Where I am today..

 

I had been over a month taking medication without symptoms. I felt confident and decided to try a couple of days taking half a pill or 5mg. I got my throat right back and spent a night and a half on the couch again.. so I am not ready to reduce my medication.

A few months ago my status was that I had just a minor throat inconvenience about once a week which is not a problem. I  occasionally have a one off bad night.. but nothing as bad as it used to be.. my throat was just feeling uncomfortable at my 3am wake up.. I managed to watch a couple of Rialto movies which is a positive to being awake.

 

The below is not medical advice but this is what I am currently taking medically.

10mg Citalopram (Seems to deal with the Throat discomfort)

 

 This to me a wonder drug that has taken me from being incapacitated for 2 days out of every week to not only being able to function but enjoy life.. I will now blog about my journey in these other pages.. My throat does seem to be getting less sensitive as time goes on.

Things that I do not understand:

• Why it is a weekly cycle
• How it started
• how to fix it

Things that seemed to help me

• Buying an adjustable bed so that I could sleep on an angle with my head up
• Keeping my throat warm.. so not going out in a cold night and mouth breathing
• Keeping busy - so not avoiding work but getting into it
• Watching a movie or tv when up alone in the small hours of the morning
• Eating peppermint chocolate - peppermint is supposed to be a relaxant but really it tasted nice and didn't seem to cause issues
• Eating a smaller evening meal with no low ph foods or drinks (acidic food or Soft drinks)
• Being calm when I got a throat spasm and letting it relax slowly before trying another bite of food
• Less Stress in my life.. When I got stressed I would get sick in the next day or two

You want to stretch my throat ?

After things had not got any better I went back to my specialist and he recommended another gastroscopy and a throat stretching..

Throat stretching !!!  Hmm.. Apparently because my throat had a lot of pressure the specialist thought it would be a good idea. This time I thought I would have the sedation.

 

I had to fast overnight and not drink anything before I went in.. I arrived rather nervous but had my wife with me this time..

I went into the room and they explained that they would be sedating me with something in my wrist and the procedure. They would pass the tube down my throat for another look.. Take another biopsy then they would inflate a balloon in my throat that would stretch my throat and release the pressure.

 

I do not remember too much about the procedure. I felt the prick on my wrist where they put the sedative in and I was talking to the specialist and I remember the mouth guard. I also remember having a stretching sensation in my throat but not much else.

I was taken on a special chair on wheels afterward and helped into a nice lazy boy to recover..

It was definitely the easiest procedure I had but I did not really detect much difference to my throat afterwards. The Biopsy did not show anything either so it was all a bit of a waste of time actually.

November 2018 - visit back to specialist for results

 When I followed up with the specialist.. I was told that although my throat pressure was high it was a normal manometry and ph test. They gave me lots of coloured charts.. I was quite lost and disappointed after that as I thought I had LPR.. But I did not ??

My specialist told me he thought I had a Hypersensitive Esophagus.

This was both a relief and a curse.. A relief that I was not causing my throat damage.. but a curse as they do not know what causes it. The hypersensitivity caused the nerves in my throat to trigger which then caused the chest pain and the uncomfortable feeling in my throat.

I was prescribed Nortriptyline at 20mg and told I could go up to 50mg if necessary. I was sort of pleased to have something to try rather than the diet I had been on...

October 2018 - Oesophageal Manometry - An awful experience

I certainly had no idea what I was in for.. It was just a matter of getting through it… I sat down with my wife in the Gastroentorology waiting room and waited nervously.

It was not long until I was called into the room.. They offered for my wife to go in but she wanted to wait in the waiting room - probably for the best.

I sat down on a bed that had its back upright and they explained the procedure. They had a flexible probe that had stripes down it and it was going to be inserted through my nose and down into my throat. I was then going to swallow some sweet and then some sour liquids to detect how my Oesophagus reacted to the swallowing and the pressure etc. They also explained that they could not numb my throat as it would interfere with my test.

The nurse started feeding the tube into my nose but found they could not angle the  tube down what seemed like quite a thick tube towards my oesophagus. It was painful and very uncomfortable as they tried several times to get it down the right way. It was hard that they were making it really painful but were not successful in getting it down my throat.

They called the Doctor who is the expert in the field. He said that the would probably not have more luck than the nurse.. but had a go.. On the second attempt he was able to get it down the correct tube and it fed down. He then asked me to keep swallowing as he fed it down my oesophagus to my stomach. I could feel it in my throat and it was really uncomfortable.

They gave me the prepared sweet liquids in turn and asked me to swallow them.. but then I had to wait about 30 seconds afterward when I did not swallow again. It was meant so that the readings were not disrupted by subsequent swallowing afterwards. This was harder than it sounds as the tube was uncomfortable in my throat and all I wanted to do was keep swallowing.

