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Chest infection? Post Nasal Drip? GERD? or Allergies?
About 4 years ago I had this same problem. I was sick with cold for about 4 days, I usually recover pretty quickly. Then I was left with phlegm type of build up in chest and throat for about 2-3 months. It would only happen in the morning around 10am- 3pm then went away. I could never spit up any phlegm. I do not know if it's coming from chest or what. I went to docs, he ordered x-rays and various other test and everything came back fine. Surprisingly it went away when I took a 1 week trip to Mammoth Ca where I spent a week hiking in fresh air.
Now fast forward to now with same problem. I went to doc again last week and he would not refer me to get CT scan done. I tend to think the worst possible. He said it was allergies because of my stuffy nose. I do however smoke marijuana daily but never any tobacco. So should I go to emergency room to get all the necessary work or should I just deal with the allergies or post nasal drip? Cuz it will cost me a pretty penny but i think it;s worth it so I can get all the bad thoughts out of my head.
Symptoms: tickle down throat at night, wake up with stuffed up nose, phlegm sensation in chest? and throat, phlegm type of cough without spitting out anything.
Not symptoms: pain in chest, waking up coughing, all day cough, problems breathing, blood, etc...
I do have mild asthma, but run and play basketball weekly without any complications.
Now fast forward to now with same problem. I went to doc again last week and he would not refer me to get CT scan done. I tend to think the worst possible. He said it was allergies because of my stuffy nose. I do however smoke marijuana daily but never any tobacco. So should I go to emergency room to get all the necessary work or should I just deal with the allergies or post nasal drip? Cuz it will cost me a pretty penny but i think it;s worth it so I can get all the bad thoughts out of my head.
Symptoms: tickle down throat at night, wake up with stuffed up nose, phlegm sensation in chest? and throat, phlegm type of cough without spitting out anything.
Not symptoms: pain in chest, waking up coughing, all day cough, problems breathing, blood, etc...
I do have mild asthma, but run and play basketball weekly without any complications.
Well you were right it was sinusitis. Basically it started off as acute bronchitis that lasted for a few weeks with coughs throughout the day. Then it left me with sinusitis. for about a month and a half. Flonase and sinus wash helped me get rid of everything. Glad I am back to normal.
I feel compelled to account my problems with postnasal drip and all accompanying symptoms, misery, and now finally, a complete cure. It is a long story, similar to the many I have read about on numerous websites, sans the cure part.
It started about 10 years ago or so with an occasional itchy throat and occasional cough, sneeze, or throat clearing. It continued to evolve through the years to get worse and worse, so that eventually it was debilitating, i.e., there was no normal life left. In the past three years, my business took me to China on some dozen occasions and while the stress of the trip is always pretty bad regardless of how you try to mitigate it, my trips were particularly stressful since I would return home with very bad sinus symptoms and be insomniac for up to a week afterward; more than could be accounted for by jet lag alone. In fact, eventually in the last couple of years, the symptoms were just plainly bad without regard for the trip to China.
I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t sleep. I was wheezing like I was asthmatic and was frequently sick with a cold or the flu. The insomnia could only be relieved with a strong dose of diphenylhydramine and Advil. I couldn’t lay on my left side for the wheezing and coughing. I had frequent headaches and rare migraine with aching muscles and joints. I developed a cardiac arrhythmia that lasted for several months before more or less magically disappearing. I know now why. I had to make a trip during all of this to a near sea level location, and since I live at an elevation of almost 6,000 ft, I was unable to clear my Eustachian tubes and lost my hearing for some time. I now wear hearing aids with a permanent hearing loss that was partly, at least, due to that event. In general, I have been a miserable human being and increasing felt unable to function.
I tried every known remedy. I spent thousands of dollars in pursuit of relief. I tried antibiotics, anti-fungals, antihistamines, immune builders, vitamins, nose sprays, oregano oil, you name it, I tried it. No relief. I changed my diet to exclude gluten, milk, and sugar, and unless you have tried that, you can’t imagine how little there is left to eat. None of it gave me lasting relief. And then one day. . .
