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

Posted by needtoknow @needtoknow, Feb 10, 2016

Every day I cough up what looks like a scab with ugly mucous and tiny amounts of blood. It seems to come from the back of my throat or nose. My doctor has seen the scab but does not see anything wrong. This, to me, seems really odd. Has anyone had this problem?

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@candicec

Here is a photo of the scabs I used to get! The problem went away while I was sick and eating a lot less. It came back after I got married and wanted to impress my husband with my culinary skills. I avoid all acidic foods, spicy, onions, garlic, dairy, caffeine and sugar- sparkling water which I was drinking a ton of before this came back- as I’m still in the healing phase. As you heal you begin to feel the burning. My scope showed I had damage and I couldn’t feel it until it was really bad and making quarts of mucus every time I ate anything. Unfortunately for most people with this issue will require a lifelong commitment to a diet that is free of your triggers. Everyone’s are different. It can take 6 weeks to several months for the tissue to heal enough for the irritation and therefore the scab to stop forming, it depends on how bad the damage is. I started feeling relief after just a few days and have not had a scab reform in the last month and a half, although I am not totally free of the other symptoms yet. I have to spray enough of the mist into each nostril to get it to run down my throat a tiny bit to hit that spot.

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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.

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@evar1989

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.

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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.

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@candicec

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.

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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 🙂

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@evar1989

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.

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May I ask, what is LPR?

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@wisco50

May I ask, what is LPR?

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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 🙂

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