[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Finallyfree

Are you on any ace inhibitors for blood pressure? They can cause a nagging cough with gunk in throat. A nurse friend of mine heard me cough one evening and told me to have my doctor change my medicine, problem solved. Good luck!

I agree. It happened to me too.

[NIPAS K-9]

Originally Posted by ducati1974

Please give me your thoughts /experiences with my symptoms. For the short version skip to the bullets below.
Last January I caught a very bad cold from a visitor. After two months of Dr. visits and antibiotics, I continued to have irritants in my throat causing me to clear it continuously and causing coughing. All other "cold" symptoms gone.
I had chest Xrays, and CAT scans and lung Dr. visits along with allergy meds, more antibiotics, inhalers and prednisone. While some things helped a little, it always came back.
Finally, I persuaded my Dr. that my cough was not from my lungs, but due to the irritants in my throat, so he sent me to an Ear, Nose, & Throat specialist.
The ENT diagnosed me with Acid Reflux and put me on Omeprazole (Prilosec). After 3 weeks the symptoms were almost gone, but then gradually came back about 60% and did not improve further.
The ENT told me to double the dose and come back in 4 months. The doubled dose did not help.
When my scrip ran out, after 2 months, my primary refused to refill it and wanted me to come in for a possible upper GI. I was so disgusted that he overruled the ENT that I balked and instead discontinued another medication I've been on for years (Citallopram) to see if that was the cause.
Now, a month later, with no improvement I'm reluctantly ready to go back to the primary to see if he can solve what seems to be an easy problem.

Current Symptoms:
>Continuous clearing of throat due to irritant (gunk) in throat
>Occasional coughing/ choking due to irritant
>Does not have that vomit acid taste
>Almost never a problem at night or early morning/ worst in evening
>Everyday occurrence
>No noticeable specific food causes
Thanks for your help

Sounds like sinuis drainage, my wife had simmilar symtoms and took clariden. It cleared her up., Hope this helps.

[babbs455]

Just curious were you ever in a sever car accident where you had sever neck injury or upper back? Reason being this sounds just like my father..to a T. He was in a horrible head on crash with a semi truck when he was in his late teens. he lived in the hospital for almost 6 months he is pushing 80 now and is in severe pain 24/7 this thing in his throat started about 3-5 years ago. Come to find out his spine has so much arthritis and spurs in his neckl area that it is affecting his throat, he has to constantly try clearing his throat...just curious

[ariel]

Find a good diagnostic physician - Mayo or Gainesville are both good ideas. Could be so many things - allergies as have been mentioned, polyp on vocal cords, barret's esosophagus, etc. Also, as someone suggested, reflux may not be improved by first drug try.

Wish you luck!

[SALYBOW]

When I take a long acting allergy pill it goes away. I, who was not a victim of allergies in Cincinnati, the allergy capital of the world have barely a day without allergies in FLORIDA. Who knew??

[bstenon]

Originally Posted by ducati1974

Please give me your thoughts /experiences with my symptoms. For the short version skip to the bullets below.
Last January I caught a very bad cold from a visitor. After two months of Dr. visits and antibiotics, I continued to have irritants in my throat causing me to clear it continuously and causing coughing. All other "cold" symptoms gone.
I had chest Xrays, and CAT scans and lung Dr. visits along with allergy meds, more antibiotics, inhalers and prednisone. While some things helped a little, it always came back.
Finally, I persuaded my Dr. that my cough was not from my lungs, but due to the irritants in my throat, so he sent me to an Ear, Nose, & Throat specialist.
The ENT diagnosed me with Acid Reflux and put me on Omeprazole (Prilosec). After 3 weeks the symptoms were almost gone, but then gradually came back about 60% and did not improve further.
The ENT told me to double the dose and come back in 4 months. The doubled dose did not help.
When my scrip ran out, after 2 months, my primary refused to refill it and wanted me to come in for a possible upper GI. I was so disgusted that he overruled the ENT that I balked and instead discontinued another medication I've been on for years (Citallopram) to see if that was the cause.
Now, a month later, with no improvement I'm reluctantly ready to go back to the primary to see if he can solve what seems to be an easy problem.

Current Symptoms:
>Continuous clearing of throat due to irritant (gunk) in throat
>Occasional coughing/ choking due to irritant
>Does not have that vomit acid taste
>Almost never a problem at night or early morning/ worst in evening
>Everyday occurrence
>No noticeable specific food causes
Thanks for your help

I had similar problem after the flu. Went to an allergist and he had me have a cat scan of my sinuses and it ended up I had an infection there. Might help if your scan didn't include the sinuses. Try it if it didn't.

