Possible GERD or LPR?

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new to this website, but I've been pretty miserable so I figured I would post and see what everyone thought about my symptoms. My doctor seems to think its GERD, but I've never had a problem with acid reflux symptoms before.

It started about 2 weeks ago around 10:30 at night, I was walking around and noticed I was unable to catch my breath or inhale really deep. It felt like I was having a panic attack but I had absolutely no anxiety at the time that it started. This lasted for about two hours and went away for the rest of the night. Each day afterward the attacks would come on stronger and last longer than the one before it. After about a week it got to the point where I felt winded all the time, and could not catch my breath, and my chest felt extremely tight. I read online that acid reflux could cause breathing problems, and since I was diagnosed with mild acid reflux in 2007, I decided I would take some prescription Prilosec and see if it helped at all. Within about 30 minutes all of my symptoms were gone and I was able to have a normal night it almost a week. The next morning I woke up severely short of breath and decided to go to the E.R.

After chest x-rays, an EKG, and blood work, the E.R. contributed it to a unknown airway restriction or something and sent me on my way. I had a doctors appointment scheduled with my family doctor that night so I decided to go since I was unsatisfied with the care I received at the hospital. She diagnosed me with acid reflux, said it was most likely my stomach that was causing the sensation of not being able to breath, and prescribed me 40mg of Nexium a day and sent me on my way. I have a follow up with her in 2 weeks.

Since then I've been taking 300mg of Zantac in the morning and at night, in addition to the Nexium everyday at 7pm. It really feels like the only thing that is giving me relief is the Zantac twice a day. I know I'm taking more than the recommended dose, but it's the only thing that has helped. The Nexium seems to pick and choose the day it wants to work, and when it does work it seems to last only around 6 hours. Granted I've only been on it for just over a week, so I'll continue to take it for now. I've also changed my diet to smaller meals, and exercise a bit more now, and I've also cut caffeine completely out. I've scheduled an appointment with a GI but that's not until the end of July (not sure if I want to wait that long, but that's all they have).

Besides the breathing problems and occasional burping, I have no symptoms of GERD. My chest has hurt once for maybe 10 minutes during this whole 2 week period, but the only real symptom I seem to have is chest tightness and the "feeling" of shortness of breath since my O2 saturation levels are 100%.

I went from feeling perfectly normal to this, even though I was diagnosed with mild acid reflux in 2007 (endoscopy), I've never had any symptoms. What does everyone think, does this sound like typical GERD or could it be something else?

Thanks for the reply.

I have cut out all of the obvious foods, which doesn't seem to help at all. It's funny, walking around seems to make it worse for me. It's while I'm in bed with my head propped up that I feel the best. The doc was the one that told me to add the Zantac, I just find no relief from it unless I take 2. Haven't thought of meditation, couldn't hurt to try.

Sorry for the delayed response guys, been without power for a few days because of the storms. My symptoms actually went away for a couple days while I was staying at the in-laws, but have started to come back a bit more everyday since then. I'm pretty positive that anxiety is not the issue with this, the chest tightness/shortness of breath is relieved for a brief period of time when I burp, which is leading me to believe that it is pressure that is causing the majority of my symptoms. It also seems to be worse if I have an empty stomach, and gets a bit better for a short period of time after I eat. I've only had actual heartburn one night and it lasted for about an hour, and went away after I took my usual dose of Zantac. I've also added Gas X once or twice a day, and that actually seems to be helping some as well. The 40mg a day of Nexium I'm taking has seemed to bring down the severity of the symptoms, but I still don't think I'm on the right dose or maybe I'm on the wrong medication completely.

I have a doctors appointment with a new GI at the end of July, so I'm counting down the days until I can go for that. Hopefully he will be able diagnose if I have a hernia, GERD, or even LPR, because I'm getting tired of feeling bad everyday. If everything comes back clear than I have no idea where to go from there. I've had chest X-rays, EKG, blood work, and everything else came back normal. It's been pretty frustrating experience so far.

Brian

Brian,

I am experiencing some of the same stuff you are. I am not short of breath but I am getting the chest tightness. What caught my attention in your post was that you went to your in-laws for a few days and had no problems but now that you are back home, they are coming back.

I recently went on vacation to Disneyland and while gone...NO symptoms. Come back, home, symptoms came back. Also, I noticed the other day that I was feeling yukky with symptoms all day and then we went to a neighbors for a 4th celebration later in the day. I felt fine while there, had a few drinks, never thought about my discomfort. I don't want to sound crazy or anything, but I kind of wonder if some of this IS anxiety???? Trust me Brian, I don't want to hear that either, but do you think it's possible that this is what we are experiencing?

Well I can't rule out anxiety completely on my own, I can tell you I was way more stressed and anxious at the in-laws than I have been at home. That and it can come on in the middle of the night, early morning, night, pretty much whenever. It happens when I'm stressed, or when I'm out having a good time. It doesn't really seem to have a pattern except it's worse on an empty stomach, and belching relieves the symptoms. The thing that is weird is how fast it came on. I had no symptoms at all, and then at 10:30 at night while I was walking with a glass of water to the couch it started. I can tell you at the time it started I have no noticeable anxiety or stress. It wasn't till a few days later that I tasted a bit of acid in my mouth and felt a lump in my throat. The first and only sign was shortness of breath that would come and go every few hours for 3 days or so, then it became almost constant. While I'm sure anxiety made the symptoms worse, I just don't feel that they are the cause of them. I battled bad anxiety for years, and not once did I ever have these symptoms. It's just weird that it would just randomly start to happen, it doesn't make sense to me. I'm really looking forward to the GI appointment so maybe I can start to get some concrete answers.

Thanks guys!

That's exactly what I think it is. Symptoms seem to fit almost perfectly. Just can't say I want to go through all this surgery reading others experiences with it. It just floors me how I've never had any symptoms before and now all this. It came out of nowhere. I'll report back what the GI doc says, just have a few more weeks to go...

Did you ever figure out what was going on? I have not had the normal GERD symptoms besides shortness of breath and occasional belching. Is it a hiatus hernia?