Asthma and GERDS

I have been reading the posts here in regards to the connection between Barrett and Asthma. At 35 I had to go to the hospital as I was having breathing difficulties. The Dr said you have Asthma and gave me puffers. I went through a string of puffers trying to figure out which one worked for me. Through this time I was going through a stressful divorce and was having problems eating foods like steak and carrots. I work construction and have been gasses and subjected to lots of cement dusts so didn't think much of it. 15 yrs I was using various kinds of puffers yet at the same time I was running in 10k runs in under an hr hiking up mountains that would have taken an hr and a half I scuba dive and various other physical activities and I continued to quesion this diagnoses. Finally moving back to the big city and having specialists available I started to questing this and was sent to a respritory specialist who put me through lots of tests. Sleep apnea and treadmills and discovered I was just border line with asthma but asthma all the same. Again I wasnt satisfied with the diagnoses as i was taking antihistamines to help my breathing that did help. It wasn't long before I came to the Dr with a grape sized polyp that had blown out my nose. Another specialist and found I had a major sinus infection so a surgery later that was fixed but my respritory issues still remained but slightly less. At this time I was refered to an allergist that started me on allergy shots. 4 yrs of that and yet another piece of the puzzle solved. I still persisted with my Dr as swollowing certain food remained an issue. So yet another specalist discovered I had Barret esophagus. It was stage one but after a few yrs of monitoring some traces of stage 2 had appeared. This is a pre-cancerous state. So a referral to another gastro specalist who is doing a new procedure called the Halo ablation treatment where they burn the esophagus with radio waves to cure the cancer cells. After much discussion he agreed to do the treatment on me. It wasn't pleasant but it was done. As I was recovering I discovered that my asthma had completely gone and I could eat all the foods I had been throwing up before. I mentioned it to the referring Dr as well to the specialist that did the procedure and the nurses. No one wants to believe me that this has fixed this. I was even scheduled for a lung function test following this treatment and they didn't believe me. All they said was that my asthma was now under control. I just shake my head at all these specialists now as I am living proof this worked for me and that there is a connection between GERDS and Asthma. My wife found this site as others in Britain that confirm others have had the same results. So thought I would just share my story in the hope that it might help others.

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It's certainly true that reflux (which if left untreated long enough can result in Barrett's Oesophagus) can cause breathing problems similar to those associated with asthma and it's also true that it can be very difficult to distinguish between the two. There has been one occasion when I went to my GP with what I thought was an asthma flare (I'd been having problems for four weeks) but the GP correctly identified as irritated airways due to reflux. The giveaway was that the symptoms consistently came on within forty five minutes of eating and drinking. That combined with the fact that there was probable gastroparesis on my medical history helped the doctor reach his diagnosis. One month on Lansoprazole sorted things out and I now know how to recognise if any breathing problems I might be having are caused by reflux.

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On the note about the food I now am able to enjoy steak and carrots without throwing it back up. This was what led to the gastrointestinal specialist looking into my situation in the first place and my persistence with my Dr.to find the answers. Very frustrating to deal with the medical community that has such tunnel vision with matters. Now at 57 i have my life back and it's an amazing feeling. My wife fist off had to wake me at night as she thought I had stopped breathing as I was no longer wheezing at night.

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I have experienced that 'tunnel vision' attitude before; I suspect there will be others on this site who know what you mean as well.

Great that you're feeling so much better now.

All the best going forward