tightness in throat, nausea, chronic feeling as though i need to gag, miserable, please help

[will3477]

Hi, my name is will. i am eighteen years old and in very good physical shape an otherwise very healthy, but for a long time or at least its seems like an eternity, i have had this recurrent feeling of tightness in my throat just below my jaw bones on either side of my face. It is like i have this constant need to gag, and eventually i finally do but afterwards the feeling just comes right back with no relief.

Some times if i take a sip of a drink of some sort the feeling will go away for a second, but then comes right back and i have to sip on it continuously until it eventually goes away, sometimes not for hours. Another thing that helps a little is chewing peppermint gum. But neither of these completely relieve the feeling.

I have been to many doctors. Until just recently i have referred to this feeling as nausea because it always makes me feel like i need to gag an sometimes almost vomit. Due to this i have had many GI tests done with all clean negative results. I also seemed to notice that this feeling gets worse if i lay in an inclined position such as a dentists chair. This feeling seems to be completely unrelated to anything i do. i am unsure but sometimes it seems to come a little while after i eat, and many times after i eat i will burp for hours, long deep burps.
I have seen a neurologist who diagnosed me with abdominal migraines, and i have since tried several medicines to treat this, all with no results. I have recently several days ago been diagnosed by a different doctor with gastroesophagal reflux disease.
This seemed very strange to me as the main symptom is heartburn and i very rarely get heartburn.  the day before yesterday i was prescribed prevacid solutabs that dissolve in my mouth and gas x for the burping. so far i can tell no difference whatsoever, but it has only been two days and i am going to see if they work after a couple weeks.

I have always referred to this as nausea because it makes me feel like i need to gag and vomit, so i always believed it was some sort of digestive problem as did the doctors. and recently the idea hit me that this could possibly be something wrong with my throat?

This is so miserable, it is practically ruining my life. If anyone has any suggestions as  to what is causing this, or anyone out there with the same symptoms, please comment i would greatly greatly appreciate it and thank you for taking the time to read this

[Lorilee34135]

After another morning of "I've got my gagging thing again' I told my son we would get up and look this thing up together on the internet.  I am already feeling much better just knowing he isn't alone, as I hadn't heard of anyone else with his problems.

My son is 9 and he has seemingly endured this condition his whole life.  I used to think it was due to difficulties during birth (he had oxygen deprevation resulting in a hearing loss, eye squint and general muscle laxness).  But as his health is generally good (apart from being a little overweight) this seems to be the only continuing problem.

He wakes up with a strong gag reflux, but he can also get this during the day.  It can be triggered by a strong or bad smell ('morning breath', country/farm smells, airplane toilet, even bad school lunches!) but he can even wake up with this even without a trigger.  He has mucous and sometimes needs to just spit it out but it often results in him gagging/vomiting.  

In fact, I just took 10 minutes away from typing this because he had a small drink and it just came back up so I had some mopping to do...

Have you had this since you were little?  He's had no major sickness that I can attribute this to, and wonder if it's the same as you?  What do you recommend to my boy?  And is the medicne working yet?

Please help a worried 9 year old and his parents!  Thanks

[loridavis]

hey sweetie - have you considered it to be from a nervous ailment?  years ago, during a very emotional time of my life, my throat got tight, i gagged a LOT, and i lost a lot of weight.  the doctor said my throat muscles were all tensed up, etc., because of my emotional state.

i few weeks later, and some anti-anxiety meds, it was gone.  

something to consider.

[bell1jl]

I think I have what Will3477 describes.  There is a tightness under my jaw - almost like I've been chewing too much or something.  There is also this sensation of something at the back of my throat that makes me want to gag.  I have to swallow hard to make it go away and sometimes I feel like that feeling might be mucus piling up back there.  The other day, however, I realized that it sort of feels like that lump in throat you get when you're about to cry.  That sort of "full throat" feeling.  I started Googling that and I came up with this article.  I think it does the best job yet at describing the symptoms.  I just don't know if there is a chronic version of this or not:

http://www.voicedoctor.net/therapy/cps.html

I'd love to know what the community thinks.

[ari_ali15]

Wow everyone was starting to tell me I was crazy and making it up. Glad to see there is an army of gaggers! :)  I have the tight throat almost 100% of the day. I notice that if i am chewing it does not bug me as much. But I spend so much time awake ready to vomit that it disgusts me. I would like to believe it was something simple but it doesn't seem like there is much luck. I never throw up I just feel the tightness like I might gag. I am not much of a vomiter but for the past year I have slept either in the shower or with a bucket next to my bed. There is no exaggeration.

I have been told it is all in my head by my grumpy hubby but I know better. I also have been to the doctor (military doctor that is) and I was told it was acid reflux. I was prescibed medicine and tried to take it but it only gave me symptoms of acid reflux which I was not having. I don't have an acidic flavor and I have zero heartburn. Shoot my throat feels so tight I fear burping because I assume that I will vomit next.

So... tonight is one of those nights where the rest of the world sleeps and I stay up pacing questioning if this is forever.

[jahlovee]

It feels so good knowing I am one of many with these ridiculous stomach issues and whatever comes along with it. My story is kind of funny..in a bad way. I never used to have any sort of stomach problem until last year when I was having these weird head aches for a good month. After a week of them I went to a neurologist and he told me I had something called brisilar migraines. He perscribed me prednisone which is a steroid and told me to take three pills of motrin to take the pain away. Yeah well...you arent really supposed to mix the two and I did because this awesome doctor told me I could before even knowing my background or really anything about me.
Felt like my stomach was tearing into pieces for days. Finally got it checked and what do you know?! I have gastrits.
I was on prevacid. It didn't work.
I was on nexium. It costs 300. So that ended real quick.
Months and months later with little relief, I was nauseous everyday. Especially in my throat. That was the WORST.
Got that checked and I developed inflammation in my stomach. Took protonix. That took away the inflammation and made my nausea somewhat better but when I was finished taking it, it came back.
Now I am told to go to a psychiatrist, so I am going to go to one and see what she/he says.
The moral of this story is, doctors and medicine are ******** :)

[cloud3334]

I have had the same kinds of problems for years now; i am 20.  Since i was a junior in high school (16) it started.  I never used to have them before, and i used to eat everything al the time then i got some sort of infection but didn't go to the doctor.  The infection made my lymph nodes in my neck swell up and the spit gland thing under my tongue very sore.  After about a week or two these symptoms went away but then i had this almost uncontrollable gag refelx.  It used to happen whenever i tried to eat something, for some reason putting anything in my mouth triggered it.  I lost a lot of weight and still now i consider myself to be under weight at 5'9 and like 135 pounds.  I do look very skinny still just not crazy skinny as i over the years i have learned to control it enough to eat enough to keep me going, just not enough to ever gain more weight.  I feel anxiety about eating all the time and even after cause i don't know if i will have a hard gag and semi vomit if i can't control it.  I have been to a few doctors who just say its reflux but prilosec doesn't help much.  It pretty much keeps my life at a standstill cause im afraid to go far from my comfort zone if i can't eat some food cause itll make me gag or what.  It does help to know there are other people with some weird gagging issue, as it reassures me im not crazy, but i just wish it would go away.  Being calm seems to help a lot but it doesn't fix the problem.  I really have wondered if its an anxiety disorder but am afraid to ask anyone cause its so embarassing.