New to Acid Reflux

By REm Friday, March 05, 2010

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I have had chronic cough for about 3.5 months now. Been to my primary several times, had a Pulmonary Functions Testing that showed I have a Reactive Airway Disease (RAD). I was prescribed an inhaler, but cough lingered. In addition, I have excessive salivation, throat clearing, choking sensation, but no hurtburn. Primary said she's highly suspicious of acid reflux or GERD, so gave me Aciphex to take once a day. She also put me on Advair. While the coughing has greatly improved, I still have flare-ups that would last an hour or so, and I still have all the other symptoms. She has now put me on Aciphex 20mg twice a day for 8 weeks. Hope it works.

I had asked about a referral to an ENT, but she said ENTs don't like referrals for cases that can be treated by primaries, like RAD and GERD. Now, if all else fail, then it's time to look at other possibilities that could be causing the cough. I just wanted to see an ENT to make sure that nothing else is going on besides acid reflux.

I'd really like to get rid of this cough! Any thoughts?

Comments (2) | Add comment

Jan Gambino, Health Guide

3/14/10 8:31am

Hello! A reactive airway and reflux often occur together. It can be difficult to sort out the cause and effect. Is the reflux triggering the cough or is the cough triggering the reflux? It sounds like your doctor is comfortable treating the symptoms for now. She is trying different treatments to reduce or eliminate the symptoms. It can take a few weeks for the reflux medications to fully reduce symptoms if there is some irritation to the esophagus. Be sure to follow up with the doctor in a few weeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment and decide on the next step.

I agree that it may be important to follow up with an ENT doctor at some point. Your doctor might want to start with the common treatments first so that you can make the most of the consultation. If you go to the ENT now, he/she might prescribe the same medications and tell you to come back in a few weeks. Also, my kids with reflux and respiratory issues (asthma) really benefitted from a pulmonologist (lung specialist). So when you go for your follow up, you and the doctor can discuss all of your options.

Be sure to go to the Asthma section of HealthCentral for more information about respiratory issues.

Jan

dennis

6/ 4/10 3:14pm

I didn’t know how many people suffer from Acid-reflux, I will try to help as many as I can, I’m 59 years old, 3 years ago I was suffering from Acid-reflux, I tried just about all the drugs in the market but, it didn’t help much, and the side effects were terrible, a friend of mine told me about this natural food supplement that he tried, I ordered and tried myself, it was amazing, no side effects, I didn’t have to go on a diet, I eat and drink anything any time as much as I want, and I mean anything including coffee, sodas. pizza, chocolate spicy foods (my wife is mexican),. I didn’t have to make any lifestyles changes, I don’t have to elevate my head when I sleep and it lasted for more than a year, I had to order it 2 times since for myself and 1 time for my daughter and my son, my daughter was 18 years old and 32 weeks pregnant, my son was 10, the baby is now 13 months old and my daughter and my son had forgotten about Acid-reflux, until two weeks ago my daughter ask me for the web site address because one of her friends at school have reflux, I have told many of my friend about it, try it and tell your friends too, let me know if it work for you, the web site is betasupplements.com.

New to Acid Reflux

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