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Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Crohn's

It's funny they abbreviate it to LERD :yrolleyes:. My GI think that my chrons has caused and triggered LERD. I have the following symptoms: sensation of drainage down the back of the throat or excessive mucus; feeling of something caught in the throat (sometimes a tickling or burning sensation); throat clearing; chronic cough; post-nasal drip; sore throat; hoarseness; difficulty swallowing; prolonged vocal warm-up; loss of the high end of the vocal range; the cough till you gag is most annoying as then it seems to tear my throat and that makes it real sore. I've got anti nausea and proton pump inhibitors to manage it. My GI wants to wait until chron's is managed to see if it will go away, otherwise he is suggesting surgery to partially close the valve in my stomach. Has anyone else had this with chron's? I am interested in treatments people have had and any other management tips. Thanks
 
No, but I have GERD and my GI mentioned to me about a fundowrap. It also closes a valve in my stomach. A sphincter. I havent heard of LERD. Before they do the fundo wrap they have to do an endoscopy and a 24 hour ph monitoring. I dont know if it is the same thing, but I dont know of too many valves in the stomach...then again, Im not a GI. I know with the fundo wrap, they have to do a lot of testing because when they do the surgery, they have to know exactly how tight to close the valve. They separate your spleen from your stomach, pull up your stomach and tie it around the esophagus. Sounds grim but they can do it key-hole. Problem is with this surgery, you can have difficulty eating for about 8 weeks or so. Then again, I don't know what valve you are speaking of. Your symptoms are very similar to mine except I don't have drainage down the back, I have it coming up into my mouth and I have pain in between my shoulder blades.. There are different degrees of wraps as well, 360, 180 etc. The testing is to figure out which one they need to do.
I feel for you as I have something very similar and it is nasty.

If it's not the same then just ignore everything I just typed :ytongue:

Glad to know you're not in your car right now :)
 
Hi Keona
It sounds very similar and they do a fundo too with the all the ph testing. If your chrons is undercontrol does the GERD go away? With the post nasal drip it goes both down the back of the throat and your also bring up all the most nasal drip in to your mouth. I have no acid burn though, I think I am lucky there. Yep not in car for 7 working days :thumright: I will have to start marking some essays soon. Mind you its only 8.30 in the morning.
 

Entchen

Chief Dandelion Picker
Hi, Aura. I've had similar symptoms. My doctor did not give me a specific label for the problem, but I was given proton pump inhibitors which helped somewhat, and which I was able to wean off of after a few months. The coughing actually won me an entire week of working from home, because my colleagues were sick and tired of listening to it all day long (and the rumour going around was that I had H1N1!).
 
Hi Kelly, what dose were you on for the PPI? So far the 80mg per day are making no difference and I have been on them for about 6 months, but the chrons is not under control at the moment either. I just wonder if I need the chrons under control first for the PPI to work. The coughing can be frustrating. At work our students come in one day a week for a 6.5 hr lecture. It's annoying when the coughing comes as it does in the middle of talking. So much that I have to walk fast to the loo to throw up. The students have been great and we have back plans for what they do when I throw. Generally they start singing action songs, being silly pirates, shake it like a duck or the hip-hop tooty ta. Teaching early childhood is so much fun. We have term break at the moment so it is easier for me to work from home. This term I am also on a non teaching term so i will be able to work more from home as I do a lot of marking for other lecturers.
 
Hey Aura,

You know, I could launch in to a diatribe about Crohn's/remission etc. I am new to all of this and have been told I have strictures in lower bowel then I am left hanging with no direction other than you need another MRI (the next available time slot is 3 months, unless there is a cancellation.) So, I cant really answer your question as I dont exactly know what a remission feels like. My GERD is 24/7 but have noticed the trigger foods and stress is a huge factor. I also have a hiatus hernia that is in the way of the sphincter. Like Kelly, the PPI's helped at first but now they dont have any effect and it isnt good to be on them for very long (I have been on them for over 3 years on the highest dose 2x's a day). Im lucky I only really get coughing when I am laying flat or when I just wake up (I sleep with my bed raised). At this point I would also like to know if it is Crohn's related. I think he took a biopsy from my stomach (which was inflamed.."gastritis") and it came back as the gastritis not Crohn's in my stomach. It does seem that when I feel really crappy - both, the Crohn's and GERD are both irritating the crap out of me. I was handed 3 diets in the past 5 months. One for GERD, one for Crohn's and one for oral thrush. That leaves me with ... ummm...not much. For me though foods are a big trigger and lack of sleep.

