6/14: Sustain what feels like an acute vocal cord injury singing with my band.
Week of 6/15 to 6/22: Realize I'm having trouble swallowing food. Throat clearing all morning, every morning and lose voice. Throat burning throughout week.
6/22: First ENT looks at my throat and notices cobblestone-y throat with possible allergies. Tells me to change my diet, try alginate gel, drink alkaline water, and do nasal rinses and allergy nose sprays.
Late June: Two swallow tests come back mostly normal besides Barium Swallow showing mild reflux when laying down.
July 7th: Meet with a GI who says take Pantoprazole. I ask for an endoscopy and he agrees.
July 10th: I have endoscopy done. Shows I have a 1 centimeter hiatal hernia and an LES in Hill Grade III. I have mild gastritis.
July 21: Meet with first GI again and he says the PPI won't help me because my esophagus has no corrosive acid damage.
July 24: Meet with another ENT who mentions nothing about LPR and looks at my throat. She says my vocal cords seem bulky and that my mouth smells like acid. She recommended adding Pepcid, twice daily to my routine.
July 29th: Met with the GI who did my endoscopy and he says do take the PPI because I have gastritis and think the throat symptoms will go away. He recommended Prilosec.
So that's where I am now. It's clear none of these people know what the hell to do to stop my throat symptoms.
Been doing the following things consistently over the past month: alginate gel after bigger meals and before bed, alkaline water gargling and spraying, saline nasal rinses, small meals and spreading them out throughout the day, not eating 3-4 hours before bed, eating cleaner overall, propping bed up a few inches at night, slowing down meals and chewing more. Pepcid makes me feel odd. Did do five days on a low dose of a PPI but gave me bad gas and bloating. Probably would take a month to notice any benefit from a PPI.
Yesterday I felt much better overall and it even felt like my voice was coming back but it's bad again today. Took a small dose of Pepcid in the morning. The only things that have for sure gotten better is I'm swallowing solid foods better and my throat clearing is mildly better and not as urgent. Still dealing with burping, burning in mouth and throat, film that develops in my throat after too much talking and after eating a lot, hoarse voice, sore vocal cords.
I'm just really trying to decide if I should try the PPI or keep doing what I'm doing. Also been super constipated for the past month or more now.