Am I dying? I am serioius.

[justonemorepost]

I was a smoker and gave it up 5 years ago. I am 49. For many years I have been getting this horrible choking reflex in the back of my throat whenever the weather goes below 60 degrees. I literally choke and my mouth fills with silvana. It's very very unpleasant!

I also have been having problems sleeping cause I get this feeling in my throat and have to clear it. I'm not sure if it's sleep apnea or acid reflux or both. Needless to say I am very tired all the time.

I have this cough that sounds like the cough my brother had. He ended up having a lung removed do to lung cancer. Today he is a cancer survivor.  

I also get blood out of anas once in a while and it itches sometimes when I go on long walks.

My wife wants me to get a colonoscopy and a endoscopy. I know I should get it but I am too afraid!  I don't want to choke! Will they numb my throat and put me to sleep?

I am really worried about all this. Any suggestions?

I think  I just might have Gerd. However, I did catch pneumonia twice in one year back in 2007.  They took an xray and saw a nodule. But they said it went away after the pneumonia symptoms went away.

[Nicknameless46]

You should see a doctor and have a check-up. The odds are you have some GERD, maybe some asthma that causes your trachea to close up when you go out into cold weather, and possibly some hemorrhoids that cause the itching and minor bleeding from your rectum.  The Dr will first listen to your chest, maybe do a chest x-ray, look in your throat, and he'll give you a little card kit thingie for you to put some stool on - this will check for blood in the stool. If that should come back positive, you'll probably have to have a colonoscopy, but like Corvin said, the junk you drink is the worst part; the rest of it is sissy stuff. They give you happy juice and you just float along while they do the scope - no biggie.  The upper GI endoscopy isn't as pleasant, but it isn't horrible, either. Neither of them hurt - and both of them give the doctor an excellent view of what's going on inside you.  Buck up, go to the doctor and have whatever tests he says you need; your wife needs you around for awhile.

[Corvin]

Hi, yeah I think you should get whatever tests your doctor thinks you need. Scopes aren't too bad I've had a colon, and a bronch scope. Colonscopes, honestly the stuff they make you drink to empty your colon is worse than the procedure itself. Then they loop you up so you aren't really that aware of what's going on anyway. If you need an Endoscope they would have to numb your throat, and that will be the most unpleasant part of the procedure, after that they'll turn up the juice, and you'll probably fall asleep. I'm a strong advocate of chest x-rays, I think everyone 21 and older should get one every five years, just as part of a five year comprehensive checkup. It's kind of like we take better care of our cars than our own bodies a lot of times I think. I know quite a few men that ended up with colon cancer because they were to stubborn to go, and have a colonscope, and I live in a fairly small community, it's a lot more common than a person thinks, and they were pretty healthy active people before they got colon cancer.

The doc may have you try taking a course of Prilosec (Omeprazole), and see if it helps. I think you take it for two weeks if I remember right,  you should be able to buy it over the counter if your in the US, and you can ask for free samples when you go to the doc they'll probably give you some for free. Take care