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New to LPR - burning pain in throat from talking

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Posted 4/7/2018 2:05 AM (GMT 0)
Hey folks!

So, I've been dealing with LPR-ish symptoms now for about 7 months, which started back in Oct 2017 from a bad case of vocal abuse. Ever since then, my throat has had a constant burning, and talking is the main trigger.

Visited an ENT, gave me the 40mg PPI, did that for about a month, actually noticed a little improvement, didn't renew, then symptoms got real bad, went back on PPIs, never really got any better after that. I went back a second time to the ENT, who was pretty sure in his diagnosis of LPR. The two little bumps and bridge around my vocal chords are swollen, irritated, and inflamed.

The catch is that I'm almost asymptomatic - if I never talk. As soon as I start talking...the pressure starts building...even after only a sentence. And go figure, I teach students for a living.

Some days are good, some days are bad. Today is a bit of a bad day unfortunately. Not talking and still burning pain from having to talk this morning and here and there throughout the day.

The best I can describe it is feeling like my throat has a bad sunburn, and after I talk, it feels like someone just rubs that sunburn.

Anyone else have symptoms like this? I've gotten the post-nasal drip and had a bit of the globus sensation early on, but the throat burn/talking issue has remained pretty constant.

I've found, oddly enough, that chewing and sucking on ginger helps a LOT. At first, it was so spicy, but now I feel like I can just about bite into a whole root like an apple haha. Also, whole cloves have provided a bit of a soothing, numbing sensation when left in the mouth. I've totally changed my diet, taking DGL Licorice root. I found that aloe water does nothing. Haven't tried manuka honey ($$) but regular honey seems to help. Trying my best to stay far from sugar, fat, dairy, grains. What the heck is left? haha.

Anyway, It really meant a lot to me to know I wasn't alone when I found this community. I'm right there with ya'll, trying to make it by, while appearing normal to the rest of the world since it is so hard to explain, and talking hurts anyway! (sorry, bad joke).

I hope to be posting up one of those 'I cured my LPR' posts one day soon. Thanks for having me.
Posted 4/10/2018 7:08 PM (GMT 0)
Hi....for me talking didn't trigger any issues, but singing did. I used to play in a band and we would play and sing for hours on end. I still play and sing, mostly to myself, as a regular hobby. My last couple years before having surgery, I was finding that my vocal range was becoming more limited, and that I would often start coughing after only a few songs. Some days as soon as I would start singing the coughing would start and my range would be even worse than usual. I played at a friend's wedding and had to basically not sing for a week leading up, and also have plenty of warm tea with lemon (lemon honey tea was always our lead singer's go to before singing), just to make sure I was going to make it through playing them in and out of their march without sounding like a cat with a hairball.

Even though it has only been a few weeks since my wrap, I am starting to see some vocal range come back, and my coughing has gone away.
Posted 4/10/2018 9:12 PM (GMT 0)
I too lost my voice. Used to sing. Then I ended up with the same lumpy vocal cords you got and a whisky voice. I used to tell my hubby it's just too exhausting to talk, it was like it took effort. Be aware that if you stop PPIs cold turkey you will get raging rebound acid. I started with "silent" reflux, and now have full-on GERD. If your vocal cords are swollen and developing nodules, you are probably refluxing whether you feel it or not. Go see a GI dr and keep bugging your ENT.
Posted 4/14/2018 7:32 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your thoughts, both of you.

The weird thing is, my voice is perfectly normal - I sound normal. I just can't talk without it feeling like there is a burning sunburn down there. It is better in the morning, and worse at night. At first, due to the pain, I thought it was something like nodules or a ulcer on the vocal chords, but typically those are associated with a hoarse/raspy/lost voice. The scope showed my chords to be normal.

It makes me wonder sometimes if it truly is LPR or not. I have no idea. There is just not much else to explain the burning throat. Both times I was scoped, it looked irritated and swollen all around my voice box, but the actual vocal chords were okay. I tried vocal rest, as much as I could, didn't seem to do much. I am now on a pretty extreme diet...trying my hardest to eat real clean - no dairy (except for homemade unsweetened yogurt), no wheat type grains, no sugar (it's in everything), and no highly acidic foods. Basically that limits it to fish, chicken, rice, veggies, melon, nuts, and that's about it. No smoking, no drinking, no caffeine, no soda. I haven't noticed a huge enough change to tell me much of anything, except I'm losing a lot of weight when I don't need to.

I'm going to be going in for a voice therapy consult next week, and getting the barium swallow done in a month. The ENT wants to try these things to build up the info, and then if nothing at all works, he will write me a referral to see a GI specialist.

I know others have it much worse than me, I just wish there were some definitive answers, so I knew what would actually help...talking? No talking? Voice therapy? Acidic food and ACV? Non acidic food? So much conflicting info out there. Thanks for listening.
Posted 2/26/2021 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
Reading these posts has helped me a lot . Nobody I know gets it and even though these are old posts knowing I am treading a worn path is strangely reassuring
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