Do I have LPR?

[RichTheWriter]

I've had problems with my voice for over a year now. For a long time I thought of it as a mucus problem, possibly related to allergies. However, recently I've had many reasons to think it may be something else.

About 80% of the time I have some problem or other with my voice. It feels like my vocal chords are covered in thick mucus and I can't talk properly. I often experience some temporary relief from drinking tea, coffee, or alcohol, and being in an environment where I'm talking a lot. Often in these circumstances I'm also coughing and hacking constantly, but in-between that I can speak properly. My mornings are varied, sometimes I wake up with full control of my voice, and then within 30 minutes I feel muted again. Or sometimes I wake up feeling dry and unable to talk properly. I almost always wake up with a metallic taste in my mouth.

Infrequently I experience pain at the back of my throat, and the sensation that there's a lump in my throat or that something is stuck there.

The other day I woke up and actually felt a stomach acid-like burp coming up to my throat. It's from that point that I found out about LPR from my own research. I went to the doctor that day rather hoping that they'd recognise these symptoms as LPR, however she sent me away to have blood and urine tests and clearly has something else in mind.

I would say my number one symptom is that I feel like my voice box is suppressed. I would describe it as having cotton wool wrapped around guitar strings. As I said, I can clear it temporarily throughout the day, but it always comes back swiftly - which I suppose indicates either an infection or damage from another source.

As far as I can tell, throughout the day I never experience LPR events. So if it is caused by that, then it must happen when I'm lying down and sleeping.

[selmaS]

  Hi and welcome to the GERD forum.

Since you tend to feel mucus, it could be more of an over production of histamines and instead of trying a PPI which turns off ALL acid production, and we  do need some to break down our foods, try a H2 blocker, this will slow production of histamines...see if that helps....

I too have an issue similar to yours with my voice.....and I do have reflux, but find if I can suppress my histamines I can also reduce my reflux flares...

Modifying your diet is great, but there are also lifestyle changes you can make too...one important one is do not lay down for 3 to 4 hrs after eating....and elevate the head of your bed to help keep the acids down where they belong and away from your vocal cords....

Deff get a GI dr to do testing to see what if any damage may have occurred thus far and how to help heal it...

[RichTheWriter]

For the last few days since posting this message, I've been avoiding eating obvious acid causing foods (spicy food, meat, fish, cheese, etc.) and have been leaving at least 4 hours before bed after eating.

My throat problems persist. It's difficult to say exactly, but I feel like there has been an improvement. I suppose that acid damage doesn't repair over night. The frustrating thing is I can talk perfectly normally sometimes throughout the day when it just happens that there's no mucus on my vocal chords, but it consistently comes back. About 90% of the day I'm in that state and my voice is croaky and weak.

I am planning on raising the head of my bed soon and I'll also try an antacid or PPI - there's a few options available over the counter here. In the meantime I'll crawl through the Spanish medical system, but I'm not expecting anything from them.