LPR/Silent Reflux - desperately in need of a miracle. Has anyone recovered from this?

I see the logic now that you've pointed it out to me. Also found on top right page where my account info is a smallish box that tells me I have received notifications and then see a brief message. When I click on that, I am directed to the post. I am all for change if it improves a situation but this current system is burdensome and not easy. I could not even find a help button to send a message of complaint to patient.info though if I search hard enough I am sure I will find it. Just frustrated and tired chasing for the posts to be revealed. I agree also about the edit function which has also disappeared. The sort buttons for oldest, latest and Most Votes do not work either. The page numbers function is awry too. 

Did they not do any User testing???? Bring back the old system. Sack the ones that wrote a brief to make what was once a good system on this website to a more complicated one. 

Rant over but still disattisfied. 

The style was changed so users can reply to individual comments rather than the whole discussion. The way the discussions evolve sometimes means that one reply is a list of responses to several users so having the nested conversations keeps the relevant posts together. If you want to reply to the whole thread rather than an individual nested comment scroll back to the top of the page and use the Reply box under the original post. I have suggested that a "Reply to this discussion" box is put back on the bottom of each page which is being discussed.

There has never been an edit function and this is something else that is being looked at as part of ongoing development. There used to be a "Preview" box but now the reply box shows you your post as it will appear once submitted so can be reviewed before clicking the Reply button.

The sort buttons work but they will sort the direct replies to the initial discussion in date order, ie latest, but the replies to comments will remain in date order within the nested conversation(s).

If you have any other issues or suggestions there is a discussion here https://patient.info/forums/discuss/new-style-forums-196496 where you can post and I will see them or you can message me if required by clicking the envelope under my username.

Regards,

Alan

Emis Moderator

I have looked at the forum with a fresh eye after the explanations. I can now see the virtues behind the changes and am publicly apologising for my earlier rant. I noticed that each nested conversation is trunked at the end of any activity in that nest and that came as a surprising but good revelation. 

I have however another couple of suggestions to make which I will write privately to you on the new-style-forums page and after just checking out other forums to see what also are good layouts (Ha plagiarising from others - I will not mention the sources:-) )

Thanks once more. 

I have the burping still, not as much though and hick-ups seem rarer. Nexum I never took, I have been on a very strict diet for some time and follow the advice of Dr. Jamie Koufman in her book about acid reflux.

I take omeprazol, DGL licorice is good for diminishing the mucus, drink only alkaline water and gargle after meals and swallow it. Slippery elm I also take. I am allergic to mastic gum, I also can not take Manukka honey as it hurts my tummy. Probiotics I can not take, enzimes hurt me at the moment but maybe later on.

I learnt how to breath using the diaphgram, take gentle exercise, no lifting, sleep on my left side and I eleveted my bed. It is good to buy a pHmeter.

I am seriously considering surgery, Nissan or Linx. I have no desire to stay hooked on medicine for the rest of my life, suffer the effects of long term medication. I know some people found cabbage juice very effective, I can not take it as I have problems with my thyroid gland. A good book is Ulcer free, Nature's safe and effective remedy for ulcers by G. Halpern, very informative!

Surgery is not to be feared, quite the opposite! Our bodies need to produce acid, to protect us from all sorts, it is a vicious circle!

Thanks so, so very much for your kind reply.  It means ever so much.  I am so glad I found this forum, as I am sure you are.

Congratulations on doing so much to help yourself.  I'm sure you are on a good and positive path.  

I was  wondering ... how long have you been suffering with this ... to the extent that you are now seriously considering surgery.  I would love to know more about the time frame surrounding your adventures. How long have you been on the medication.  I would be now loathed to ever retreat to such now - given that - as far as I'm concerned - it serves as the base of these current problems.  I, myself, have being only having the bulk of these symptoms for just over three weeks now - as a direct result of having taken the Nexium - misguidedly I now realise - for something completely non-related.  Silly really, but at the time I was very anxious about the head pressure on the back left quadrant.  This may have been complicated by the fact that I had taken one round of the antibiotic Amoxcillian - given to me by my dentist thinking I might have an ear infection - followed - after that was finished - and with only a few days in between - by another round of Amoxcillan mixed with Metronidazole (potent stuff) when I had the wisdom tooth extraction.  But about a week later I was given another round of Amoxcillan at King's College Hospital.  So, methinks, an overdose of antibotics - all being squelched in the mix with the Nexium.  Foolish me, perhaps, for blindly following orders.  That, too, was the way I was raised oh, so long ago now.  As I said, dear Daniela, I would love to know your time frame.

