Dr. Pho,
I'm a 30yr old asian male and since 2/1/09 I've been having this choking feeling in my throat area around the adam's apple and just below, and sometimes my jaw lymph nodes seem to enlarge. When I have that choking feeling I always have ear pressure. In the beginning I had fatigue, dizziness and headaches that subsided within 10 days, and I also occasionally have slight burning in the upper chest area (right below clavicle) and orbital, nose or face pressure in addition to mucous in the throat, but no coughing, runny nose or breathing problems. The main persistent symptoms though are the choking feeling and ear pressure but no chest or stomach pains. My doctor thinks it's just a reflux problem so he prescribed me 40mg famotidine which I've been taking for a month now but hasn't resolved my problem.
Also, I've had blood (red and bright red) on the toilet paper when wiping for awhile now, and starting from mid-Feb., I had BMs 3 times in the span of several hours for a couple of days and the feeling that I had to go, weak pulsating rectal area, and some weird pain/ache around the tailbone which made it difficult to sit. An anoscopy confirmed that I have hemorrhoids, but my doc also scheduled a flexible sigmoidoscopy even though he thinks I don't need it. I started taking metamucil and citrucel and that has reduced/eliminated the weird rectal aches and pains, and I've been having normal bowel movements now, but if I don't take fiber for a day or two those weird pains seem to come back.
1. What is this choking feeling/ear pressure due to? Do you think it's reflux? If so what kind? If not then what? Why doesn't famotidine really help? Should I try different medication besides famotidine?
2. As for my rectal/BM problems, was it all due to hemorrhoids or could it be something else? Should I go through with the sigmoidoscopy or is it unnecessary? How did fiber eliminate a lot of my symptoms? And how can I stop getting blood on the toilet paper when wiping?