I splurged and ate a little Bryers ice cream one evening. I had already concluded that sugar and milk were having little impact on the symptoms, but I got increasing worse as the evening wore on. I looked at the ingredient list and saw that it had little in it but milk, sugar, and carrageenan. So I wondered what is carrageenan? I looked it up and discovered that it was a thickening agent made from seaweed, and that it could contain up to 20% MSG??? So I wondered, is that the key problem with it??
This began a quest to uncover just what MSG, the substance we have all tried to avoid for years by reading labels, was really about. Our discovery was profound! MSG is now contained in as much as 90% of all commercially available food items. It is in just about every mouth full of food we eat in this country. I ate a pretty pure diet, but it didn’t matter. I checked the symptoms of MSG sensitivity and poisoning, and there I was!
My wife and I (she also has symptoms of sensitivity) immediately threw out a 6 months supply of extra food (several thousand dollars worth) and we are now on a MSG free diet.
My symptoms of MSG poisoning, every last one of them, along with my wife’s, disappeared in less than 24 hours!!!!!
I no longer have any of the problems that have plagued me for a long portion of my life. I strongly suggest that anyone with this problem do a simple two or three day test to see if it doesn’t stop their problems as well. It is not an easy transition to make and live with, but a hell of a lot easier than the continual life-robbing suffering.
I am including a list of links that can be opened to better explain how this situation is so out of control in the US and abroad. China is a hot-bed of MSG and undoubtedly contributed to my final three years of increasing misery. PLEASE, for the sake of yourself and your family, read the list of ingredients that now secretly hide the fact that MSG is in everything you consume.
I well know I sound like a radical zealot who has an axe to grind. I am not, but I never intend to allow the FDA, food companies, medical profession, health supplement companies and US government to destroy my health and life again. Please take action for yourself. I am a Pathologist (research and industrial) by education with a strong background in biochemistry and I know what I am talking about. Please open the links below.
http://agentlejoy.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/msg-hidden-and-not-so-hidden
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/ (a huge website)
http://www.msgmyth.com/ (a book written by someone who found out like I did)
http://www.msgtruth.org/avoid.htm
http://poisonevercure.150m.com/monosodium_glutamate.htm
This is just a few of the hundreds of sites about this terrible problem.
Skip Halterman
Navajo Dam, NM
It started about 10 years ago or so with an occasional itchy throat and occasional cough, sneeze, or throat clearing. It continued to evolve through the years to get worse and worse, so that eventually it was debilitating, i.e., there was no normal life left. In the past three years, my business took me to China on some dozen occasions and while the stress of the trip is always pretty bad regardless of how you try to mitigate it, my trips were particularly stressful since I would return home with very bad sinus symptoms and be insomniac for up to a week afterward; more than could be accounted for by jet lag alone. In fact, eventually in the last couple of years, the symptoms were just plainly bad without regard for the trip to China.
I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t sleep. I was wheezing like I was asthmatic and was frequently sick with a cold or the flu. The insomnia could only be relieved with a strong dose of diphenylhydramine and Advil. I couldn’t lay on my left side for the wheezing and coughing. I had frequent headaches and rare migraine with aching muscles and joints. I developed a cardiac arrhythmia that lasted for several months before more or less magically disappearing. I know now why. I had to make a trip during all of this to a near sea level location, and since I live at an elevation of almost 6,000 ft, I was unable to clear my Eustachian tubes and lost my hearing for some time. I now wear hearing aids with a permanent hearing loss that was partly, at least, due to that event. In general, I have been a miserable human being and increasing felt unable to function.
I tried every known remedy. I spent thousands of dollars in pursuit of relief. I tried antibiotics, anti-fungals, antihistamines, immune builders, vitamins, nose sprays, oregano oil, you name it, I tried it. No relief. I changed my diet to exclude gluten, milk, and sugar, and unless you have tried that, you can’t imagine how little there is left to eat. None of it gave me lasting relief. And then one day. . .
I splurged and ate a little Bryers ice cream one evening. I had already concluded that sugar and milk were having little impact on the symptoms, but I got increasing worse as the evening wore on. I looked at the ingredient list and saw that it had little in it but milk, sugar, and carrageenan. So I wondered what is carrageenan? I looked it up and discovered that it was a thickening agent made from seaweed, and that it could contain up to 20% MSG??? So I wondered, is that the key problem with it??
