I am a female in my late 20s and have had persistent mucus in my throat with no cough, upper abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and lethargy. These symptoms have gone on since January.

I spend about 20 minutes every morning hacking up thick mucous. Sometimes the mucus is so thick that it gets stuck in my throat and I have to pull it out with my hand. Other times, I am too exhausted from trying to expel mucus that I give up, and suffer with the choking feeling. In March/April my sputum was tested and grew staph, so my pcp put me on bactrum. At that time I was also experiencing dizziness, swollen lymph nodes, and a fainting episode, in addition to the continuing symptoms listed above. However, my pcp and pulmonologist believe that the staph was a red herring that would not cause the continuing symptoms. I have had my sputum tested since then and it came back as contaminated with saliva.

I am extremely exhausted and I can sleep 17 hours straight (getting up half awake to urinate) and then i wake up still tired. I am nervous about driving because I feel sleepy when I drive. I feel winded if I talk to much. (I am a normal weight and otherwise healthy.)

The upper abdominal pain is pretty much constant, and seems to worsen after eating. That feels like pain behind the ribs. Then I also have a dull aching of the part of my abdomen above my belly button. I have had the heartburn feeling in the past and excessive burping especially at night. My PCP put me on omeprazol which has not helped, followed by pantoprazole, which also has not helped. I have seen an ENT as well, who saw no problems with my sinuses and no evidence of postnasal drip. I have had an endoscopy, (came back normal) esophogeal manotromy (normal), and barium swallow test (normal). I have had a CT scan of abdominal organs, ultrasound of my lymphnodes, mri of my brain because i am having spotty vision (and because of the fainting episode).

I saw an allergist who said this would not be a food allergy and she did do various blood tests and urine collections. She noted some seasonal allergies (but my problems began in January) and ruled out allergy to dust mites or cockroach gasses as the cause. She suggested nasacourt and an antihistimine. Both were ineffective, and she ultimately concluded she couldn't help me.

My pulmonologists noticed mild obstruction I was put on advair because the thought was that the obstruction was likely due to asthma. That did not work. I was later put on flovent and montelukast, and I have been on those for about three weeks although I feel no difference. My pulmonologists think that this is likely a GI issue, so they scheduled a ph study, but I do not have the results yet. They also doubled my dosage of pantoprazole.
I saw a GI specialist affiliated with my PCP's office and without examining me, he told me that my symptoms were trivial and that I should get over it and stop focusing on myself. Luckily my pulmonologists were shocked by his reaction and referred me to a different specialist which I have in August.

I have cut out all sodas and fast foods in the past year and I do not have any dogs or cats in my environment. I have maintained a very clean home environment and also using the allergy reducing bedding. I do not have any food allergies that have been determined. Celiacs disease was ruled out. I even did a three day juice cleanse (dairy free, gluten free, soy free, all natural and organic) but that did not help. I have been drinking a lot of water to keep me hydrated, and I have eliminated coffee acidic foods from my diet in the past several months. I have never been a smoker or done recreational drugs, and i no longer consumer alcaohol but prior to all of this would have 2 drinks a week.

My PCP has scheduled an abdominal ultrasound to check out my gallblader, although it appeared normal in the previous CT scan. I have that on Wednesday.

The mucus is exhausting and really uncomfortable. My upper torso still feels like it is on fire, and have ceased all of my usual daily activities. I don't know what to do. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Julianne