These are the things I’m doing to alleviate my digestion symptoms of LPR:
Yesterday, I did an endoscopy. I want to rule out any serious damage that’s been done to my system since I think I’ve had LPR for some time without realizing it.
In February, I did a colonoscopy. I figured I better check both ends. An endoscopy is much easier than a colonoscopy. I only had to fast overnight, and the procedure was maybe 5-10 minutes. I was under “twilight” anesthesia so I really don’t know how long it was, but that’s what I was told.
The nurse told me afterwards that everything was fine. But I asked to talk to the doctor for further clarification. I am pretty good at asking questions. I’ve learned that over the years that you have to ask.
The doctor said:
1. He took out polyps for biopsy. Now here I forgot to ask – how many polyps? Is it common to have polyps? I was still a bit dizzy from the anesthesia so I wasn’t as good with questions under the circumstances. I was tempted afterwards to email him to ask more questions, but my husband told me, and God convicted me, to trust God and not get myself all worked up. I’ll just wait for the biopsy results. Can’t do anything about it anyway. If I have cancer, I’ll know soon enough. UPDATE: biopsy is benign! Praise God!
2. The esophagus looks normal, a little irritated but not bad.
3. I don’t have hiatal hernia (I asked him to specifically check).
4. My LES looks normal as far as he can tell. However, from what I’ve read, you can’t really evaluate the LES with an endoscopy. But I’ll let it go at that. At least there is no observable damage.
5. Irritation of the throat is caused by constant clearing the throat. My husband said the doctor did not say my throat was irritated, but I thought he said it was a little irritated. However, I did remember him saying there’s nothing bad.
Well, that gave me some peace of mind, and I’ll know for sure when I receive the biopsy report of the polyps. I feel a little happier knowing that my esophagus is not damaged and that maybe my LPR isn’t that bad.
In the meantime, I still have a cough that I hope is a separate issue from LPR. It’s going on 3 weeks that I’ve had a cough with a weak voice. But I know coughs can linger.