This began a quest to uncover just what MSG, the substance we have all tried to avoid for years by reading labels, was really about. Our discovery was profound! MSG is now contained in as much as 90% of all commercially available food items. It is in just about every mouth full of food we eat in this country. I ate a pretty pure diet, but it didn’t matter. I checked the symptoms of MSG sensitivity and poisoning, and there I was!
My wife and I (she also has symptoms of sensitivity) immediately threw out a 6 months supply of extra food (several thousand dollars worth) and we are now on a MSG free diet.
My symptoms of MSG poisoning, every last one of them, along with my wife’s, disappeared in less than 24 hours!!!!!
I no longer have any of the problems that have plagued me for a long portion of my life. I strongly suggest that anyone with this problem do a simple two or three day test to see if it doesn’t stop their problems as well. It is not an easy transition to make and live with, but a hell of a lot easier than the continual life-robbing suffering.
I am including a list of links that can be opened to better explain how this situation is so out of control in the US and abroad. China is a hot-bed of MSG and undoubtedly contributed to my final three years of increasing misery. PLEASE, for the sake of yourself and your family, read the list of ingredients that now secretly hide the fact that MSG is in everything you consume.
I well know I sound like a radical zealot who has an axe to grind. I am not, but I never intend to allow the FDA, food companies, medical profession, health supplement companies and US government to destroy my health and life again. Please take action for yourself. I am a Pathologist (research and industrial) by education with a strong background in biochemistry and I know what I am talking about. Please open the links below.
http://agentlejoy.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/msg-hidden-and-not-so-hidden
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/ (a huge website)
http://www.msgmyth.com/ (a book written by someone who found out like I did)
http://www.msgtruth.org/avoid.htm
http://poisonevercure.150m.com/monosodium_glutamate.htm
This is just a few of the hundreds of sites about this terrible problem.
Skip Halterman
Navajo Dam, NM
I was able to finally get some greenish phlegm out. Is this related to sinus? Hopefully this can be treated with antibiotics?
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
That you have asthma increases the likelihood that you also have rhinitis (nasal inflammation) and/or sinusitis. Having had a normal chest X-ray the first time around is good news and assuming that the recurrence is the same type of illness, it is likely that your X-ray would be normal but, to be on the safe side, especially with your history of smoke and daily use of pot, you should probably have another Chest X-ray. That would rule out most serious disease and obviate the need for a (expensive) CT Scan.
I assume, from your description, that this recurrence is an acute (few days to a week or two) illness. If that is the case, my advice would be for you to “deal with the allergies & post-nasal drip with over-the-counter meds and cut-back on the marijuana smoking. If your symptoms don’t clear with this regimen, you should go back to your doctor, request a chest X-ray and request prescription medication (antibiotic and antihistamine) for the presumed sinusitis. Don’t waste your money on an ER Visit.
Regarding the “bad thoughts” what you describe is not suggestive of more serious disease. But, once again, if the symptoms persist even after additional treatment by your doctor, you will need further diagnostic studies.
Yes, it is safe to workout, unless you have developed additional symptoms not mentioned in your first message, such as chills, fever, shortness of breath etc.
Good luck
I assume, from your description, that this recurrence is an acute (few days to a week or two) illness. If that is the case, my advice would be for you to “deal with the allergies & post-nasal drip with over-the-counter meds and cut-back on the marijuana smoking. If your symptoms don’t clear with this regimen, you should go back to your doctor, request a chest X-ray and request prescription medication (antibiotic and antihistamine) for the presumed sinusitis. Don’t waste your money on an ER Visit.
Regarding the “bad thoughts” what you describe is not suggestive of more serious disease. But, once again, if the symptoms persist even after additional treatment by your doctor, you will need further diagnostic studies.
Yes, it is safe to workout, unless you have developed additional symptoms not mentioned in your first message, such as chills, fever, shortness of breath etc.
Good luck
Me again, is it safe for me to workout again with prolonging symptoms? btw, im 27 male
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