LPR or something else?

[aceriot]

In late 2007, I started experiencing severe issues with what I thought was post nasal drip. It was hard for me to swallow, I felt like I had lots mucus in my throat (on the occasion I could cough it up, it was green), and my saliva was really thick. I started taking allergy meds, & I went to an ENT, had my deviated septum straightened, and was still experiencing issues.

Well, in April 08, I started experiencing some stomach issues. After almost every meal, I'd get a stabbing, burning pain just below my solar plexus that made it near impossible to stand up and severe gas/bloating. It felt like unusually bad heartburn, but nothing seemed to make it go away. I had a bunch of tests done by a dr (not my normal dr, but one at her office) and no one could ever find anything wrong. Then, about November, I had a severe bout of nausea that started late at night and nothing seemed to help. The only way I felt better was standing up and pacing.

This started happening more and more often, to the point where i would be pacing 5 and 6 hours a night. The nausea was so bad that I couldn't even get water down. My doctor gave me zofran and phenergan, but even that didn't seem to help. The only benefit of the phenergan was that it made me so drowsy I couldn't stand anymore and HAD to go to sleep. Eventually I found that emetrol/nauzene was the only thing to keep the nausea in check.

February 09, I started having some issues with passing out so my doctor says it may be related to my vagus nerve. I ended up seeing a cardiologist and a GI. After a runaround with a cardio, I finally found out that I have a type of syncope & postural intolerance, but they weren't the root of my GI issues.

As I found out from my endoscopy with the GI, I had a hiatal hernia, severe gastritis, and reflux. The hernia was considered the reason I had the pain/bloating with many meals and the reflux was diagnosed as LPR since I never experienced heartburn outside of a flair up of the hernia, I had the "PND" that is so common with it, and the foods that bothered me were all on the list of foods to avoid with LPR.

Since being diagnosed, I still have many issues, especially with random flair ups of the hernia. Sometimes for no reason at all, I will bloat and get the severe pain. Luckily Tums have started working and if I can force myself to stretch, sometimes it will go away. I am researching alternatives to the surgery and visiting an alternative health center to attempt the massage to ease the stomach back into place. I'm not expecting a miracle but I'm willing to exhaust all options before surgery.

The biggest issue though is what was originally thought to be Post Nasal Drip. I sleep sitting up, drink almost 8 bottles of water a day, take a daily allergy medication, take Aciphex (20/mg, 2x day since May), use a saline nasal spray (3 or 4x daily), avoid all foods that irritate me (chocolate, caffeine, eggs, red meat, grease, alcohol), and use a neti pot about once every two weeks. Despite all this, I still have gobs of green mucus in the back of my throat everyday (that i have to pull out or sit and just swallow repeatedly til it goes down). It's very dense and tacky, almost like rubber cement that hasn't quite dried. I also still have the very thick saliva and difficulty swallowing. Is there any other possible issue I could have going on other than the LPR? It's getting quite annoying to stand in front of the mirror and have to pull mucus out of the back of my throat or to have to spit a million times when I brush my teeth because of the thick saliva.

Thanks so much for your help! If you have any other questions about my symptoms, please feel free to ask.

[selmaS]

Sorry if u did mention, but have u looked at allergies?

I know that post nasal drip and a hiatal hernia will cause the acid reflux to flare......but ur PND might be due to an allergy.

Good luck and please post an update
"selma"

[aceriot]

I forgot to mention this as well... I saw my ENT after my GI and he said everything looked fine other than the red throat from the reflux, which was already being medicated. I've also tried decongestants and been on antibiotics three different times in the past two years (not for a sinus infection, however I would think that three separate courses of sulfa drugs would clear up any infection even if it wasn't the main target), and it hasn't gotten any better.