Current Symptoms
-Chest Pain (center of chest from throat down to sternum)
-Sour Taste in Mouth (starts ½ hour after meals, may last all day)
-Slight Wheeze (room has to be silent for me to hear the whistle)
-Hoarse Voice (more so after meals)
-Need to clear my throat (after meals)
-Nasty Breath
-Smelly Belching
-Gas and Pressure
-Blood in spit, not when I cough, but just seems to be in the back of my throat like it wells up from my stomach (this has happened 6 times in the last 2 months and usually happens when I have pain in my chest)
-Lost 40 pounds in last year. (My diet has changed significantly, I used to eat a lot of fatty foods and now I eat much healthier and a lot smaller portions)
I am a 27 year old male. about 2 years ago I stated feeling a pain in my chest. I didn’t really think much of it at first, but it seemed to show up often enough, so I finally went to the doctor. The doctor did an EKG and a chest x-ray. Both were negative, so they diagnosed me with GERD and put me on Aciphex. The medicine never completely got rid of the pain, so I went back to the doctor. They scheduled me for an Endoscopy at the Gastro clinic. The Endoscopy came back inconclusive. They saw refluxing and some mild redness, but they couldn’t say for sure if that’s where the pain was coming from. They put me on a heavier dose of PPI’s and sent me away. The pills still didn’t completely get rid of the pain, but it was bearable so I just kind of ignored it for a while. Then about 6 months ago my symptoms got a lot worse.
The morning it started I had a banana and a glass of orange juice on my way to work. I kind of felt some pain after that, but still decided to have pizza for lunch. After that the pain started and I have never been the same. I started having a lot more pain in my chest; I started having a lot of gas and bloating. After a big belch the pain would subside and then slowly build back up. I started noticing a slight wheeze or whistle when I exhale. It’s not very load, but I can hear it sometimes when the room is completely quiet. At that time I completely changed my diet. I stopped eating all of the foods they say are bad for people with GERD. Then I started losing weight. I went back to my doctor and they sent me back to the Gastro clinic. They wan a couple of blood tests (pylori, girardi) which both came back negative and then put me on Protronix (2X per day). They told me to come back if the meds didn’t work. The meds didn’t work so I went back to the Gastro once again. This time they told me that there not sure I have GERD because the medicine is not helping. The doctor ordered a stress test (to check out my heart), a chest CT, and a 48 hour bravo PH test. I did the stress test and the chest CT right away, both came back negative. I waited on the bravo ph test because I was feeling a little better and didn’t want to spend the money. My symptoms ended coming back again so I scheduled the bravo PH test. about a week and half before the test I was feeling pretty bad and noticed a new symptom. I had a sour taste in my mouth so I spit in the sink and noticed a little streak of blood. I didn’t cough or anything, it was just there, like it welled up from my stomach with the acid or something. I figured I had some esophageal bleeding and that they could take a look at when they did the bravo PH. They made me stop taking my meds 1 week before the bravo PH. By the time I had the Bravo PH, I was feeling almost symptom free. Of course when they did the endoscopy before installing the bravo chip, they didn’t see any thing that could be causing the blood and said my esophagus looked normal. The PH study did conclude that I have Acid Reflux. They said that after eating the PH in my esophagus could go as low as 3 and would stay like that way to long. They said that when I was having gas and pain it was because there was acid sitting in my esophagus. So hurray they finally concluded that I have GERD, but where is the blood coming from. It has been over a month since the bravo test and I have noticed the blood on at least 5 more occasions. It usually happens when I am having a bad bout of pain in my chest, usually when my chest is sore for a couple days. I called my doctor and told her about the blood and that they endoscopy didn’t reveal the blood source. They recommended I go to the ENT to have scope done. I had that appointment last week. They put the scope through my nose all the way down to my vocal cords. The only thing the ENT saw was that there were some predominant blood vessels in my sinuses and that they were pretty sure that this is where the blood is coming from. I’m not convinced. Yesterday I had some seriously bad pain in my chest along with the sour taste in my mouth and really bad smelly burps. It started right after eating two pieces of red licorice. It bothered me a little overnight and started up again after I eat breakfast this morning. Then this afternoon again I had the blood in my spit. I suck the spit from the back of my mouth and then spit in to the sink and I have streaks of bright red blood. I’ don’t think it’s coming from my sinuses, but I am not sure where it is coming from.
Does anybody have any ideas as to what is going on with me? Is this all from GERD or do I have something else going on? Do I have some sort of food allergy? This blood has been freaking me out and any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated.