2 back to back colds then reflux starting up

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Has anyone had a bad cold yet this fall? I have had 2 in a row. Been sick for 4 weeks with sinus drainage and a cough. I have taken 2 Z packs and what I am left with is a nagging tickle cough and bad heartburn. I have started up the Prevacid again. I swear I think colRAB aggrevate the reflux. I have been thinking the cold never ended and I think it just turned into a reflux throat clearing tickle post nasal drip cough. I am soooo irritated with this whole thing. Has anyone been dealing with this?:confused:
 
I had a sinus flare in July that triggered up my reflux. It took me until the end of Septeraber to get my symptoms under control. Even in Septeraber, my ENT said my vocal corRAB were still inflamed from the acid. He said I was "doing everything right" to try to control the acid and had no additional suggestions for me to try. He turned his focus to calming the vocal corRAB because there wasn't anything left for me to try for the reflux. It is sooooo frustrating. I went to me GI doc also and he basically told me the same thing. He wanted to put me on Dexilant 60 mg twice per day, but there is no way insurance will ever cover that. I had to fight for the 60mg. That would have been like taking 4 other high-dose PPI's per day.

I'm worried about winter. The cold air always flares my asthma and coughing which in-turn squeezes the stomach and flares my reflux which irritates my lungs and vocal corRAB. It is a viscous cycle. I've been visiting a warm climate the last few weeks and am missing a literal blizzard at home. I'm really not looking forward to going back.

My ENT gave me a handout from the Texas Voice Center that had a gargle recipe for dry and irritated throats.
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp clear corn syrup
6 oz. warmed distilled water
You gargle gently for two "long, boring" minutes then spit. He recommended not rinsing after.

He also recommended avoiding coffee, tea and soft drinks...not hard if you are already following the anti-reflux diet anyway. Using a humidifier at night if you are in a dry environment, drinking tons of water and doing a vocal exercise if I need to cough.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Mountain! I just want to cry. I am sitting up in bed. It is nearly 11 30 PM and I have a tickle cough and I just sit and clear my throat over and over. It is so irritated andi can feel the post nasal drip going on. I took a Prevacid earlier and a zyrtec just now. Its just way out of control. It took me a month to get over 2 colRAB. But now its clearly reflux. My diet has been out of control and that is my fault too. This could take awhile to get back under control. I don't know if I will sleep tonight. Its impossible to sleep with a cough. I need to get a humidifier. I am chewing gum and have cough drops and water on the night stand. I am sorry you suffer too. People don't understand unless they suffer with this too. Thanks for caring.
 
That's how it started for me many years ago. Coughing can tear the diaphragm and that's exactly what happened to me. In a sense I had a cold that never went away...
 
Yeah, colRAB flare it horribly for me, too, especially the coughing, which literally beats the stomach.

Hang in there, just keep doing everything you can to minimize the symptoms and it will go away in time.
 
Philger, i know you have a hiatus hernia, which is convincing in suggesting you really have reflux but please please consider this simple formula (by the way, I'm in Germany now, that's where my "LPR" started)

The surgery is life changing. You are willing to try that, but you aren't willing to try a few months of lyrica or elavil or both, to see if it's a nerve thing?

Like me, your cold never went away. Mine too. Please type into a search "pregabalin shows promise for the treatment of laryngeal sensory neuropathy"

Consider this logic. I bet you, like me, had no reflux issues before your cold. Your cold started as a virus attacking your throat, you now have throat problems that are ongoing as a direct result. Logically, the problem is in your throat, not your stomach.

The doctors probably refuse the surgery because they know the symptoms in the throat rarely, if ever, resolve for LPR patients who get stomach surgery. Isn't it more logical to think then, that the problem is simply in your throat? What do you have to lose by trying pregabalin for a while. In the ent today article, it details that the symptoms of nerve damage in the throat are globus and/or throat clearing and/or chronic cough.

If you are thinking of having your whole stomach altered, and you don't respond to ppis, and all the acid reflux diets in the world for years don't make a difference, dare to think that it is not reflux. I'm in the same boat with you, and I am convinced this is not reflux at all.

Another article you have to see is 2010 published. It's Laryngeal Sensory Neuropathy and Pharmocologic Management.

If you are willing to try surgery to relieve this, then you should at least try a few months trying out neuropathic drugs to see if it isn't something else, despite your impedence readings or whatever else. For good reason, a lot of gastro intestinal doctors are sceptical of the idea of LPR being used to diagnose all bizzare throat symptoms.

Again. It started in your throat, it continued in your throat. The source of the problem has to be the throat.
 
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