Asthma and GERD

Teri16 · October 22, 2005, 12:18am

Do any of you with Asthma, also suffer with GERD?

Teri16 · October 22, 2005, 8:43pm

Bringing this back up for you to read!

"Because he is he and I am I."......E. V. Lucas

Mikado · November 1, 2005, 1:12am

Hello I am new to this site, (Mikado..female..50 ish ) and I would like to tell my story about Asthma and acid reflux . I went to an allergy asthma specilist 10 years ago for asthma, and in those 10 years I took everything from Albuterol inhalers, Pulmicort turbuhalers,foradil aeolizers, nose sprays, Singulair, Advair Pulmicort, Xopenex, Astelin, Duratuss, meds for the nebulizer, and the list goes on and on and on. Then two years ago I had a cough

which lasted four months, so I had a chest x-ray and was told from various other tests that I had lung cancer. Well', to make a long story even longer, it was not lung cancer, but a nodule on my left lung called "Mycobacterium Avium intracellulare pulmonary nodule".

and the surgeon says it is air born and that anyone can get it.

I had it removed and it was most definitely the worse experience of my life. In the mean time I am still having shortness of breath,and belching non stop along with all the symptoms of acid reflux, taking every prescription on the market and going from one Doctor to another until I find a surgeon that tells me I may not even have asthma, but it could possibly be the acid reflux blocking my air way making it hard for me to breath. I went threw all of the various tests, including endoscopy UPR, nuc med, DX, echo liver and abdomen, scan on gallbladder, and pancreas, colonoscopy, ultrasound, scan on throat, pulmonary function test, chest xray, scope in airway,48 hour bravo test, and esophageal mammometry test, etc, etc, etc, then four weeks ago I had laparoscopic surgery to correct the acid reflux and to have my hiatal hernia repared. I have very little reflux which is wonderful, but I still have the shortness of breath. The Surgeon says it may take 6 months to a year before I can breath a little easier. I am not taking anything for asthma, since my surgery, except for the hand held Albuterol inhaler before bed time because my esophagus is much smaller and maybe still swollen from the stomach being wrapped around it ?? I can't eat any solids yet, just soups and cream of this and cream of that, plus I have lost 10 pds, but that is ok with me !

I am just waiting for the day to bite into a nice juicy hamburger, eat some pizza, or to drink a glass of wine, or a soda, something I haven't had in years. Thanks for letting me view my thoughts, and may God bless !

domaincat · December 3, 2005, 3:41pm

Hi, thanks for sharing your story. Lung cancer was a horrible diagnosis to hear for you, my dad had lung cancer and although he had part of his lung out, he died from that five years later. Of course he smoked and had bad asthma, I never smoked but have had second hand smoke from his smoke use. Good that later they gave you a better diagnosis and that they were able to even repair your hiatal hernia, as that causes a lot of pain and discomfort and a significant lot of wheezing at least for me making the asthma chronically worse.

Inhalers I have to use but do not like them due to possible side effects as well as I use Theophylline. Yeah I have to use nebulizers sometimes too.

Am now trying the natural remedies as mentioned above and just found a few days ago information about salt pipes, natural salt lamps, and salt candles for cleaning the air there's even salt purifiers especially good for asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, just about any breathing complaint and also good for arthritis some gourmet salt that a person can eat. I haven't got this stuff yet but sure want to. I do know where to get it though although I can't put in any links in here.

Joan_Mack · January 25, 2006, 1:02am

Hi, I am new to this chat room but not new to asthma which I have had for about 22 years. I aways had a very sore throat and felt like the doctors didn't really think so much about the whole thing. Finally I saw an ENT specialist who put a camera down through my nose and found blood, etc. near my upper esophageal spincter muscle which was a clear sign of reflux. Now I take reflux drugs as well as three asthma drugs. I am very tired from having asthma. Does anybody else have a lot of fatique? Don't know if asthma and reflux are connected. Am almost postive fatique is connected to asthma. I am Joan Mack, your new asthma cyber pal

debimum · March 24, 2006, 2:19am

Hello, I too have asthma, adult onset at age 30, am now 49. I started out with shortness of breath. which they did the lung function test. Went through a male chauvenist doc and made me try antidepressants. He thought my shortness of breath was depression. Yeah. so I went to another doctor. Had allergy testing and more new inhalers. Then I started with sinus problems. But i had allergy problems for years. Had four sinus surgeries and still no luck with infections. I was to the point of having to have a IV port put in, I was already taking antibiotics monthly. So I had it. Went to herbs and helped. But then I started having other problems, gained weight and even though I was using my inhalers like I needed to, I started with shortness of breath. Then my muscles started getting tired with any kind of exurtion. After another ENT and gastro doc and rheumy doc. along with a pulmonary doc, they ended up telling me I had an elevated ANA which in short they think I have an autoimmune disease. I didn't want to take the malaria meds because of side effects I heard. One night I was flipping through the channels and heard a young woman say she has asthma along with sinus infections. I stopped to listen to it. She said she has Churg's Strauss Syndrome. I immediately went to the internet to look it up. Boy did that sound like me. I could not believe the symptoms I read were exactly like mine.

Some of you may want to look this up. I also have a high allergy blood level. which is part of this too. I also have nodules growing under my skin which do not hurt, well a couple of them do. Which the family doc always tells me they are just cysts. When I read nodules under the skin are one of the symptoms, I almost cried because of how all these symptoms were what I am experiencing. So I wrote a letter to my allergy/asthma doc today and sent it. I am hoping he checks my blood reports against the things to check. My family doctor thinks I have lupus or scleroderma which I could have, but I think the churgs strauss is the one.

Please some of you who have asthma and sinus and fatigue that does not go away and muscle weakness, look this up. I am a 49 yr. old woman who after 19 years of struggling with not being believed I am going through physical problems may finally get a doctor to listen and help. It's a rare disease, but the one article I read it's more common now then it had been. What was so frustrating was that I was using my inhalers and taking singular and I still had shortness of breath. Then my family doc said it's muscle. well yes it is. The pulmonary doc only wanted to do a sleep apnea test, he would not check into anything else. Then my cousin suggested I see the allergy doc, and he found some things that the others would not even check for. So that's why I sent him this letter about the churgs strauss disease. If it helps any of you, I will be glad. Good luck.

Deb

Not been diagnosed as of yet. Have a positive ANA. plaquenil 200 mg 2x aday. Lexapro. Pain reliever. sublingual B-12 , Chronic sinus infections. Asthma.