cough variant asthma or gerd help

an flu kickstart the gerd or is it asthma. background story i work in a dusty place had have to wear a mask been there 12 years. 2 and a half years ago i started coughing till was nearly sick and had a pain in the middle of my chest the cough got worse at night and also when having a shower can only describe the coughing fits as attacks because they dont last long but im scared when they happen went to the doctors had chest x rays which were clear, antibiotics etc did a peak flow test which was fine but i coughed my guts up after the test. i went to see specialist they sent me for a asthma test which i passed just i was boarderline. they decided that it was prob gerd by this time 4-5 month had passed and i was only haing the odd attack eg after doing something physical they put me on anti acids and sent me back to work. work moved me to a outside job and life was fine for a while. due to work changes they then put me back into my old job around a year ago. been fine then at christmas i got the flu and it reurned for 3 nights no sleep coughing pain in chest. 2 weeks later the cough has now returned to what it was 2 years ago eg after shower physical exercise etc. pain in middle of chest waking up in middle night, lack of sleep. could the flu have kickstared the gerd or is it asthma.

My allergist said GERD is what makes the asthma kick in but I honestly don't completely believe that. I had the wrap done Sept 7 and it took awhile but went from taking Pantoprazole, Tums, all kinds of other liquid medication to only taking 1/2 tablet of Pantoprazole and no acid reflux at all. Only a stomach ache once in awhile if I ate like pizza or something that was too acidic. November, December and January are the absolute worse allergy months for me and I took nearly 2 weeks off at Christmas. Our house is old and I'm super allergic to Alternaria a form of mold. Being at home with the house all closed up and with a blizzard and super colds temps, we haven't been able to have the windows open and the furnace running constantly. My asthma kicked in and even started using my Ventolin again. Now I'm having trouble controlling my acid reflux even though I've gone back to the acid reflux diet - water, very bland foods, no caffeine etc. It's very depressing! I wasn't having any problems at all with the acid reflux until I was exposed to the mold again and now I'm back in the same boat. Anyone else having the same problems in winter????

do most doctors know this as mine dosnt seem to have a clue i woke this morning with sore chest feeling unwell with a slight cough now and again had pain in chest all day its really getting me down now

Joy is 100% correct on all of her posts. My asthma was diagnosed as cough variant, although the numbers only barely showed it; it was all based on clinical observation. At that time, most doctors didn't know and could hardly believe that acid was the culprit.

I ultimately ended up at National Jewish in Denver, where they not only knew, but are working to educate Dr.'s on the dangers of acid damaging (permanently) lungs.

My flares of "asthma" do get worse in the winter, if it is going to occur. I happen to be having complications and I agree (again!) with Joy when she speaks of a leak. I'm having substantially more and more burning and I'm having more and more trouble breathing and attacks of the CVA.

Janice