Unexplained nausea/gagging and throat tightness truly related to GERD?

I have had this for over twenty years and had no idea what it was, Drs were focusing on autoimmune diseases, For twenty years I thought I was the only person with symptoms like this and just couldn't find an answer, it has only been a couple of months that I have known what I have, so I am a bit overdue for an endoscopy.  Whatever they find or don't find I know exactly what I have, and that is LPR. I have every symptom of this illness.  I'm glad to see it didn't take you as long to get her.

But yes i was fully awake for my procedure. I was given an anesthetic to drink and that was supposed to numb my throat. Must have been a joke or something because i pretty much felt everything. And if that was the anesthetic i would be amazed at how terrible it feels without any form of anesthesia.

The doctor performing my procedure told me that i was probably supposed to be given some form of Vicodin or sleeping medication to help me relax, but my main doctor for whatever reason decided it "was not necessary". So i was nervous and shaky during the whole thing, and experienced constant gagging, vomiting, and could basically feel whatever they were doing in my stomach. I don't want to alarm you but honestly it was probably one of the worst experiences of my short existence and i never want to do it again.

So i am very glad that you will have the chance to be asleep for your procedure. It is not a comfortable thing to go through while awake. 

This past couple of months what I have felt in my neck was a lump and pain on the left side at times and it seemed very hard to swallow, it felt swollen but not sure it was. It was tight and hard to swallow. There was so much going on at that time I can't say for sure if it was actually swollen or just the lump. I was more concerned with nausea and trying to eat and keep food down.

I am pretty happy to be out for the endoscopy, sorry you had to go through that the way you did. Next time you now know you will want to be out.

I also have the same symptoms in my life, so you are all far from alone, please Cheryl let us know how you're doing, a glimpse of hope would be great

Did the nausea stop on its own? I'm glad it feels better for you! 20 years sounds like a terribly long time to wait, but for now on my side it's just been different diets trying to find any new allergic reactions, and it wasn't acid reflux either, but nausea is still a big problem. It interrupts plans and friends and makes everything very difficult. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to stop the nausea but so far no dice

Hey Salman,

Please let me know if you come up with a nausea fixer. I know exactly what you mean by it kind of taking over your life. I have reflux and the worst symptom in spite of the PPI that I take daily, is the nausea. the second worse is the lump in the throat sensation. I think the lump is mainly triggered by stress but the nausea I can't figure out. It seems that I suffer from it almost constantly now. Doesn't matter what I eat or if I even eat nothing. I'm so sick (excuse the pun) of it. It definitely has diminished my quality of life. Sometimes I take Gravol to try and relieve it , but it doesn't always work. The drs . more less say it might be something I'll just have to live with and that thought makes it all worse.

I even have the lump in throat situation, it's like a constant swollen lymph node, but everything you just explained is the exact same. And I definitely don't want to have to "live with it" that just isn't an option, so if I find out how to stop the nausea, you all will be the first to hear about it

Thanks. I'm looking forward to it lol. I agree that potentially having to put up with this for years and years is definitely not an option.

Hi Carol, I am so sorry you are also still dealing with this crap. I am not sure either if you tried medication, I do remember you wrote to me on at least one of these sites and it felt so good to be validated when I was so sick. I am not sure if you are one that the meds didn't work for either which is just the worst as you have no reprieve from this hell. I will have to go back and find your story to jog my memory. I hope you can find some help soon. 

When I first had reflux 20 years ago I didn't know what I had and so there was no medication prescribed and the nausea was there for 4 years and then another 3 off and on. Then it went away and stayed away until this past winter/spring when I over exercised on a treadmill and then got back the nausea again. I had started with a new Dr that knew what the problem was - acid reflux. the silent type. She put me on Omeprazole and the nausea went away within less than an hour, it took many weeks for the rest of the symptoms to subside but they have.

 I also have been on an extremely strict diet eating only chicken, tuna, Total cereal, raisins, skim milk, bananas, watermelon, minimal bread, absolutely no condiments or seasonings other than salt until this past month and now I am trying new foods.

I am still not clear if you are taking medications to help or just diet or do the meds not work for you?

