Silent Reflux? Is yours scary?

[MeeMawMea]

Initially I could just be having a drink of water from a bottle and suddenly spray the water straight back out of my mouth. No warning. No previous symptoms either. After a scan and blood tests that were fine, in a week it stopped. 3 months down the track, the left hand side of tongue and under tongue in my mouth felt irritated then caused my to cough from a nerve trigger in that area. Then it got worse. The back of my left lower gum ached and felt like needle pricks would cause me to cough. One of those sporadic coughs didn’t allow me to breath in. Woooh. That scared me. I’m still here. That trigger feeling would come in bouts through the day. If I get up and walk around it subsides. I swallow now so cautiously in case the trigger is there. Doctor has me on nexium thinking it’s silent reflux. Since starting tablets 2 days ago it seems to have moved down into my neck/throat but the cough is more controllable. When it happens now it feels like a nerve type razor feeling in my left side of throat to swallow and then just disappears again after about 5 to 10 mins usually. But can return at any time. Has anyone else experienced this? It seriously scares me.

[SableBandit]

I never heard of anything like this. I would be scared too. I sure hope they find out what’s causing it. It doesn’t sound like reflux. Kind of sounds like a side effect of COVID.

[MeeMawMea in reply to SableBandit]

Hi, and thank you for your reply. Yes, unfortunately it’s exactly what it is. After 4 days on nexium, my body is recovering from so many long term complaints, like no longer short of breath, no longer clearing my throat of mucous, don’t have nasal drip, my energy has increased so much, my mind is not foggy and most importantly, that terrifying odd nerve type pain in the back areas of my mouth that caused me to cough without warning has finally given me a good nights sleep after 4 days on nexium. I am so fortunate to have a doctor that knew these signs. I did not initially believe him because I’ve never suffered from heartburn or acid feeling reflux but I was in no position to debate it at that time. Wow. What a creepy nasty illness this was. I’m now on 2 weeks of nexium moving forward then I’m to drop back to 3 times a week for a little while until he’s satisfied my body has stabilised. So there it is. My goodness I hope this helps others to know more about this terrible illness and how it can present itself. Out of the blue spraying my drink out of my mouth. That’s the only clue it gave me. Then disappeared after a week. Then came back with a vengeance after 3 months with nerve like pain in the back of my mouth and under the back of my tongue that caused me to cough ridiculously and couldn’t inhale. That’s the crazy part. I thought my life was over. I truly did. This thing is so dam dangerous.

Early days yet but just wow. Much love and best wishes to all. To the ones that know they have it and the ones that don’t know 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[Oatibix]

Is your diet as acid - free as possible? No alcohol, fizzy drinks, citrus juices or drinks, no caffeine, no chocolate, no spicy, very fatty foods. Drink water and milk and hot water. Gaviscon advance after each meal and last thing at night. Stay upright for 3 hours after last meal of day and small meals?

If it's affecting your breathing you really need to calm your system down fast. Reflux caused ILO ( breathing condition) for me , the consequence of which was that I ended up in hospital following a lung bleed and heart attack. Do you have a Speech and language therapist you can speak to? You need advice to prevent this continuing.

[MeeMawMea in reply to Oatibix]

Thank you so much. Yes I have completely turned my diet around in these last 4 days of also been put on nexium. Finally last night was my 1st night that that scary nerve type pain in the lower back part of my mouth did not keep me awake with worry. As it’s been subsiding it started tracking back down my throat that felt like razor blades. What a scary ride this has been. I am now starting to realise how sick my body was. I can walk without being breathless. I am not clearing mucous from my throat. I’m a singer and after years of believing my vocals were gone forever…. They are back but I struggle a bit to push through them. The damage is evident but I’ll be nurturing the vocal cords while I heal. I have also suffered iron deficiency for some time. I’ve just read that this condition can deplete you of iron causing anemia. I cannot believe how good I am feeling. This has now given me my life back. I don’t like taking any drugs. Prescribed or not and people say don’t take nexium! Well I’m here to say that it has incredibly turned my life around in 4 days after this diagnosis. I initially did not believe my doctor that I had this condition because I had NO symptoms of heartburn or reflux. Silent Reflux I have now learnt is a very true to its name. How many people have this and have no clue and just believe they have asthma, nasal drip, poor energy, iron deficient. This is so nasty. I now totally understand what has happened to you. That would have been terrible. My heart is with you. I just pray that us posting here helps so many other people understand that this really does exist and to seek help immediately if they suspect they have this before too much damage happens. So many good wishes and love to all with this horrific thing.

[Pinkgold]

hi having had silent reflux years ago and treated with lanzoprazole successfully I virtually forgot about it. In January I developed what I thought was laryngitis and the kind of cough you describe I thought it was the usual winter bug. After about 6 weeks saw an ENT consultant who said it was caused by silent reflux well I was surprised as my previous bout of silent reflux was never like this. The cough came out of nowhere I couldn’t breath and ended up retching horrible. I was terrified it was not the normal coughing fit that I have had with colds. So I feel your pain. Having had endoscopy and a tube down to examine the larynx I have improved. I followed an acid free diet as much as possible, this almost made me food anxious and of course anxiety doesn’t help acid production. I sleep on a wedge as I can’t raise the head of the bed I sleep on which I guess is the better thing to do. I try to eat before six o clock in the evening and only drink water in the evening. Cut out caffeine and alcohol of which I never drank much. I am currently taking omeprazole and famotidine twice a day. My cough is gone although I can still feel it if that makes sense. I have returned to a more normal diet avoiding citrus tomatoes and onion when I can. I lost a lot of weight which I do not need to loose and now I am at a steady weight although not what I used to be.

For me I feel better but I still have that feeling in my larynx it feels swollen. I know I will have to manage my symptoms and if I eat too late I wait until at least three hours before I lie down.

It hasn’t been a quick fix as it has been 5 months but I am so much better and it doesn’t impinge on my life so much but I do watch what I eat and have changed my lifestyle a bit.

Good luck and I hope you feel better and less anxious about it.