Every day I cough up what looks like a scab with ugly mucous and blood

Hey! Thanks for you detailed posts. Your pictures of the scab are soooo similar to mine. I kept a food diary for a few weeks because LPR is also still on my list of possible causes, but when eating acidic foods/fried foods I don't notice the scab getting worse, sometimes I actually have days with just a tiny scab while I ate crappy foods. So it seems super random and therefore I started to think my scab isn't reflux related. Also after a course of antibiotics because staph a was found during culture, the mucus and crust disappeared but it returned after I finished the meds.

Up untill now I also didn't come across anyone who had the crusts with LPR, only mucus (which I have also). Anyway: one weird thing that happens to me is when I get a cold, it seems to impact my sinuses immediately but in a weird way. The thick mucus stops, the crust isn't there all of a sudden untill the cold is over, but I do dislodge nasty sinus mucus blobs that I have to hack up from somewhere deep and spit out. They're bloody and yellow and super firm. Did you also experience that? My post nasal drip and scabs started after covid infection 2 years ago and I never had mucus or sinus problems before. Up untill now (working with a , 4th ENT), chronic pharyngitis was my nr 1 suspicion because the same type of crusts appear with that disease. But now reflux is back on my suspicion list haha.

Just a couple days of avoiding bad foods don’t help. This is something you have to commit several weeks to, to see an improvement. You also need to do this in conjunction with the baking soda and Gaviscon advance or something to neutralize and keep the pepsin from coming up while you are healing. I talked about that in my first two comments. At first if you have this, all foods will irritate you, even safe ones, until you heal. The only fruits you can eat during the healing phase are melons- so it’s a pretty strict diet. It’s only for 30 days though until you can start adding things back in. The thing with LpR is that the pepsin event only needs to happen sporadically to cause damage, unlike GERD. It could stem from vagus nerve damage or a functional issue, not diet, so it seems random but it isn’t- it might not be the food causing it if it’s one of those problems, and it may not happen every time you eat if that’s the case. It’s not just fried foods- some of those would actually be fine- it’s things like onions garlic caffeine- these cause the esophageal sphincter to relax and let the pepsin up. The acidic foods like tomato sauce vinegar citrus are normally healthy but they are irritating tissue that’s already inflamed which is why they are avoided during healing.

You're right about that, I've read a lot about LPR myself and I know that a month of strict alkaline diet is the way to go. However it doesn't make sense that in my case when I have a cold and I eat the same foods as always, the post nasal drip and scabs disappear and weird sinus mucus blobs come out after which I feel relief. Have you experienced that as well? Almost like my body is too busy fighting the cold to produce the scabs and post nasal drip. But I keep thinking that if my problems are related to LPR that would make no sense since my diet doesn't change during the cold. Would love to hear if you experienced something similar or might have an explanation 🙂

May I ask, what is LPR?

Laryngopharyngeal reflux, also known as silent reflux. It's basically reflux without the standard symptoms such as heartburn, and therefore it's called silent. Instead of a burning feeling of acid in your chest and throat, an enzyme called pepsin comes up and irritates/damages your throat and even sinuses and nose. Google for more info 🙂

Just a quick update- still scab free! There was a day last week when I ate too close to going to bed (guilty it was chocolate) I had reflux that night and larygospasm. And in the morning I had a really small pre-scab I guess you could call it. But it slid right out without any effort. Babied myself diet wise and that was the only reoccurrence in the past month. It feels so good to know what this is and be free of it- or at the very least know how to prevent/manage it. I’ll update in the future for anyone interested

Hi! I know this is an old post but I hope you see this. From what you’ve described this is the exact issue I’ve been having for the past THREE YEARS. I’ve been to doctor after doctor. Taken soo many meds and antibiotics. I need help but no one knows! Did you ever come to a conclusion on this, or find anything helpful?

Yes. For over six months I’ve had a stab appear in my nose daily, which, if if I remove it, then I get a bad nosebleed. Mostly when this happens and I’m bleeding from the nose, the suns up in the back of my throat as a big blood clot I have not yet been seen by a doctor because of another medical problem but I am trying to do that very soon I just think they’ve got a find out what’s wrong because suddenly sometimes I’m having a nosebleed and then I end up with like what looks like a big blood clot coming down the back of my throat and out my Mouth so I do not have an answer for you, but I would love to keep in touch about this issue I don’t have a picture to show what I look like but you can reach me at this site and follow up with this conversation. If you’d like I would prefer that. Good luck with your problem. If I learn anything from the doctor I will share it with you. Have a good day.

The word was misspelled. Of course, it was scab.

Hi all?

Do you spray with a saline solution during the day? It is hard to get the scab to heal, but this helps both the scab and the stuffiness. As for bloody noses, my son had to come home from work, as he was just covered in blood, and could not lie down and hold his nose while driving. Pulled into a rendom driveway. Person came out saw there was a problem and helped. The blood completely covered him. I also put ice on his nose. The mess from these... I have 3 adult children with this problem. It is the big guy who can not handle the sight of blood. There are complications with that.