I will try the slippery eel.  (Never could stomach the jellied ones  ... but perhaps slid down in a capsule form I might be able to persuade myself of their medicinal worthiness.

Again, bless you for caring, Daniela.  Bless you big time.

Cheers, Meunier

I had gastritis about 10 years ago, I took omeprazol for a while and kept a strict diet for two months or so, had an endoscopy. It healed up nicely, I also took some herbal remedies. I was told by my consultant (private healthcare!) to be sensible in my eating and watch the acid food intake. I was fine  for a long time and then I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, and I started to gain weight as my metabolism slowed down, about46%.

I was always slim, watching what I eat and exercised regularly all my life. So, I believe my acid reflux started then after gaining weight. It is a slow proccess and I did not have any symptoms in the beginning. After a while the burping started and the mucus in my throat, but no pain. So, I tried to loose weight but had more or less a normal diet.

No vinegars, I ate a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat, fish. No acidic drinks, coffee, I do not smoke.

So, I lost some of the weight ( I never put on a great deal of weight!) and hoped for the best. But unfortunately I got this acid reflux confirmed by my doctor. I have been reading a lot about acid reflux, Medical Journal and so on and I have been on medication and a strict diet for two months now, I do not take omeprazol daily. I am considering surgery because I do not want to be miserable, enjoy time out with my friends, go out and not keep avoiding restaurants. A sensible diet for the rest of my life I agree with, but not one so strict that makes me an outcast! The healing proccess takes up to a year, even if you are off the meds, just using herbal pills and an acid free diet. 

Thanks so,so very much for yours.  The detail means much.  Bless you.  

I can completely understand when you say that you don't want to find yourself on an exclusionary social merry-go-round.  A year and a half ago I had a bout with the paracitacle infection Giardia, caught while undertaking a project in Malta for my work. It took a long time to be sorted when I came back here.  I was told that I most likely had MS and a raft of other things in the lead up to a discovery..  As an outcome of this - the only positive I think - is that I found that I DID have some foraminal stenosis.  I have been very careful vis a vis that aspect ever since. I am, for my sins, 5'11.5" tall and then weighed at the very most 170 lbs.  Wanting to keep myself as trim as I could I went down to 148 which is where I am now.  That is optimum I think.  Even when I was a teenager and then well into my 30's I was religiously 153 lbs.  I haven't noticed any change in my weight of late ... nor in my blood pressure - even though I have stopped the Lisinopril which I took for decades for genetic high blood pressure.  (I stopped because I was concerned it was contributing to the head pressure I was feeling.  It wasn't.)  Still, perhaps that drug has now done the work in my system that it needed and the normalcy of my blood pressure is stable somehow.  To lose the weight I followed a strict diet - which I follow even now - with one change.  (Like yourself I have never smoked and, indeed, never drank alcohol.  My parents both died from its poisoning.  It is not something that attracts me.)  Daily I have porridge oats (dry) mixed with milled flax seed and sliced apples in the morning; brown rice and parsley and cucumber (it used to be tomatoes but I changed that now) for my main meal and for dinner - if I need it - I have a repeat of the breakfast - or simply some more cucumber.  I only drink boiled water and, like yourself, do not eat in restaurants or airplanes.  I do not eat sugar and certainly try not to eat anything with processed salt. I occasionally sprinkle a litte sea salt on the cucumbers as I think it prudent for health.  The only time in the last year I have actually eaten in a restaurant was a few weeks ago in Paris where I had a plain omlette and somehow managed to live to tell the tale (obviously).  When I travel for work ...I take porridge oats mixed with the flax seed with me in my luggage and then buy vegetables locally usually from stalls on the street (if I can find them).  I also take a boat load of vitamins.  Before the Giardia dance I had a cholesterol reading of 6+.  Now I range between 3.85 and 4.  

I am now waiting for a delivery of the Alkzone drops for the water ... and hopefully that should go some distance to helping with the remaining mucus ... Although that too has not been a huge problem of late, e.g., I have not felt the need to expectorate in the morning as I did for a couple of days a few weeks ago.)  I am hoping the few silent burps felt in or just below the throat after meals will too disapate in short order ... but feel I certainly should at least have this seen to by someone who has some idea of what it is that they are looking at.  It's sometimes just so hard to convince the doctors in the GP surgery.

Again, I cannot thank you enough for all your kind asistance and advice.  It is, I promise, treasured.

Bless you, Daniela.  Bless you BIG TIME. 