[bstenon]

I has similar problems after the flu. Turns out it was a sinus infection found through a cat scan.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by ducati1974

Last January I caught a very bad cold from a visitor. After two months of Dr. visits and antibiotics, I continued to have irritants in my throat causing me to clear it continuously and causing coughing.

I think it's important to learn from past mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future. That's why I said what I said previously about your immune system. Your immune system is your ticket to good health if you guard it and nurture it.

One other thing I would like to question is why you would take an antibiotic (as you stated above) for a cold. You must have asked for it because a good doctor should know better than to prescribe antibiotics for a cold. The only thing you likely accomplished was to kill off a lot of good bacteria in your digestive system.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

I think it's important to learn from past mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future. That's why I said what I said previously about your immune system. The immune system is our ticket to good health if we guard it and nurture it.

One other thing I would like to question is why you would take antibiotics (as you stated above) for a cold. You must have asked for it because a good doctor should know better than to prescribe antibiotics for a cold. The only thing you likely accomplished was to kill off a lot of good bacteria in your digestive system.

Here is Dr. Mom's cold information 101. A cold will last a week, or if we gargle, rest in bed, drink plenty of fluids and take cold medication to relieve the symptoms it will last seven days. A cold is caused by a rhinovirus and there isn't a medicine to kill it at this point.

HOWEVER, after the week, it may leave us with a seconday infection caused by bacteria which can be treated with an antibiotic. A secondary infection would be a sinus infection with a purelent discharge, or a lung or bronchial infection.

Seniors know that anything that attacks the lungs or bronchia should not be treated lightly because pneumonia is dangerous for the over 55 bunch.

The pneumonia immunization does not immunize us from all forms of pneumonia.

I am not a medical person. However, I am a mom. And you can bolster your immune system with all kinds of healthy foods until the cows come home. Healthy people still get secondary infections sometimes.

[renielarson]

Are you by chance taking statins for cholesterol? When my husband takes them he develops a nagging cough. When he goes off them, the cough goes away. Needless to say, he no longer takes statin drugs.

[Shirleevee]

Originally Posted by bstenon

I had similar problem after the flu. Went to an allergist and he had me have a cat scan of my sinuses and it ended up I had an infection there. Might help if your scan didn't include the sinuses. Try it if it didn't.

See ande E.N.T. sounds like allergies to me! My husband has the same symptoms and after ruling all else out, he is being tested for allergies. Good Luck!

[sjdjmd]

Our daughter is currently experiencing the same thing as you. Her doctors, too, think it's from her sinuses, with the constant dripping down her throat causing the acid reflux and thus the coughing. They have her Omeprazole; however, it really hasn't helped so they are trying a new medication to get the sinus condition under control.

I do know several years ago our doctor told me about his constant coughing which they finally discovered was caused from acid reflux.

Good Luck!

[Villages PL]

Message deleted.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by ducati1974

Please give me your thoughts /experiences with my symptoms. Last January I caught a very bad cold from a visitor.

What happened to your visitor? Did he/she have the same problem you're having? Or did their cold just go away by itself in a short period of time?

You had:

1) antibiotics

2) chest Xrays

3) CAT scans

4) lung Dr. visits

5) allergy meds

6) more antibiotics

7) inhalers

8) prednisone

9) omeprazole (prilosec)

Could it be, in retrospect, that you overreacted and did too much which may have depressed your immune system, thereby preventing normal healing?

If, as was suggested, you had a secondary infection, wouldn't two rounds of antibiotics have cleared it up? Well, it's not cleared up so we're back to my theory of the immune system.

I think most of us assume that you don't smoke and you don't live with a smoker. And I assume you don't drink alcohol. Also, I hope you're not getting too much iron in your diet from red meat and/or supplements because too much iron can depress your immune system. Well, not enough iron is bad too, so we need just the right amount.

[Suemc]

One more opinion. I have had the same symptoms for a long time and know what you mean by an irritant in the throat. I have severe GERD but I rarely have the taste of vomit in my mouth. I've been to many dr's through the years, had many, many tests and just had another upper GI. I also went to the Mayo Clinci, which was excellant, but all their blood work and tests which were done over a weeks time, provided absolutely no new information. They accepted our insurance, but even though we have two insurances, not all costs were covered! So beware! Even with that, I'd rather go to Mayo than Shands. Mayo is run like a well oiled machine, Shands is a zoo. Shands may be excellent, but they are a teaching hosopital and I know for from experience that their GI department pushes envolvement in studies, one way they make a lot of money. After a while, I felt like a lab rat. A few years ago I changed dr's and have been seeing Dr. Lily Tran, who is excellant. Look her up on the web, her ratings are fantastic. We went through several changes of med's before we found which one worked the best and even then it sometimes takes two. She prescribed Dexilant daily as a prescription med, but when I notice increased symptoms she suggested I also take over the counter Zantac. It works! Good luck