feels like something is in my throat - Page 2

andvari · 03-07-2006, 01:09 PM

i have an appointment scheduled but only on the 27th.. 3 weeks away.. that's a long time to go like this, not that it hasn't been a long time already..
the swelling has now gone down into my throat, i've got a mad ear ache off and on, can't keep myself warm or cold. i haven't lost my voice. it feels more like a big ball of something pushing inside of my throat causing the pain.. not like when i had strep before, where it feel like it was torn to bits as though someone clawed all around it. it seems to be going up towards my ear too and into my neck.. up by my eyes. i'm assuming that it's my sinuses that are swollen or infected. regardless, i'm getting very irritated by it all.

aswander · 03-07-2006, 06:43 PM

Andvari,

You have classic symptoms of LPR, laryngeal pharyngeal reflux, also called laryngeal reflux. LPR is the lesser known version of ACID REFLUX. GERD is the better known version of acid reflux. With LPR, the acid rises up your esophagous, and doesn't stop - instead it leaves your esophagous and gets into your throat, causing irritation,including the classic "lump in throat" sensation. It also mimics asthma, as the acid can in turn, when it tries to go back down, goes down the wrong pipe and winds up in your lungs.

So your first step is to visit the GERD board. Lots of discussion about LPR there. 2nd you need to begin treatment. Common drugs, called PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) are used to reduce acid production in the stomach, so less can get out. Prilosec is the only PPI sold OTC, and doesn't have a great reputation for helping LPR sufferers (better for GERD). However, Nexium, a prespcription PPI is very good at helping LPR sufferers. More importantly, and this is REALLY important, people with LPR need 2 doses of Nexium a day, not one. Most doctors do not know this, except for some highly specialized ENTs. Trust me, the dose is 2 pills a day, period.

As I said, LPR is lesser known and even most doctors don't know it by name. I had been to a dozen small-town ENTs who were able to look at my throat and say "well, you have a little reflux", but they were not able to link the symptoms to the reflux, nor did they know how to treat it with 2 time daily PPI dosing. I had to visit some heavy-hitters in the ENT field at Yale's Medical Hospital in order to get a real diagnosis.

The good thing about LPR (nothing is good about LPR as it's a permanent condition but...) is that you don't need to have complicated tests run in order to get a diagnosis. Basically, if the 2x daily PPI dosing schedule is successful and your symptoms go away, you know you have acid reflux. Symptoms should resolve within a few minutes to a few weeks. My own symptoms literally went away after 20 minutes after my first double dose. Note that I had already been on a 1 x per day schedule of Nexium for 3 months prior to the diagnosis, and my symptoms were full-blown on 1 pill a day. Once I took 2 pills together, the symptoms just magically disappeared.

If you respond to the 2 pill regimen and it works, then feel free to play around with your dosage, maybe try reducing it. But before you do that, just get your symptoms under control with 2 Nexium a day.

Your other prescription options are Aciphex, Prevacid, and Protonix. Most doctors will prescribe the pill represented by their favorite drug rep. Don't fall for this - Nexium is the new generation of PPI, and is the most unique. Take that first and see how you fell.

Go visit the GERD boards! You'll find plenty of company there!

andvari · 03-07-2006, 11:23 PM

acid reflux? i don't believe i have ever had issues with this. i know that my acid levels in my body overall are fairly high, to the point that i have to be careful with watches as they tend to speed up or slow down. least i believe that's my acid levels messing with them. my leather watch stops it form happening.. it's the only watch i've found in my entire life i've found.
i'm not sure if this is at all the same thing as acid reflux and sorry if this is too much info but sometimes i'll get this pukey feeling and just puke a little.. but it's not really puke, and sorry if this is gross, but before i realize what's happened i swallow it accidentally (i know eww!) i don't mean to, it's entirely out of natural reaction. is that acid reflux?

i got my xray results as well this afternoon. all was normal. what would an xray show? just the bone structure? or soft tissue too? either way i still have my appointment booked. today what changed was with my sore throat, i started to swell just below my chin, almost looked like an adam's apple, or a turkey neck. it looked hideous and i had to work with that.. is that normal for a sore throat?

aswander · 03-08-2006, 12:15 AM

I understand how it might seem very very strange that acid could be causing throat problems. But it does, and this happens quite frequently. It has nothing to do with general acid levels throughout your body. Simply put, your stomach contains a very very strong acid called HCl. It has to be strong, in order to digest your food and kill potentially pathonogenic bacteria that you ingest with your food.

Food gets to your stomach by going down your esophogous. The place where your stomach is connected to the esophagous is called the lower esophageal spinchter muscle. This "muscle" is really not exactly a muscle, but rather, an area of pressure, that in normal people, prevents acid from escaping the stomach and getting up into the esophagous, and throat. If acid regularly gets into your esophogous, it causes the sensation of heartburn, and can ultimately lead to cellular changes in the lining of the esophgous and potentially cancer. But people with LPR have it a little different. Less acid goes up the esophogous, but the acid that does go up, goes even higher (into the throat)! So there is no heartburn, but instead, the acid irritates the larynx and the lining of the throat. The larynx has no natural protection against acid, so many peoply with LPR complain of a chronic cough - which is their body trying to get the acid of the larynx. But a large number of LPR sufferers complain instead of a sensation of lump in the throat, difficulty swallowing, and weird asthma-like symptoms that can't be treated with asthma meds, nor show up as asthma with standard tests. Basically, what I'm saying to you is that acid escaping the stomach can result in many different and seemingly strange symptoms, that may initally appear incompatible with acid reflux, but truly are a result of reflux.

Why don't you visit the GERD board and read some of the posts about lump in the throat, and you'll see that others have very similar symptoms as you.

If this is reflux, please just try some Nexium, 2 pills a day, and see if works for you. PPI medications like Nexium have minimal side effects and are taken regularly by millions of people. Just see an ENT (ear nose and throat doctor) who will scope you and confirm if you have redness in your laryngeal area.

When I first got sick with reflux (and didn't know it was reflux), I had no idea at all that acid reflux could cause the problems that it does.

andvari · 03-08-2006, 01:15 AM

thanks a ton.. you've been really helpful. some of what you say seems to make sense, and others i wouldn't really know unless i see a doc about it.
i posted in the gerd forum to see if anyone there would respond, and also checked out other threads. i didn't really know what acid reflux was as i've never had issues with it.. sorry if i sounded a bit uneducated on the matter

i am seeing an ent, but only on the 27th.. i don't know if thats the soonest i can get an appointment, but i hate that it's 3 weeks away while i'm sitting here snorting away for air.. sometimes i feel like i'm going mad at this and other times i can deal with it. so i'm not sure if i shold try to make an earlier appointment or not. is it worth it?