Lpr???????

[shretkat]

I'm confused about LPR.
This summer I experienced an acid reflux which i originally thought to be a flu that caues sore throat. My doctor just told me it's acid reflux and prescribed 2 week amont ranitidine for me. The medication worked pretty well and i stopped worrying about it.
But now i'm experiencing this again with a much worse pain in the pharynx area accompanied with coughing. I don't get to see my doctor till next week, so I'm now doing my own research online and suspecting it's LPR.
From what i've read about LPR, it seems to be a long term disorder that requires medication taken daily. Does it have to be like that?
I wonder if it is possible for me to stop the symptoms by just taking short term medications and then try to prevent a relapse by changing my eating habits from now on. It's really easy for me to develop drug resistance(i have no idea why) so I don't want to take so many pills.

(For now i'm just planning to take whatever OTC antacid i can get from the drug stores till i get to see the doctor next week.)

Any comments would be helpful, thank you.

 

[k9love]

Im confused about lpr too, I think I may have it, seen a ent this week tho and he wants to do a biopsy of my gullet! thats worrying me too! Hope you get the answers you need, Im googling away but its so confusing!

 

[abbydabbydew]

Yes, there's alot of information out there. What helps one person with reflux (either regular GERD or LPR) may not work at all for another person. While you're waiting for your appointment, you can start yourself on an OTC PPI (like Prilosec) and see if it helps. AntaciRAB usually help relieve symptoms, too. My ENT doc likes Gaviscon liquid for this purpose. It's expensive but it does seem to work well for me. There are also many things you can try in terms of lifestyle and diet. Do you seem to reflux at night? If so, you can try elevating your upper body at night (either by raising the head of your bed or using pillows) to let gravity assist in keeping the acid out of your throat, but many people with LPR don't reflux at night. During the day I seem to feel the worst when I let my stomach get empty, so I try to eat a small portion of something healthy every couple of hours. Obviously, you really need to avoid anything that seems to make the reflux worse. This is controversial because alot of evidence suggests that lifestyle moRAB and diet changes really don't help all that much. I figure they can't hurt tho' and I've kicked my caffeine habit because caffeine (and chocolate) are believed to further relax the LES. No point in testing it; I just avoid them to be safe.