They then gave me the sour liquids and did the same procedure. They then pulled the cord out much to my relief.. but it was not the end.

Next came the 24 hour PH testing probe. They showed me a little side pack that was to be my companion for the next 25 hours. They again inserted a tube through my nose and asked me to swallow again as they fed it down into my stomach. It felt horrible in my throat and I was supposed to sleep with this thing in my throat tonight !!

I was to record when I was eating, when I was resting and when I was sleeping by pressing different buttons on the side pack – you can see me in the photo below.

Because I had been on a high ph diet and been told to eat normally.. I decided to go to Mc Donalds and had a big burger which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was such a weird feeling trying to eat because you could feel the wire in my throat when I swallowed.

I was required to sleep flat that night.. It was difficult to arrange the backpack where I would not jolt the wires when sleeping. I managed to get to sleep eventually and enjoyed a cooked breakfast the next morning. I managed to remember to push the buttons when required.

The next day I went into the hospital to get my wire out. We had to wait an hour before someone was free to do it.. They cut off the cord and asked me to cough while they drew it out.. My partner was amazed that there was so much wire that was pulled out. It was such a relief to have it out.

I felt very unwell that afternoon and was in pain for the next day or two.

 

Back to the gastroenterologist

 After no improvement I went back to my gastroenterologist. I explained that I was still getting sick every week and getting bad chest pain. I also told him I was on a high PH diet but I could not work out why it was not making a difference. He sort of looked at me as though I was mad.. He asked me why I was trying this high PH diet ?

It was really hard to explain that I had done my own google searching and found the book on dropping acid and put two and two together to make five..

hmm... 

My gastroenterologist scheduled me for what is called a Oesophageal Manometry and 24hr Ph test. I have link to the information sheet here.. Oesophageal Manometry

I had little idea what to expect.

Trying a High PH Diet

 Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) was the diagnosis from the ENT specialist. After some research into the symptoms I decided that this is what I had.. the only symptoms that did not seem to fit was the spit that was in my mouth after suffering head pain and the chest pain.. but because I was told the diagnosis and some of the symptoms fit.. I took it on.

I found an LPR book called Dropping Acid by Jamie Kourfman. It was basically a book that said to take on a high PH diet.

I completely changed all my food to everything with a PH over 7.. it was awful as all of the foods and drinks I seemed to like were off the list including caffeine not being good.. Apart from 3 foods that I did like.. Salmon, Camembert and bananas. My life was lean chicken or fish with no sauce and plain vegetables.

I lost about 15kg so went from about 76kgs down to 61kgs and my work mates commented on my lost weight.

Because I had convinced myself that I had this illness I tried to make sense of the symptoms. I still got sick about weekly and tried to figure out where I had slipped up and what had been my trigger food that caused it. I started driving myself nutty with keeping a food diary and trying to track down what was causing me to be sick.. I think I was just trying to look for patterns where they did not exist to explain why I was still getting days of being sick.

What was good was some of the recipes in the ‘dropping acid’ book.. it forced me to stop buying packet sauces from the supermarket and buy the raw ingredients.. and some of it was really tasty and yummy. I learnt to cook properly even though it took time.

I purchased a PH meter from Amazon so that I could test what foods I was eating. I also needed some calibrating liquids to calibrate the meter with. It was kind of fun testing lots of food with it.. But it still did not seem to make a difference to me…

What is going on ?

P.S. LPR and a High PH diet was debunked further on.. Please read my later posts.

June 2018 – Visit to ENT specialist

 I saw Catherine Fergusson who is an Otolaryngologist – Head/Neck Surgeon..

I explained my symptoms and she decided to examine my throat. She takes me into a room with a screen and explains the procedure. She will spray my nose with a solution that tastes like banana and put a camera up through my nose, then using manipulation will guide it down into my throat to check it.

Before I could freak out a bit I was in the examination room and she was checking which nostril was the best one. I was kind of dreading and feeling excited at the same time. (Weird but true)

She sprayed up my nose.. waited a little while.. then passed this tube into my nose.. it felt weird like my nose was blocked.. after my nose I have no idea where it went but it was a bit sore as she kept pushing it in and in.. She looked at a monitor while she manipulated the camera on the end of the tube.

It wasn’t long until she took it back out.. That was equally as weird as I felt tugging through my nose..

She explained that everything looked ok.. and in her letter afterward diagnosed that I had Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and a throat spasm. She suggested taking Omeprazole and taking Gaviscon Dual action at night before I went to bed.

I had no idea what that diagnosis was about to do to me but It felt good to have a direction to go towards and hopefully it would solve my problems. I was also told that there seemed to be no damage but some redness and throat pressure.

I drove home and can hardly describe how uncomfortable my nose felt afterwards.. It was the absolutely weirdest feeling and felt awful for a while. The banana stuff that had been sprayed up my nose was now in my mouth and tasted terrible..