June, 2019:

Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) was the diagnosis from the ENT specialist. After some research into the symptoms I decided that this is what I had.. the only symptoms that did not seem to fit was the spit that was in my mouth after suffering head pain and the chest pain.. but because I was told the diagnosis and some of the symptoms fit.. I took it on.

I found an LPR book called Dropping Acid by Jamie Kourfman. It was basically a book that said to take on a high PH diet.

I completely changed all my food to everything with a PH over 7.. it was awful as all of the foods and drinks I seemed to like were off the list including caffeine not being good.. Apart from 3 foods that I did like.. Salmon, Camembert and bananas. My life was lean chicken or fish with no sauce and plain vegetables.

I lost about 15kg so went from about 76kgs down to 61kgs and my work mates commented on my lost weight.

Because I had convinced myself that I had this illness I tried to make sense of the symptoms. I still got sick about weekly and tried to figure out where I had slipped up and what had been my trigger food that caused it. I started driving myself nutty with keeping a food diary and trying to track down what was causing me to be sick..

What was good was some of the recipes in the ‘dropping acid’ book.. it forced me to stop buying packet sauces from the supermarket and buy the raw ingredients.. and some of it was really tasty and yummy. I learnt to cook properly even though it took time.

I purchased a PH meter from Amazon so that I could test what foods I was eating. I also needed some calibrating liquids to calibrate the meter with. It was kind of fun testing lots of food with it.. But it still did not seem to make a difference to me…

What is going on ?

I saw Catherine Fergusson who is an Otolaryngologist – Head/Neck Surgeon..

I explained my symptoms and she decided to examine my throat. She takes me into a room with a screen and explains the procedure. She will spray my nose with a solution that tastes like banana and put a camera up through my nose, then using manipulation will guide it down into my throat to check it.

Before I could freak out a bit I was there and she was checking which nostril was the best one. I was kind of dreading and feeling excited at the same time.

She sprayed up my nose.. waited a little while.. then passed this tube into my nose.. it felt weird like my nose was blocked.. after my nose I have no idea where it went but it was a bit sore as she kept pushing it in..

It wasn’t long until she took it back out.. That was equally as weird as I felt tugging through my nose..

She explained that everything looked ok.. and in her letter afterward diagnosed that I had Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and a throat spasm. She suggested taking Omeprazole and taking Gaviscon Dual action at night before I went to bed.

I had no idea what that diagnosis was about to do to me but It felt good to have a direction to go towards and hopefully it would solve my problems. It was also told that there seemed to be no damage but some redness and throat pressure

I drove home and can hardly describe how uncomfortable my nose felt afterwards.. It was the absolutely weirdest feeling and felt awful for a while. The banana stuff that had been sprayed up my nose was now in my mouth and tasted blah..