To those who also suffer from Gerd/Reflux...

The test was done while I was in Denver, OCT. 2023, for the week at National Jewish Hospital/Clinic. It does not require being an inpatient in the hospital. The tube is placed in and you go live the next 24 hours (that's how long my test was) as normal .....except for using the system when you eat etc. Yes you sleep with it in and eat with it in etc.
Early on before knowing I had BE I tried to have the test done at my request in a local medical department associated with the medical system but the medical person refused to do it. Go figure. This was early in my journey (AUG. 2022) when I was refused the test and was just truly learning the ropes with what we need to say and do to get what we need accomplished via the medical system. It was my belief after much research and knowing something was wrong with me, that I might have Acid Reflux.
Barbara

I have a hard to decipher cough as well. I was completely unaware I was even coughing until my spouse pointed it out after I was diagnosed in the ER with BE. I now notice I often cough once or twice when I first get out of bed, to me this seems like the BE (mucus pooling in lungs at night). I have an occasional dry cough that comes and goes, I can have a day where I have a few single dry coughs throughout the day then nothing for weeks, maybe months. This seems possibly seasonally related. My most frequent cough surrounds eating and drinking. I am generally noisy when I eat/drink. Coughing, throat clearing. I had a barium swallow test, full gerd workup, all negative. They now think my eating/drinking cough/throat clearing may be a neurogenic cough, which is the result of nerve damage involving the larynx. They can do nerve blocks, and/or drugs to try and temper the sensation. I confess I am not convinced and continue to worry I may have some sort of swallow dysfunction. I plan to review it all with NJH and get their thoughts on whether there are any other options for clarifying what is going on with the eating/drinking. My cough doesn’t bother me, again I was unaware of it before my spouse pointed it out, but I do worry about aspiration. The ENT who thought the cough during eating/drinking is neurogenic told me that he knows I am not aspirating because I do not have pneumonia, which I would have repeatedly if I was aspirating as frequently as I have the sensation of aspirating (he says the nerve dysfunction makes it feel like I am aspirating but I am not actually aspirating). I responding that a sign of aspiration could be my extensive BE with no history of lung infections. Dr said no, aspiration doesn’t cause BE. This of course is contrary to what all the BE experts say so not sure what to make of it. Again, will see what NJH thinks. My own opinion is that I have different types of coughs caused by different factors. It’s not one thing, and that’s what makes it tricky to assess. I do my A/C but it does not seem to have any impact on my cough, though 90% of my cough is unproductive so that does not seem surprising. I do worry at times that the saline may be increasing lung sensitivity.

I have a hard to decipher cough as well. I was completely unaware I was even coughing until my spouse pointed it out after I was diagnosed in the ER with BE. I now notice I often cough once or twice when I first get out of bed, to me this seems like the BE (mucus pooling in lungs at night). I have an occasional dry cough that comes and goes, I can have a day where I have a few single dry coughs throughout the day then nothing for weeks, maybe months. This seems possibly seasonally related. My most frequent cough surrounds eating and drinking. I am generally noisy when I eat/drink. Coughing, throat clearing. I had a barium swallow test, full gerd workup, all negative. They now think my eating/drinking cough/throat clearing may be a neurogenic cough, which is the result of nerve damage involving the larynx. They can do nerve blocks, and/or drugs to try and temper the sensation. I confess I am not convinced and continue to worry I may have some sort of swallow dysfunction. I plan to review it all with NJH and get their thoughts on whether there are any other options for clarifying what is going on with the eating/drinking. My cough doesn’t bother me, again I was unaware of it before my spouse pointed it out, but I do worry about aspiration. The ENT who thought the cough during eating/drinking is neurogenic told me that he knows I am not aspirating because I do not have pneumonia, which I would have repeatedly if I was aspirating as frequently as I have the sensation of aspirating (he says the nerve dysfunction makes it feel like I am aspirating but I am not actually aspirating). I responding that a sign of aspiration could be my extensive BE with no history of lung infections. Dr said no, aspiration doesn’t cause BE. This of course is contrary to what all the BE experts say so not sure what to make of it. Again, will see what NJH thinks. My own opinion is that I have different types of coughs caused by different factors. It’s not one thing, and that’s what makes it tricky to assess. I do my A/C but it does not seem to have any impact on my cough, though 90% of my cough is unproductive so that does not seem surprising. I do worry at times that the saline may be increasing lung sensitivity.

Have you been checked for asthma? I had a persistent little dry cough (along with intermittent horrid cough from post nasal drip) and was found to have mild asthma and an inhaler took care of that nagging little cough-like magic!
Just a thought. Mine wasn't around eating though.

get a voice-recorder to record the coughs and a software to make charts
from it for the doctor.
How it relates to eating/drinking/sleeping/speaking,
whether it becomes productive after
starting dry

@pacathy my pulmonologist says I don’t have asthma because my PFT is normal. I have read that some coughs are asthma related but not sure how that gets diagnosed with normal PFT or if my pulmonologist is correct that one simply cannot have even mild asthma with a normal PFT. I suspect it is more nuanced than that.

To confirm asthma if it's suspected, docs can do a methylcholine challenge as part of the PFT. The drug is a known irritant and is positive if your lung function drops by 20%. If no drop, you're considered negative for asthma. . It was part of my intial PFT appointment and perhaps yours.