Typical LPR story?

It's long, but I do have questions at the end...your thoughts would be appreciated as I'm seriously depressed over this issue.

Health at summer: Very fit, lots of exercise, eating well. Bowel movements 1-3 daily.

May: Throat was coated for about 3 weeks. Was going through emotional turmoil. Went to student health doctor and she prescribed a steriod nasal spray. Coating went away within days. It came back for a few days in June. Coating though wasn't thick like mucus, more like a fine spray. But no burning or pain. Just irritation.

August: Went home to mom's. She commented that my breath smelled like flatulence. Felt fine otherwise. Perplexed. Visited Japan and noticed strong reactions to my breath.

September: Started school. Continued reaction to my breath accompanied by a weird taste in my mouth. Mucus ball in my throat and sore throat. Went to ENT and she prescribed antibiotics for 3 weeks for possible sinus infection. ENT said my tongue was very clean and clear. Sore throat decreases, but death breath doesn't. Post nasal drip decreases significantly with nasal washing and steriod spray. Persistent bad breath that gets better towards the end of the 3 weeks of antibiotics. Also have random release of flatulence-like odor from my mouth.

During antibiotics use, I got really bad gastrointestineal side effects. Loose bowel movements, backwashing of food/liquid, refluxing, heartburn, gas, difficulty in swallowing and crazy amounts of burping. A week after finishing antibiotics, side effects seem to to subside except for burping and difficulty in swallowing. Sore throat, bad taste and breath, and mucus return also. In other words, nothing has improved and I have new ailments.

October: Got ct scan of my sinuses. Went back to ENT and explained all of the above. ENT said my sinuses are fine. Have minor issues that should not be causing my symptoms. Her new diagnosis is LPR. I have had suspicions of reflux as well, but wonder if these problem were from antibiotics and do not explain my ORIGINAL problems. ENT said that I have/had silent reflux and the antibiotics brought the symptoms to the forefront. She diagnosed me only with my explanation, never took a look with her endoscope. Prescribed 3 months of nexium and made it clear that I need to be patient to see improvement. Will only refer me to gastro doc after months and no improvements. When I was skeptical, her reply was "hey, it won't hurt". She also looked at me like I was speaking Martian when I told her about my death breath. Clueless. She did order an allergy test for me just in case.

Started acid reflux management program along with Nexium for last 9 days. Yes, have noticed overall improvement of the sore throat, intermittent rather than constant. Had two nights with severe heartburn. Otherwise have dull chest pain after dinner. I seem to have bits of food caught in the mucus ball. Don't know if food just gets caught when I'm eating or if they come back up. Still burping. Still have death breath/taste.

So is the ENT right? Did I have LPR all along? It just drives me crazy that she didn't bother to look and that she won't refer me to a gastro until after 3 months. Meanwhile, I feel like I'm living in a void. I'm depressed and the social distress of the bad breath has completely turned my life upside down. I also despair of living with a chronic condition. Always took some pride in my fitness and my favorite thing in life is trying new cuisines/restaurants. Always joked of having an iron stomach. Ate adventurously, but in daily life, ate healthy and balanced diet.

Is it just LPR and I'm in denial? Or is there something else out there? I saw dentist in May and had a good checkup. Will have another one this week...maybe there is something there. Teeth have felt fine, although I woke up yesterday with some sensitivity in teeth.

If you have read through it all, Thanks!

The problem with acid reflux is that there are so many things in your life that you can pinpoint as signs of reflux. For example, I ate tomatoes on an almost daily basis, love super spicy food, etc. I also cycle a lot, and I wonder if all the miles in the semi-aero riding position did something to my LES, not to mention the ab crunches.

Looking back, I can also remember many times when I had what I thought were panic/anxiety attacks where I felt as if an anvil was pressing against my chest and my arms had the odd numb/tingly sensation. Also one time, I ate a really spicy bowl of noodles (it was soooo delicious!) and I had a really bad reaction. Heavy chest, hard of breathing and after a couple of hours, it passed. I put it down to too much MSG.

That's my problem right now. I'm going over everthing with a fine tooth comb and wondering, "Was that acid reflux?". I'll probably attribute my ACL surgery to reflux soon...It would help if the ENT would refer me to a gastro instead of asking me to wait 3 months. I have the chest pain daily, but I wonder if I'm just worrying myself to death.

Jennifer, how long have you had this condition. Good luck with your test, hopefully you'll find a resolution.

Yes, doing all the management stuff. So even if you do everything and stay on medication, the nasty breath doesn't go away? My problem seems to go further down the throat. I have had people react to my breath even though I had only brushed 15-20 minutes earlier.

Laryngeal pharyngeal reflux, excuse the spelling but it's something like that. Sucks to have a condition you can't spell or pronounce properly.

I've been on nexium for about 10 days and it has cleared my sore throat, but now I swear I have a sore chest every night and I'm constipated. I drink citrucel and prune juice along with eating correctly, but it's hard work to get one bowel movement a day. I have been getting blood in the stool, bright red. How long should I continue before I call the ENT? She made it clear that it would take 3 months before I would see any improvement (if none then a referral to the GI)...but I'm afraid of letting the new ailments linger. On the other hand, I don't want to be a wuss.

I would live with all the other symptoms if only the death breath would go away. It's really put my life into the dumps. I stopped dating because I've gotten so self-conscious of it. I like this one guy but the last time I saw him, I could see him react to my breath and it made me want to crawl into a hole.