Would I be better off seeing an ENT specialist?

Hi all

I have been suffering from reflux periodically for the last 10 or so years, it has ALWAYS hit my throat long before I would get any heartburn and given me asthma-like symptoms severe enough to be mistreated as chest infections for years. A 3 or so month course of losec always did the trick and cleared things up.

This year however things have gotten completely out of control, I blame some medication I had to come off which messed up my stomach real good and gave me horrifically bad acid. As usual I hit it with losec and it seemed under control, but while still on the losec I was having breathing issues, the feeling of a lump in my throat, severe post-nasal drip among other things which had my drs stumped. Long story short after a battery of tests, a ph test showed reflux which was breaching both esophageal sphincters leading to the diagnosis of LPR.

I'm currently seeing a gastroenterologist (not gastrologist) and his current recommendation is 300mg ranitidine OAD, 10mg domperidone maleate OAD, losec 40mg twice a day and gaviscon as needed through the day and always at least 2 before bed. I wasn't impressed with this route of treatment because prior to seeing him I was already taking the domperidone maleate and losec with no success and since the addition of the other two things seem to have gotten worse, probably because I have had to start having water closer to bedtime than before and this almost always results in me aspirating in my sleep. Even my PCP was shocked at this choice and was inquiring why he didn't refer me to a surgeon instead, especially since I have had to quit my job and can barely handle the few days a week I have to be out and about at uni, the chest problems from the LPR are pretty debilitating.

I've noticed that a lot of people on here have mentioned a variety of different specialists they have seen, but the one which seems to crop up the most is the ENT specialists. Which type of specialist am I better off seeing for this? As I said I am seeing a gastroenterologist, not a gastrologist, and his main specialty is upper digestive tract disorders, GERD in particular, but because this is also affecting my upper respiratory tract, would I be better off seeking the opinion of an ENT? Thoughts?

Thanks Tu Wang. I would agree with you, doctors seem to like throwing medication at you, the GP's here are particularly bad at it. I'm in New Zealand so we have publicly funded health care, but I also have health insurance which has been a god send, it takes so long to see a specialist otherwise.

I'm on a pretty strict diet anyway because I had gallbladder surgery not long ago and I'm still having a bit of trouble processing complex carbs. Also I'm vegetarian so no meat and a very low dairy, low/no gluten approach to everything else.

I started keeping a food diary ages ago and it did identify some things which made everything really bad, but also showed that overall it didn't really matter what I ate but more how much and when.

The gastroenterologist I'm seeing has done a gastroscopy on me, is that what you were meaning or are you talking about a bronchoscopy? I was wondering if maybe I should have a bronchoscopy check the damage to my airways, but dunno if its necessary.