Posted 9/20/2014 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone,
I've posted before about my circumstances regarding issues with GERD, breathing, etc and it's been a total of 5 years or maybe a little more since this started. I've been trying to do everything to help my health and get better, and I'm still in the process of figuring things out. It's been frustrating because a lot of the doctors I've seen in the past aren't sure what's going on, but I'm currently getting help. Anyway I'll give a brief summary of my issues then some questions if you don't mind:
When I wake up in the morning, I feel like I cannot breath in fully without coughing and having a hard time. I don't necessarily feel chest tightness but it's painful and if I use my inhaler in the morning it helps it a little bit. I usually cough up a bunch of yellow phlegm through out the morning. My ability to exercise fully or not depends on how I felt when I woke up, and if it's been bad in the morning, I will still be able to do normal activities like jogging, weight lifting, etc, but aftwards I will get incredible fatigue and difficultly with my lungs (not really chest tightness or wheezing, but more like it feels they are inflamed). Also through out the day I will have acid reflux issues, I can taste a lot of the food I've eaten, and if I drink water at any time, I will always feel indigestion afterwards.
So that's basically whats happening to me. It's been very debilitating, and at 29 years old I feel like I'm crippled sometimes because of this. I'm going to point out some other things specifically about each one:
- Last week I had the test done to see if asthma was still the source of my pain. I was given the methacholine challenge and it came out fine, I only had slight coughing at the end of it but otherwise okay. I'm going to see my lung specialist in 5 days to go through the results with him. He believes I don't have asthma at all, but I just find it strange because I know for certain I was diagnosed with it as a child, and I had the classic signs of wheezing, prone to bronchitis, etc. Also I've run outside when it's cold out and I still get asthma reactions, along with phlegm.
- I've tried controlling any acid reflux issues with eating a better diet, following the GERD safe foods. I am overweight by about 40 pounds so I'm trying to lose that now, but so far even with the diet I can still taste it coming up, along with indigestion. I do take Omeperazole 40mg every day and it helps the burning sensation of heart burn, but it does nothing else. I also keep the head of my bed elevated, and I don't eat before going to sleep.
- I do have allergies, but I don't own any cats or dogs, I have a very clean place, and all my testing has shown I'm not allergic to any outdoor ones such as ragweed, pollen, etc. Just mainly dust mites, dogs, cats, rabbits. I've taken Singulair, Allegra, and all the other forms and they don't help my current health problem.
- With exercise I want to make it clear that I used to be able to work out every day when I was younger (early 20s) before this started happening. Once in a while I'd have to use my inhaler after aerobics or running, but I felt amazing and had no issues. When this started happening, it doesn't matter if I take my inhaler before or after exercise, or if I just do a quick ab work out or just jog very slowly, I noticed anything that gets my lungs working over time will fatigue me greatly afterwards, and it will hurt very badly the rest of the day. I've also tried long term medication such as Advair, Dulara, etc but they do nothing for me.
here are some of the questions for anyone who may be able to answer this for me:
1. Is it possible to completely lose having asthma? I thought it was a life long disease, but my current lung specialist is very skeptical and believes I don't have it since I'm performing well on the tests. I have told him if I try to run outside when it's cold or if I'm around cats/dogs, I will still wheeze a bit and need a inhaler. Just want some clarification.
2. To those who have GERD, have you ever heard of this before, where acid reflux or that can be so bad for a person whether its silent or not, that it will fatigue them after exercise greatly enough where they feel terrible the rest of the day?
3. I had a barrium swallow along with the other lung test last week but unfortunately my acid reflux wasn't happening the morning they did it, and said I looked healthy. Yet I know for sure it's going on because of acid coming up my throat and indigestion. Can those tests miss things sometimes?
4. Can the Nissan wrap help those with breathing issues or coughing up phlegm all the time? I did see a gastro specialist and they wanted me to get the wrap last year, but they told me they had no idea about my lungs, which is really the only reason I wanted this done or fixed so I can go back to feeling good again.
Thank you everyone for all your help, any advice is needed. Another major note I wanted to say which complexes the whole thing, is that there have been a few weeks every year that I actually woke up and I felt much better. I was breathing fully, no pain or fatigue after exercise, and I was having very little trouble with phlegm. Unfortunately I can't remember if I felt acid reflux as the last time I felt better hasn't happened for about a year, but the same pattern always occurs: I will be fine for around a week or two, then the symptoms slowly come back. I never changed my diet, work, area or anything, it's very confusing. The time of the year was different when these happened. My doctors still believe I have severe GERD going on, but I really am at a loss right now.