After the years of nausea I am willing to take medications to help with this, I know they are not good for us but I couldn't live like that again. It is so awful to feel like you have the flu for years, people just don't understand unless they have lived this one. Nausea and weakness and breathless all at once just leave a person lifeless. I hope you can find an answer or at least some temporary relief from this horrible affliction. No one should have to live like this.   

I was told by an ER doctor that it may be something I will have to put up with for life. I sure hope not.

Do you feel the medication is helping at all? At times I would like to get off from this but I don't want to feel crappy again and until I am ready to try it I will just keep taking it. I don't feel things are good enough at this point to try and get off. I was just told by my Dr that I may just have to live with my breathing issue, which I will take over the nausea issue.

 I am taking Pantoprazole also my GI changed it from Omeprazole to Pantoprazole I guess it dosen't have as many side effects?? 

Do you change your diet? Mine was so strict I wasn't sure I got better from the diet or the meds. It might have been both but I do believe it was the medication at first as the nausea stopped right away. Thank goodness or I would have died from starvation by now. I went from 170 to 135, I have gained back 5 pounds and kind of like being 140. I can now wear skinny jeans stretch of course.

I do hope you don't have to live like this forever, the feeling of being nauseous all the time is quite draining. 

I don't think the medication is helping much. As a matter of fact I asked the doc to switch me to the Omeprazole instead and he said the Pantoprazole was the best (maybe less side effects). I did try eliminating the meds a few times in case it was they themselves making me sick ,but there was no difference. I must admit I haven't been following a strict diet of any kind because it seemed no matter what I ate it didn't matter. So i pretty much gave up eating over suffering the nausea in which case like yourself, I lost quite a bit of weight.

I'm so happy to hear you are doing better and I know exactly what you mean by preferring almost anything to the nausea.I think stress may play a huge part in my case because the few times I'm not feeling nauseous..I sit and stress that it's going to come back in a few hours or whatever the case. So i get sick worrying about getting sick . It's a nightmare that's for sure.

Have you ever tried medications to prevent or help with nausea? I looked up these meds and found that Benadryl is one of them. I actually take 50mg to sleep. Hmm? I don't like taking this either but if I don't I only sleep <4 hours at a time and so light I can tell you everything that went on during the night. Just a couple of thoughts.

I just posted a message to Carol and maybe you will read it but if not I asked her and now you if you have ever thought about trying meds to prevent nausea so you are feeling sick all the time. It is just awful for me to feel nauseous all the time. I couldn't eat even water would make me feel sick.

I've only taken Gravol for the nausea and that's been only the past little while since it's always had a long-lasting tiring effect on me. By long- lasting I mean the whole next day I'm in zombie mode. I imagine Benadryl would do about the same but I will keep it in mind for sure . Just for the record normally I sleep about the same amount as you and I sleep so lightly a pin dropping could wake me up.

By the way , I've been to Emergency at the hospital on a few occassions when the nausea was so bad plus the vomiting , and they take blood etc etc but for the nausea and vomiting they've always given me a Gravol injection.

You poor thing, I have never tried anything for nausea but I sure would now if these acid meds didn't work for me. I am past my young years and won't have to worry about medications for future children or anything like that so I would take them if nothing else worked for me. But let me repeat I hate medications and don't want to take anything and I am very reluctant when it comes to meds but nausea leaves me almost bed ridden and I can't eat anything so yes to something that helps this. I only vomited once with reflux issues and that is not on my bucket list anymore. Ha ha! My goodness, you must really get sick from this crap I feel for you. I was so sick but only ran for the biff feeling like I was going to vomit and then just gagged and spit up slobbery mucus. Sorry for the graphic details but seems like we have all been there.

I've only actually vomited a few times with the reflux as opposed to just gagging, which I've done a lot of . But ya the nausea is just no fun.

The acid meds don't work so on with the Gravol pills. I just don't want to be taking them 7 days a week is all.

Hello cheryl06050! I thought it curious that your symtpoms got back the after you over exercised on a treadmill. That was the way I start feeling my LRP symptoms last August, after I over exercised on a treadmill. First I lost some of my appetite, then i felt gagging with a strange felling in my throat. Took antibiotic, prescribed by doctor, but didn't got better. Went to the ENT and he finally diagnosed LRP. Been onNexium 40 for two weeks and restricted diet. Throat is much better and gagging too. Got more appetite, but still not what it was before. Hope to get 100% well.

