To those of you who haven't been within a mile of me, I've had a horrendous cough. That dry, hacking, think I'm a smoker cough. Well, when my asthma acts up it sounds exactly like that, so for a month now I thought I just had a really bad sinus infection/cold/my asthma was acting up; except I should have realized it was something more serious when NO medicine would even touch the symptoms.
On Saturday morning I was taking a shower and had a small coughing fit that turned into my airway getting shut off and me gasping for breath! I was terrified. After it happened 2 more times in 10 minutes I called my mom to take me to the doctor. (Mike had to stay home with our sick son.) We got there and finally got back to the room and after the doctor told me how he was going to fix the problem it happened again. He saw it and sent me to the ER. Great.
We get there and after a strep test, getting poked twice for blood, and an X-Ray they tell me all of this is because of acid reflux!! Specifically I have GERD, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.
What ended up happening was I've been having acid reflux and didn't realize it because I never tasted acid (I knew awhile back I was having problems but I changed something and it went away so I thought I was safe...nope). With the acid coming up into my throat it was causing massive irritation and swelling, causing my coughing fits, and I let it go for too long so it ended up with an infection in my throat, which caused the massive swelling to the point of momentarily cutting off my breathing, even causing my lips to turn blue.
Now I'm on antibiotics and acid reflux medicine and Tylenol with codeine. :(
Anyway, point to the story...DON'T BLOW OFF SYMPTOMS! STAY HYDRATED (which because I wasn't drinking enough, made everything soo much worse including getting my blood drawn)!! AND ACID REFLUX SUCKS!
By the way symptoms of GERD include: sensation of a lump in the throat, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, heartburn or actually getting acid coming up, hoarseness/sore throat, and even chest pain. I had all of those except the chest pain and tasting acid. The only way I could stop having my little "episodes" was sipping on water constantly and not talking (since it dried my throat out and my vocal cords were inflamed).
But I'm finally starting to feel better! Except now I have a congestion cough :( but I'm keeping a close eye on it. And I'm drinking more water! 11 1/2 cups yesterday! Hopefully this will be it though and everything will be smooth sailing. :)
Thanks for sticking with me through the story. Hope it wasn't too bad. :)
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