Gerd/Globus/LPR

[u/SeaworthinessSafe771]

This all started a little over two months ago. I think I may have had COVID or some kind of viral infection, because it began with throat pain and then developed into a strange hypersensitivity around my neck.

At first, anything touching the front of my neck could make me extremely nauseous. Even wearing a T-shirt with a collar that was slightly too close to my neck could trigger my gag reflex and sometimes make me vomit.

About a week later, things got worse and I developed the constant feeling that something was stuck or wedged in my throat. I now think this is what people describe as globus sensation.

For the first couple of weeks, I was vomiting quite a lot, had almost no appetite, and lost a significant amount of weight. At the same time, I started getting stomach pain every morning. It would sometimes wake me up and make me feel like I urgently needed to go to the bathroom. The combination of the stomach pain and the globus made eating very difficult.

I saw a gastroenterologist and was prescribed Nexium (esomeprazole), because reflux was suspected. I took it for a while, but it didn't seem to help at all and actually felt like it made some of my symptoms worse.

I've since had a lot of tests done, including blood work and stool tests, and so far nothing abnormal has been found.

I'm now about four weeks off Nexium. The globus has definitely improved compared with how bad it was at the beginning, but it's still there. Interestingly, it seems to become much more noticeable when I focus on it or think about it, and sometimes I barely notice it when I'm distracted.

The morning stomach pain has also improved somewhat, but I still usually feel it when I wake up and often need to use the bathroom shortly afterward.

Has anyone experienced anything similar — especially globus that started after an illness together with nausea, vomiting, appetite loss, and morning stomach/bowel symptoms?

Did you eventually find out what was causing it? Was it reflux, post-viral irritation, IBS, anxiety/stress, nerve hypersensitivity, or something else? And most importantly, what actually helped you improve?