I saw a Gastroenterologist. The result of our visit was a prescription to treat symptoms caused by excess stomach acid. I’ll take it twice a day until further notice.
He also made an appointment in May for a camera down my throat. If my symptoms go away or are notably reduced before May, I may not need to swallow the camera.
I also saw a Speech Pathologist on what may be the last stop (win or lose) on my way to solving this throat clearing issue. About my constant throat clearing, she basically said, “STOP IT!”
It reminded me of this Bob Newhart skit. It turns out there is a little more to the STOP IT theory than you might first imagine.
It’s true that something is causing this to happen, but it turns out that throat clearing causes irritation, and irritation causes throat clearing. If the cycle continues long enough, it becomes part of you.
If you can STOP or REDUCE it, you might break (or damage) the cycle.
She offered a list of suggestions of how one might STOP IT, most of which I am already doing. The bottom line is, if I can stifle the throat clearing, at least to some degree, the instances and/or severity may be reduced, at least to some degree, regardless of the primary cause.
I had the follow-up PSA test last week. I haven’t talked with my Urologist yet, but, the test results were automatically posted to my (Medical Stuff) web site.
Test data often appears to be in Greek (Latin?), but these numbers were quite clear: 0.19. Now that’s a cliff-hanger. More than 0.2 indicates a recurrence of the cancer.
I’ve given up trying to predict what a doctor will say or do, I’ve been wrong so many times. I’m sure it will be interesting when we talk next.
