Do I have GERD/LPR or vagus nerve damage in my throat?
Posted , 29 users are following.
I need help! I am so confused. I went for an upper endoscopy in late April due to upper stomach IBS cramping and a week after that I started having this terrible lump in the throat sensation, chest pain around the colorbone, burping and just a feeling of food laying in my esophagus. I have never had this before. The Scope showed only a small hiatal hernia no GERD no damage they even used the word beautiful! I visited my ENT and he did the larnyxscope down the nose to the throat and said my throat is moderatley inflammed which 99.9% of the time means Reflux is coming up and irritating it. Then visited the GI doc and he put me on Omoprazole 40mg once a day for a month. No change even with diet changes. Lost 14lbs and I can't bear to loose anymore weight! Then he increased the dose to two a day 40mg in morning and night - I tried this for a week but I just felt like crap and then I read about LPR which seems to be caused by the pepsin not the acid coming up to the throat so I stopped the medicine. Went back to ENT - did the scope again said the throat was still inflammed. I asked him about the pepsin salivary test and the PH probe and he said he does not like doing them because no matter what the outcome it will still be treated the same however my GI is ready to do the PH probe but I have heard horrible things about this test and am very scared to put something esle down my throat. I am back on a different PPI now - nexium generic 40mg day and night for a month before I get this test. I am taking makuna honey, probilotic and I was wondering about the apple cider vinegar seems like people have good luck with this but won't it inflame my throat more? Then I also wonder if I had nerve damage during the scope and it is my nerve that needs to heal? I am just so confused and could use anyone's help- my husband is getting sick of hearing me complain and I am just not the mom I used to be! My favorite time of the day is night time because my lump in throat goes away until when I wake up and drink or eat. I am also full of healh anxiety as I have had uterine cancer in the past so every lump, bump or pain makes me think cancer- please help! Thanks in advance!
1 like, 35 replies
aryt klc78900
Posted
PH probe test is that like a PH study 24 hour test..
I had the PH Study test, a tube through the nose down into the throat and it was horrible,and I mean horrible even though the nurse at the time told me I had nothing to worry about Man was she wrong' I had to sleep with it inside of me,
For 24 hours, when I told people about this problem they said oh Iv had similar done to me -my reaction was yeah right " they have no idea what pain youre going through..I also have chest problems as well'. as in pins and needles in my chest on both sides, and when I told or mention this to the nurses in the " Breast Care Centre she had stated that it was hormones but I refuse to Believe that'. I get the pains everyday'. so I take codeine for this and the pain is still there'.. so Yeah Im kind of fed up with what the doctors say'. I think sometimes people dont realise the pain youre going through unless they experience it themselves'. I feel like they are hypocrites' tbh
valerie46963 klc78900
Posted
Omg your symptoms and story is so similar to mine. I however have a burning amonina the smell in the back of my throat and pains in my check. They are non stop now. I too am heading back to the GI Doctor for endoscopy for the second time and my routine colonoscopy. Had the 24 hour prob. Not that bad. Back on PPIs. Again. ENT can't figure it out. Allergist and Pulmanary Doctor is convinced it's not my lungs. H pylori is neg. and we removed the gallbladder almost a year ago. Just so tired of feeling like garbage. Spouse is tired of hearing me complain too. I am much better when I eat nonacid triggers. But this never goes away. I wish you luck in getting better. I don't wish this on anyone
valerie46963
Posted
klc78900 valerie46963
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How are you doing after your endo and colonoscopy? Did they find any GERD? I am the same- same damn lump in throat sensation sometimes with pain. It drives me crazy and taking over my life- it has now been almost 5 months just don't know where to turn anymore.
kay46681 klc78900
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Did you get better? I have something very similar happening. I went for an endoscopy and immediately afterwards had difficulty breathing, chest pain, and throat constriction. A feeling as something has been stuffed in my throat. It has been debilitating. This has been going on for 9 months. Upon exertion my chest and neck have this intense pressure constriction feeling. I too believe I have vague nerve damage? What do you know about this and where did you find help? I've seen a pulmonary doctor an ENT and will be seeing a neurologist.
todd43689 kay46681
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klc78900 kay46681
Posted
Hi Kay- No I have not gotten better though I have good days and bad days. After writing the above email I was so fed up I went online and found one of the best throat doctors in the country. He was at John Hopkins hosptial and made an appointment. Luckily I only live about 2 hours from Baltimore so it wasn't too bad. When I went to him he scoped my throat and he showed me the pictures of what it looked like inside. He said "your throat is not red" - after hearing that for 6 months I couldn't believe it- I had been so afraid that I would never heal my red throat and I would end up getting cancer from it and here it is not even red. He did say I have a lot of thick secretions (phlegm) in my throat sitting there which can be causing the lump in throat. Then he proceeded to write me up instructions on what to do next and here it is:
There are a lot of potential causes for globus pharynegeus (lump in throat) which can be broadly characterized as:
Dryness
Sinus nasal inflammation
Relfux- acid or non acid
Esopahgeal dysmotility and or cricopharnygeal hypertonicity
Sensory neuropathy
Anxiety
Regarding these
Dryness- you have thick secretions in your throat. Possible testing blood work for Sjogrens syndrome,. This may be exacerbated by your mouth breathing, try breathe right strips, increase hydration, use saline spary to nose, humididier etc.
