Globus sensation becoming intolerable, frightening

All,

I was diagnosed with LPR a little over a year ago.  The diagnosis was prompted by nearly 3 years of unexplained shortness of breath and sensations of my throat closing, which I now know are from globus pharyngis.

about a month ago, it seemed that my daily Nexium and Zantac combination lost its effects, yet at the time, I didn't realize it and went into panic mode at the ER for about 2 weeks running.  I am getting a few new tests run, but my original ENT is convinced that what's going on is still reflux.  Unfortunately, the shortness of breath and the lump in the throat are back with a vengeance and then some, and my anxiety has sky-rocketed.  I am up to two Nexium a day since this weekend, but can't take my night-time Zantac until after some allergy tests later this week.

If anyone has any advice or just commiseration, I could surely use it right now.

percycat

percycat, you might want to check out a quite rare disorder called eosinophilic esophagitus (i.e. an abnormal amount of eosinophils invade the esophagus and release chemicals which damage the tissue). It is often associated which food allergies, but can also be a primary condition.  You first step of action would be to get a skin prick test done at by an allergist (which it sounds like your doing). This will indicate if you have any food allergies. The second step if this yields no result is to get an upper endoscopy, making sure you ask them to take a biopsy of your esophagus. EE causes dysphagia and the lump in the throat feeling. Often PPI meds don't have an effect on the condition because of the unrelated problem. If you do have primary EE you will likely be prescribed corticosteroids which are swallowed. I had this condition in primary form and took the steroids. After the six week treatment it was gone. I had no side effects either.  Good luck.