49 years old, family of five, and own my own software company. Had heart attack in Nov 08. Blocked artery. No idea I had it. Angioplasty and drug eluding stent. Put on Plavix, Aspirin, Coumadin, Simvastatin, Lisiniprol. Went through cardiac rehab for three months. Rehab went great. In best shape of my life. Then two months after heart attack, with one month to go in rehab, started to get terrible constriction in my throat - around my adams apple. Cardiac dr took me off Lisiniprol - said it was acid reflux - take some OTC zantac. I did that. Didn't help. Then went to family dr. He put me on higher dose of zantac (150 mg bid). Didn't help. Went back - he put me on protonix. He also did some blood test, all negative. Protonix didn't help. Went back to family dr. He put me on 300 mg of zantac bid last week. Didn't help. Throat constriction kept getting worse. Would come and go throughout the day. Then this week would not go away. Went to local small hospital emergency room. Waste of time. Did cat scan and chest xray. Nothing unusual found. Sent me back to my family dr. Family dr put me on prevacid today. Have only taken one prevacid so far (30 mg once a day). Severe throat constriction continues. Hurts all the way up underneath my chin at times. Reflux starts very soon after eating. Drs just keep handing me off. Cardiac dr doesn't want to be involved though he needs to be with the heart meds I'm on. He did take me off coumadin last week. But still on Plavix, aspirin and Toprol XL. Plavix apparently is rough on the stomach. Can't see a GI or ENT here until end of April at the earliest. Live in a college town. Too many people and not enough drs. Closest big hospital is 100 miles. Insurance may or may not cover depending on a number of requirements. Feeling helpless. If it is Gerd, it's destroying my life. Business is struggling. Tough on the family. Bad enough recovering from heart attack. Not sure what's causing this. Never had stomach problems until I went on the heart meds. Then the gerd didn't start until after two months on the meds. So frustrated. Seems like my stomach is overly acidic from the meds. Perhaps my liver is on overload as well. Can't sleep well. Have head of bed elevated. Doing many of the helpful tips found on the web. Am I hopeless? Feel like it. Throat constriction, ball in throat, acid in back of my throat.......just destroying me. Question is can the Prevacid do something for me? How long? Any other ideas?