GERD and things I didn't know.....

I am sure most of you have heard of an ENT (ear, nose and throat)doctor.  These doc's specialize in issues dealing with said parts of our bodies.  What I didn't realize is that these doctor's can specialize even further in this field.  Case in point.  Last week I went to the mainland to see a specialist, his specialty was dealing with medical issues of the larynx.

It's a long story which I will try and make short. It all started last year when I was at work and the cleaning staff at the hospital were using  a cleaning agent which caused me to almost immediately lose my voice.  I ended up in ER and had to be given a variety of medications.  The ER doctor told me I had Reactive airway. By the next day I could barely speak...and when I did speak it was only a whisper.

Since that time I have suffered intermittent episodes of hoarse voice, cough(mostly at night which I thought was related to my asthma or allergies), constant clearing of my throat, a sore throat and a feeling that there is something in the back of my throat.  When I went to see the specialist last week he asked me a ton of questions and performed an examination with a scope and took lots of pictures.    After the examination he told me that my vocal cords were slightly inflamed but that my larynx was severely inflamed and that it had most probably been like that for sometime.  He told me that the symptoms I was experiencing was a result of
laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPR).  Who would have known....not me of course.  All this time I thought I was just experiencing bad allergies and that my asthma was acting up causing me to cough and  hence lose my voice and get a sore throat.  I asked him if there was anything I could do to repair this  and the first thing he said was that I needed to be put on a medication that would help decrease the gastric secretions which was causing my larynx to become inflamed.  I told him that only once had I experience any heartburn and that was only recently.  He said with LPR  you don't feel the heartburn but rather you have the symptoms as I listed above.  Very interesting I thought.

I belong to website called badgut.  It's focus is gastrointestinal disorders.  Today's topic was GERD(gastroesophgeal reflux disease). Needless to say my curiosity was piqued and so I checked it out Yes this specialist was indeed correct.

What I don't understand is why when back in the fall of 2009 when I went to go see an ENT doctor why he didn't see or say anything, especially seeing as he scoped me as well.  Things that make you go hmmmmm.

Anyhow, I have now started on the medication and I really hope this helps settle things down for me.

I'd like to make this my public service announcement.  If you have been experiencing any of the symptoms I have, please check out this web site badgut.org there you will all the information you would like on GERD and LPR.  Don't stay in the dark.  Information is power. If you find you have similar symptoms as mentioned in  information  might I suggest you go see your family physician and talk about it.

I have given you a condensed version on all what has gone on with me, so please don't use my explanation of things, check it out for yourself.