Never experienced any breathing problems like you do.

All this makes us more anxious, and that doesn't help at all.

Do you have gallbladder or fatty liver issues?

Do find any relation with your condition and any Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (Iburprofen or naproxen)

Thank you!

I'm sitting here googling all these symptoms and came across this link on google, I feel like I've just read practically about myself!! Firstly, thank you for writing that so I know I'm not the only one (makes me feel a tiny better ha) but my symptoms are a little different by I don't have the burning feeling but I don't know what's wrong have you been properly diagnosed yet? Are you still experiencing this awful feeling? My symptoms were crazy gagging, I would just be sitting/standing doing nothing and I would keep gagging so intensely I thought I would throw up but never did, driving and yep gagging which is so bad to get when I'm driving, I would be talking & gagging which makes me so embarrassed. I ain't hungry and haven't ate, if I go to have a bite of something as soon as it's in my mouth I spit it back out as I can't stand it on my mouth / can't bring myself to swallow it, the gagging has been ok the last day, touch wood, have probably gagged twice three times defiantly so much better with that side but now I've got really bad tight chest in middle like I wanna perhaps burp but can't even if I full push myself to I can't and if I eventually do it's little and does no justice. I'm so sorry this is long hoping you could perhaps help xx

I have been on acid reflux medication before because of another issue and it did not help one bit. Whenever I sleep I feel like I will throw up unless I wait at least a hour until my food goes down.

Can any suggest anything that can help?

I'm not sure what kind of procedure you had exactly but I had an EGD without any sedation. They gave me a spritz of numbing spray in my mouth and put a bite block in my mouth and just put the endoscope down my throat and into the stomach and duodenum. They put in air as well to see better so I burped a lot and gagged because well. you know, scope down my throat. But I was able to tolerate it and it didn't ever hurt that I can recall. It was just weird and uncomfortable in the sense that it's a scope making you gag but if I breathed through my nose it helped a lot. I didn't vomit or anything or have any cramping or pain and couldn't feel the scope inside my stomach, I was just focused on my throat and not gagging. I'm kind of amazed I did it this way actually. I think if I did it again I'd want some sedation at least.

Hi i just had an endoscopy and was totally out and didn't feel a thing. i am having same symptoms constant nausea and feeling something in my throat and have been on medication that gives me diarrhea and nexium doesn't help. one of my symptoms is everything taste funny...does anyone have that symptom?

see i have been suffering with Spontaneous gagging for around 6 years i am a 21 year old female. in 2015, around November time i was referred to the ENT specialist at the hospital by the GP to have my tonsils removed. Now i thought my gagging and difficulty breathing might have had something to do with how large my tonsils were as they were almost the size of golf balls. I've struggled to breathe out of my nose for as long as i can remember, constantly have mucus in my throat and a snotty nose. Anyways i got my tonsils removed and it didn't get better so i asked and asked my Gp to be referred back to see the specialist again to speak about what seems like narrow airways in my nose and a horrible case of random gagging. the Gp did as i asked but when i spoke to the ENT he told me that the gagging was normal. i explained to him that it was literally every day without fail and it would often end up making me puke several times a day. he put a metal tool under my nostrils to see if any air was coming out... of course a little bit did and steamed up the metal tool, however i KNOW that i cannot breathe right through my nose and its also extremely painful to try and take a deep breath in through that way... so i have been gagging daily, at least 3 times an hour during waking hours and puking at least 5 days out of 7 up to 4 times a day for the last 6 years at least, the same amount of time for being unable to breathe through my nose properly and all they say is 'many people have this problem. it is absolutely normal' like regardless or whether many people have the issue, this sort of thing should not be ignored and told it's nothing to worry about. admittedly it does get worse when i am feeling anxious. after tonsils were removed i thought maybe it was because of that but it most definitely is not caused by my anxiety, just worsens when i am. us people suffering from this go through every day feeling so ill and embarrassed. i don't work right now as i care for my mother but when i did work it caused so many problems and i got in trouble with my boss for gagging accidentally when someone asked me a question. That feeling like there is a lump is always there and its impossible to stop the gag happening. if i try to stop it, it just ends up being 2 straight minutes of gagging... any ideas on what to say to the doctor next? they don't seem to care anymore...