Sinus- you don't have these symptoms though you tested positive for allergies like pollens and cat- treat allergies with medication
Reflux- dual ph impedance is the gold standard for looking at reflux and non acid reflux particularty when it does not respond to PPIs
esophageal dysmotility- can be studied with a modified barium swallow manomety can be done by the same GI specialist who does dual Ph impedance
Sensory Neurothrapy - this is a diagnosis of exclusion we don't have bloodwork or xrays to look at this we generally treat this empirically if everything esle has been ruled out eitehr with gabepentin or amitriptyline. This would cover vagus nerve issues. Ask Neurologist for this
Anxiety- It is hoepfully reassuring that neither EGD or ENT scope has seen anything concerning
In the absense of anything dangerous do as little or as much of the above that makes sense to you. Work step by step try one thing out for a month or so then if it doesn't work try the next.
So from all of that I walked out feeling like I was actually going to get someplace. I stopped my crazy reflux diet after loosing 20 lbs which I didn't need to loose and went back eating semi normally. I notice that when I am away from home I do not have the lump in throat sensation. At home lately I have been getting white mucus at the back of my throat each morning but when I am away from home I don't have it so it is probably allergy. I haven't tried the allergy medication yet but I am going to start. I never wanted to do the impedance test as I did not want something down my throat again so I never did that. I just kept telling myself it is not reflux. Can I ask what the pulmonologist did? I always worry about my lungs and cancer even though I am not a smoker it is always in the back of my head since I like you sometimes feel constriction in my chest. My neurologist gave me the gabepentin but I never took it becasue I read the side effects sounded terrrible to me. So I am sorry I am not more help.
michelle_66274 klc78900
Posted
Hi there, Sorry to hear of your situation. Hopefully one of these new ideas will help! I have a lot of the same symptoms, but chickened out getting the endoscopy. I had the scope that goes from the nose into the throat by the ENT, who said my lower throat looked red. That was 9 months ago! I was suffering with a lot of sore throats in the mornnig and evenings around that time, but mostly mucus in the esophagus area, sometimes going up behind my nose. The Dr. assumed LPR, and put me on PPIs, but they didn't work, and in fact seemed to make me have more reflux. So nine months later my reflux symptoms don't seem as bad and the sore throats have eased up, but still having phlegm problems in the throat. I was thinking I was misdiagnosed, and had some sort of damage to the vagus nerve from a hard night of crying! I know that probabl sounds crazy, but being hormonal and being a caregiver finally caught up with me and one night I had a "good cry" to where I could feel the muscles in my throat tighten. My symptoms started literally the next day and haven't been normal since then! Any thoughts?
Quandryite klc78900
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I am sorry no one replied to you, and I hope that you are no longer following the thread because you are now feeling fine. People - I, I should say - will go on and on when they have "mystery" symptoms. What else to do? It isn't as though keeping busy as the blazes will block out the symptoms. I believe that my sliding hiatal hernia, and vagus nerve are responsible for what has been diagnosed as cardiac diseases, and I've said so for ten years. I, too, have had a cancer - a "mild" breast cancer, but even if I hadn't, your having had uterine cancer will very naturally and normally make you insane with fear when something isn't right. I just wanted to say that I understand and empathize, and that I'd bet you're correct that the scope had a negative effect. The least they could do is admit the possibility. Most of us are far better at dealing with realities than suppositions, right?
john66134 Quandryite
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Not sure who you are responding to but when you ended with scope maybe causing someone damage, I thought I'd run this past you. I have GERD but no major issues. BUT...since I was due for colon anyway, I went ahead and had EGD. I have had false breathlessness and other odd symptoms sporadically for years (silent reflux, I think they call it) before I gathered from lazy medical field that it was likely GERD. Two yrs ago (also with colon), I had a EGD with no notable findings. But in the interim two yrs, I was having more odd symptoms, so I again tied in EGD in with colon. Seemed to go off without a hitch on a Monday but swallowing issues developed by Friday. I have had no hint of this problem in 56 yrs of life and I feel sure this procedure is responsible. Follow up with GI today resulted in Dr saying he had no idea what symptoms were related to and said he'd never heard of EGD side effects kicking in four days afterwards. I can find zero help anywhere on line and now fear I have some sort of nerve damage to muscles in my throat that control effortless swallowing. This is beyond sad, since I did this in an abundance of caution and now have a new and very troubling issue...and when does it get worse? Then what? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
hannah82665 klc78900
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Lurcecita klc78900
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is anyone still suffering here? I have the same as you. I’ve been suffering this for two years from now 😢 . I feel like if some sticky phlegm is in the pharyngeal area and I am not able to swallow ... and the throat muscles contract and want to cough that phelgmy. Sometimes gets worst when I talk and at the end of the day. I think is a nerve damaged. The strange thing is that maybe for some weeks I am ok and is just like if nothing happens and then I think “I am normal again it was all on my mind” and then started again and I am bad and feel depressed.
todd43689 Lurcecita
Posted
Sorry to hear about your problem. I had the same problem and went to half a dozen specialists. I think it's possible some of us just have over sensitive nerves in our throats, just as some people who suffer from IBS are suffering from sensitivity to foods caused by overactive nerves. I would ask your doctor and they can put you on a low dose elavil just to see if it helps. I know it's very depressing to feel like this, but hopefully there is something that can be done to make you feel normal again.
Lurcecita todd43689
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vincent40994 todd43689
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Hey Guys, since about the end of Jan 2019 ive had similar issues of constant globus and pins and needles in chin/jawline following a Upper respiratory infection of some sort. Todd I saw you've been dealing with this for quite some time in other threads. Has it went away for you since then? Hoping this issue is just going to be a waiting game type of thing until the nerves damage heals. Hoping pins and needles is a positive sign that the nerve endings are regenerating. Hope to hear back from you.