Hey, if you get bored marking essays...what to write a few? :)
 

Entchen

Chief Dandelion Picker
Hi, Aura

I was limited to 60 mg/day of Prevacid, so you are already allowed to take a higher dose than I was (initially I was instructed to take only 30 mg, which did nothing and my symptoms continued to get worse). So sorry to hear that you are not finding relief. I wish I could recommend helpful strategies such as raising the head of the bed by several inches or warm showers, but honestly, those strategies didn't help me.

I will be teaching 3 courses again in September after a 1 year break from teaching (worked as a researcher after my university college closed down). Psychology students are less willing to sing songs (Where's their sense of play?), so I am working on strategies to deal with needing to leave the room in a hurry. I've opted to teach just 3 days/week in the fall semester and to take on an assistant, since I was Crohn's-free back in my assistant prof days and am not sure how this is all going to work out. It is helpful to me to hear that you manage it -- and clearly quite well!
 
Thanks Kelly

I have my bed raised, and then I have pushed my bed in to the corner of the room so that I can create a pillow corner as I need to sleep sitting up. It only makes a small difference sometimes. I was thinking about the need for toilet breaks. Maybe you could have some of the BBC human development DVD's that you could play when you needed to dash out. Have that set up and ready to go. Encourage one of the wiser students to take responsibility for pushing play on your signal. Maybe that or something similar would work. I seem to manage I am just not sure how well. But I havent thrown up in class yet :ylol:
 

Entchen

Chief Dandelion Picker
Aura, you have just solved my dilemma. I was thinking I should put on a video, but then figured I'd never have the time to find one, set it up, and push play. Having a video READY TO GO just in case -- and having someone assigned to push play if needed -- is a wonderful solution. We watch lots of TED talks in my class -- they're fabulous!

I so appreciate your help. :)
 
No worries Kelly, pleased I could help. I enjoy TED talks too. I do like listening to Sir Ken Robinson. He is good to listen to and funny too. He has a wonderful talk on creativity and a critque of public education systems. It's good.
 

Entchen

Chief Dandelion Picker
YES to K. Robinson! I thought his talk on education killing creativity was spot on. By the time they get to university or college, some people are so afraid of looking less than brilliant or of not placing first in the class that they won't allow themselves to try out new ideas, to ask off-the-wall questions, or to enjoy learning. Heaven forbid we have any fun whilst showing ourselves to be very, very smart and very, very good students.
 
I have started to reduce the height of my pillows over the past two nights. Unfortunately the coughing comes, and then when I do fall asleep my pelvis gets stuck in a position and I can't roll over and I get really sore. I guess this is my SI joint pain. I don't get it if I sleep upright, but then I get pressure sores on my butt. Can we ever win? I hope so.

Kelly, learning should always be fun and creative. What human being would want to learn through boredom and could they learn, what would they retain?
 

Entchen

Chief Dandelion Picker
In full agreement re. learning = fun. The literature supports the notion that we have better retention for information learned in the presence of the positive emotions. I buy participation prizes from the dollar store and get asked "what grade do you teach?" The 40+ group in particular enjoy bendy pencils and cool highlighters and things. Some of the "school should be serious and painful" group think it's loony, but that's fine.

Now, back to the topic -- I'm so sorry that you are having so much trouble sleeping. I remember it being a challenge to feel rested in the morning and hope that you can find some improvement soon. Would a pillow under your bottom help with the pressure sores?
 
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Thanks Kelly, I will give the pillow a try tonight, only a few hours to bed time. I marked 4 essays today I was pleased with that. The weather is cold and wet here so I had the fire going all day - it was good. I have 26 students aged 20 - 52, varied ages makes for interesting discussions.
 
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