anyone else with a reflux cough?

[VicarInaTinselTuTu]

i have really bad acid reflux which for years caused me to get a terrible croupy cough. it came to a head when i would wake up in the night choking and then during the course of a normal day id have spasms of the larynx which were quite scary as i couldnt breathe!

i changed my gp, the new one was really on the ball and diagnosed LPR and prescribed proton pump inhibitors and Zantac for acid reflux. it usually works ok but i get flare ups, especially when i get a cold.

does anyone else suffer with this? just wondered if anyone had completely got rid of the symptoms. im having a flair up its driving me mad. did anyone go to a specialist cough clinic or similar? today my gp offered the camera down the throat thing which i cant bear the thought of, so i declined. the meds usually work.
does anyone else know of or suffer with this condition? how do you minimise symptoms?
ta.

you need a higher dose of medication. also you need to give up all caffeine, it just makes your stomach produce more acid. lifestyle changes can make a difference.

unfortunately it is very common with reflux,maybe a change of proton pump inhibitor.why id doc using zantac and proton pump inhibitor(they do the same thing.

I have to take 40mg of Prilosec a day. I tried to cut it down to 30 recently but after waking up with a sore throat every day, I'm going back to 40. It sucks, but it really sounds like you need more PPIs.

My doctor suggested mixing Prilosec and Pepcid (like Zantac) but I found that made things worse.

It's all a matter of finding the medication that works for you. It sucks though. I hate GERD

BTW, the endoscopy is fine and you can have it under sedation. I was scared stiff but it's good to know what the actual problem is, and quite reassuring if you can see your oesophagus isn't in too bad a shape.

It really wasn't the big deal I thought it was - I went in early and was out of the hospital by 9am and raring for breakfast.

I find cutting down on fat really improves my situation. Especially cream, full fat cheese and chocolate - especially in the evening.

OP what strength of PPi's are you on?

i take quite a high dose already i think, though i had tried to cut down to just one omeprazole daily which had seemed to be doing the trick...my own fault maybe for trying to cut it down.

i(should) take 2 x 30mg omeprazole daily and
300mg zantac daily.

the cough clinic recommended the extra zantac, it usually works.

i think whats happened right now is i have a cold - im in the thick of it now and ive totally lost my voice with a thick croupy cough - went to work this morning but gp took one look at me - prescribed horse pill anitbiotics and sent me home. whenever i get a cold my cough gets really bad, i bark like a seal. so ive upped my omeprazole back to 2x a day and ill stick to that in future. see if it makes a difference.

i suffered with this for 12 years before getting it finally diagnosed. it gradually got worse and worse until i changed my doctors (i now work for my new GP) and he was brilliant. knew straight away what it was. but i do worry about what 12 years of undiagnosed reflux has done to my larynx and windpipe. both my valves appear to be knacked at i have LPR.

i think ill up the dose back to twice daily and see what happens next time i get a cold. i just worry about what taking large amounts of PPIs does long term...? my gp said as they are relatively new to the market no one quite knows if they have any long term side effects.

cant understand the rational of using to acid inhibitors as they ultimately do the same thing.But im not a doc.My doc said there was no benefit.
PPi's shouldnt be used long term as they can cause all the flora in the gut to alter and it can allow fungal infections to grow because of the change in ph. If you are taking 60 mg that is a really high dose and will stop acid production almost totally. Our gp's recommend 3 months on and a month off

with LPR though i dont think you can come off them. the alternative is an operation which sounds pretty horrible.

LPR s treatment isnt the same as GERD. so its long term PPI or cough. or operation.
lovely!

I'm sorry, VIATTT. It really sucks. I wish I could come off PPIs too. My GI doctor seems to think they're very safe though as drugs go.

I wouldn't worry about the last 12 years though. Things will be healing now if you're on the PPIs and that's the important thing- I've heard of people with quite severe damage heal well on the PPIs. This is where an endoscopy would be able to tell you if there was any damage.

I do hope you feel better soon. Reflux is so frustrating