I think Daniella meant slippery elm NOT eel. I have started taking the slippery elm powder (only find it in good healthfood stores or on-line) and I do think that it helps to coat the throat on its way down as it is somewhat sticky. Can't rave about the taste but it seems that it is healing. You feel it is. What I think it does for me is pull the mucus down that seems to want to just hang there in my throat and it supposedly heals the stomach once it gets there too. 

Another thig I have noted on this forum is how many people's issues began after a bout of flue etc leading them to take anti-biotics and then the issues begin. We are not properly informed of the side affects and do think that the rapid clearing of all the good and bad bacteria by the antibiotics disturbs the normal body functions and healing abilities. I take pro-biotics all the time and certainly when I got regimental about taking them my stomach seemed to go to a niticably comfortable state.

Good luck with your issues. I am reading your post with interest as have a friend who is also suffering with quadrant headache/pressures to the back of her head. Though in her case,an X-ray found that she has arthritis in the neck and the doctors put it down to the neck pressure causing her headaches. Hmmm. In fact, I accompanied my said friend to her GP appointment yesterday to ask why she wasn't being sent for an MRI scan to rule out anything else significant going on there as she has had this headache for 4 years daily. Happily, the doctor agreed that he will refer her following a visit to the opticians where the GP said many things going on in the head can be revealed through and eye examination. I may write with any further info as her situation developes. In the meantime all the best to you in your healing journey.

I share the hypothyroid symptom in addition to the mucus in throat at night and mornings and sometimes (though rarely in the day). Diagnosed as having esonophilic esophagitis following an endoscopy just recently. I understand this is a much missed diagnosis and can be related to gastritis and/or allergic reactions to airborn and ingested stuff. I had allergy tests done but they came back inconclusive to any particular thing though blood tests shoed that I do indeed have allergies (Immunoglobulin E was high if that makes sense to anyone) I am still in-between consultations with and ENT specialist, Gastro doc and also now a very excellent endocrinologist. I have been taken off my levothyroxin - under the doc's supervision -was on 25mg since March 2013 and all blood tests came back with normal readings not requiring any reason  to up the dosage. All my other hormones came back normal so we are wondering if the first reading of being hypothyroid was a rogue reading. In the meantime, am noting (having come off the Levothyrxine for 2 weeks today) that I am losing weigh that was just not possible to shift and feeling my body is lighter. The swelling in my ankes has gone also which has constantly been there since last summer and also on my knees. I can run both up and down stairs now. Yes, incerdeibly on just 2 weeks these are the differences coming off the Levothroxine. I do not recommend anyone to just come off the medication as I have an open door to the doc's very full diary in case any issues hypothyroid related occur. I am due for some follow up blood tests in 2 weeks to see what the effect is coming off the Levothyroxine. The point I am making here though it is early days was I started to wonder if I had issues originally because perhaps I was low on Iodine which the thyroid needs to function. Have done a home test yesterday and it seems that I do indeed need iodine. I am vegetarian and never use iodised salt. So my intake in a nrmal diet is probally nil or very small amount.

In my research and there is a lot on the Net I have found that a deficiency in Iodine causes so many good health issues and gastritis is one of them. Have a look at this link and there are many that repeat the same information, and many peer reviewed experiments that show a dissipation of the issues on normalising Iodine levels. Still early days on this issue here for me but it certainly is a connection for me for being hypothyroid and with the Gastritis.

Hope this is of any help. I am going to ask if I can have an Iodine test done in the labs (24 hour urine collection test) and certainly take the Iodine supplements (Kelp????) once the results are out.  

_____

Like I said, this is a random link I have cut and pasted as it refers to many health conditions caused by Iodine deficiency but there is much more information out there on the subject if you or anyone else wants to dig a bit further. 

Good luck dear friends.

Patient Moderator Note: I have removed an URL (a link) from this reply as it is not suitable for inclusion within the patient.info forums. If any user is interested in this removed information then please contact the author via the Private Messaging system requesting such. Thank you for your cooperation.

Bless you for your kind response.  It is much appreciated.  

I did, of course, mean 'elm' and not 'eel'.  I became aware of this almost immediatley after I pushed the 'submit' key ... but sadly could not find an 'edit' button to make a suitable alteration.  Still, in all it does read as (hopefully) funny ... so that is not entirely a bad thing methinks.

I have, as it happens, ordered some slippery elm and will begin sliding it down my throat tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it ... and, indeed, all that Daniela (who has been most kind) has recommended as well, including the 'Dropping Acid' book which I am eager to delve into.  

