Click on Home for more heartburn information.
Other message boards can be viewed at: Message Boards
Post new questions on the New Message Board
[ Home | Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ] This is a Read Only archive.
From: Beth
Date: 01/31/02
Time: 11:18:47 AM -0600
That doctor is a thoracic surgeon who specializes in 'voice care' in central Massachusetts. I initially went to him because I was a professional singer (actually he is a singer also) and I was having early quality-of-voice changes at the beginning of my reflux nightmare. Only back then it was more mild and I did not realize it was reflux. Even as shorness of breath became chronic etc. I was still being mis-diagnosed as asthma instead of acid in the upper airways so asthma medications were not effective. As my disease progressed clinical signs of acid reflux in the voice box (redness, broken blood vessles, swelling and building of mucosa for example) became more evident there. Finally the Prevacid stopped working and laryngospasms set in along with other horrible manifestations of severe gerd such as constant burning, gagging, nausea, regurgitation, etc. etc. etc. so I continued to see him for larynx scoping to monitor acid damage. Yesterday's scope revealed a lot of mucous on the vocal folds which is a newer problem in addition to my reflux symptoms and, he became angered to hear me refer to this condition as post nasal drip even though my allergist and ENT doctors said the damage caused by PND is ten times worse because of the acid reflux. Granted the Flonase and Allegra have not stopped the PND but rather only thickened it, but this doctor, who is crabby and argumentative by nature (you know the old school "WHO IS THE DOCTOR HERE" if he can't see it you must be lying, kind of thinking) but I was willing to put up with the crabbiness for the sake of just seeing how the larynx is doing, he is one of the few people in this area who offer video strobe oscopy type of laryngoscopy (versus the flexible tube down the back of the nose type of camera). However the moment I arrived and he asked me to desribe my symptoms and I mentioned constant reflux up and constant post nasal drip down he became VERY agitated complaining 'there is no such thing as post nasal drip" etc etc etc and when I tried to describe my symptoms he accused me of being argumentative and sarcastic and said he would not accept what I was saying because it was not acceptable etc. truly that is bizarre behavior...... and then to say my diagnosis yesterday was 'purely psychological' is more than an insult to me, I hold a master's degree in psychology myself and truly I am contemplating writing a letter for my medical file. Anyway If anyone is in Massachusetts and is concerned about being referred to him and feels the need for more information just let me know and I will email you with more information. I will also let the board know what I decide as far as writing a letter of complaint etc. Thanks everyone for your interest and support. Even if the man truly does not believe in post nasal drip (?) he should have been much more professional and tactful than he behaved yesterday. And I find the comment about the diagnosis being 'purely psychological' extremely unprofessional seeing as both the allergist and the ent have documented the extent of the damage in my throat and larynx from both acid reflux and PND several times as has this laryngologist. There WERE objective signs of both reflux and PND in my voice box on strobeoscopy yesterday. Something is seriously wrong here. Beth.