucus are things that many GERD reports do not mention.

Thank you very much for your time reading this, and any thoughts or ideas would be very, very much appreciated!