The UK antibiotic horror show is a concerning one; especially given the obvious rapidity with which certain ones are being doled out.  I asked the relevant doctor at King's College Hospital - and she had been I must confess most attentive/professional - why she was handing me yet another round of Amoxcillan when I'd already had two others of a similar strength within but a month's period.  She agreed that resistance was a possibility but still put it in my hand.  I wonder - if that resistance combined with the misguided application of the four nexium tablets -  is the root cause to the residual (seemingly LPR) sensations I am feeling now (which truth told are certainly disturbing but no sense in my own case could be defined as being knowingly debilitating.)  JPT notes on his fulsome FB page that it takes 8 to 26 weeks to clear the Nexium effect. (Charming!)  I'm just at the three and a half week point so obviously there is much to look forward to, huh ...Still, in all, there is some hope ... I only pray I'm not doing incalculable damage to my own person in the interim. That would be unforgivable under the circumstances.

GP Surgery doctors always seem - at least to me - to want to send people to the opticians.  It is I suppose the cheapest route (largely because most NHS patients pay for it themselves) to see if there is any inter-cranial damage.  There rarely is, of course, and I suspect this may be cause enough in their book NOT to put forward an elevation for a cervical MRI for your friend. While her optical nerves may well be as flat as a pancake that is NOT going to inform as to the continuing desecration of her cervical spine ... which is directly related to her headache problems.  I paid to privately have an updated cervical spine MRI to see if there was any change from the one I had a year and a half ago at St.Thomas' Hospital. (There was seemingly none I'm pleased to report.)  That said, my own incentive in doing such did achieve an NHS appointment for physiotherapy ... so some good has come of it.  I pray that you have similar success with your friend.  

Key to all of these things is, I think, simply not giving up.  If we do, then the world must suffer.  Inevitably we are none of us alone.  We all bear a certain responsibility for each other.  Your kind sharing in my own regard is cherished. 

Again, huge thanks for all.   

Thank you for sharing all of these with me! I had also had a test done to check my iodine and I am fine now but I had to have some iodised salt added to my diet!

As for coming off your thyroid meds, good for you! I also take a low dosage, have regular blood tests and keep on top of it. My weight is normal and since I have been on such a strict diet for this acid reflux, I lost all the excess weight pretty fast! 

I will have a further look for any kind of information I can find on iodine deficiency, as well or anything else important about the underactive thyroid.

Take care,

I wanted to give you an update on my hypothyroid condition but was not able to send you a private mail as you have disabled the function it seems.

I am so happy to say that after coming off the Levothyroxine and new blood tests taken a month later that the results which I received last week have shown that I have a normal functioning thyroid. I was ecstatic to hear the news. I had often suspected if I was underactive as there was only one blood result showing my TSH and T4 levels as raised and then was put on 25mg of Levothyroxine. All subsequent tests came out normal which is what you would expect but I had hypothyroid symptoms (which I did not have before). Dizziness, bloating, water retention, inability to lose weight, dark rings around my eyes, cramping and fluid around my joints, cellulitis, irregular periods and the worst offender was I was tired and could sleep all day long if I could. I kept going back to the doctors and complaining that the pills were not working and I was told time and time again that it takes time for the pills to kick in. Within 2 weeks of stopping the levothyroxine, ALL of my symptoms subsided. When I met my endocrinologist (Fantastic professor) he said I had the hypothyroid symptoms because I did not need the Levothyroxine and my body was reacting with hypothyroid symptoms. Wow. I was taking the medication for 14 months before testing whether I needed it in the first place. He said I probably had some throat virus when the rogue blood tests came through and true enough I had taken time off work for 2 weeks just prior to the tests which I thought was tonsils related which I have always suffered from and have since had my tonsils out. I wonder how many people are on the medication and am alarmed to read even on this forum how many people are suffering from unwanted and rather serious symptoms from the Levothyroxine. I completely understand that it is very dangerous to just come off the medication as a true hypothyroid person could impair their condition for the worst. However, taking my case as an example, my endocrinologist did suggest that he will now lecture on the need for double testing the blood results once hypothyroid conditions are suggested by blood tests showing the TSH and T4 is out of range. 

On another up. I have started to see some significant changes to my chronic cough production on the gastric and esonophilic esophagistis condition which I would primarily put to following a non strict diet but otherwise eating high pH foods (mainly greens) and alkaline water and for me my best friend is liquorice tea since January. I have been steam  inhaling cabbage and ginger also for up to once/twice weekly. Some people have commented on this forum that it is not a quick fix but perseverence and faith that all that is shared on the forum comes from good anecdotes of real people testing and sharing their successes as well as their trauma's.

On the iodine connection, I started taking Kelp 2 weeks back and also using Himalayan salt which is supposed to be choc full of essential minerals and iodine. All good stuff.

Hope you are also progressing in an upward direction. Please update if you are.