I live in the SF bay area, non-smoker and for about 10 months now I've been plagued with a chronic, constant throat clearing "hawking" which sometimes leads to a non-productive whooping type of cough. It started when I came down with a cold or flu type illness in Nov. 2006 which passed like any other typical cold/flu, but left me with this throat thing. It's absolutely maddening! And no one seems to know what's going on or what to do to cure these symptoms.

It starts as soon as I wake up, that feeling of something in the back of my throat that causes me to start the "aheming" which goes on all day long. For a while my ribs were hurting because of it. I think at this point my body has adapted so that I don't hurt from it or lose sleep, but it's still just absolutely crazy making! It's as if there's something in my throat that I can neither cough up or swallow down, triggering both a very hard, constant swallowing and throat clearing. The symptoms remain constant no matter where I go in or out of town.

I'm not on any medications other than the ones I've been given to treat this, whatever it is. I've had a chest x-ray, sinus scope, endoscopy, an allergy test. All my vital signs are normal, healthy, no signs of infection. I've seen the Allergist, Internist, ENT, and Gastrointeroligist. Each one sees possible signs of causes related to they're own specialties and thus I've been put on Rx (Protonix, Asiphex, Prilosec) for reflux, Mucinex and (Claritin-d, Allegra, Flonase, Astalin and local bee honey), for allergies. Yet I don't experience allergies nor heartburn-reflux type symptoms and for several months now I've been popping pills and sniffing nasal sprays all to no avail.

My doctors seemed stumped. Medications are not working. This throat thing is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do next! Can anyone out there help me or know someone who could?

[QUOTE=ScenicWonder;3203516]I live in the SF bay area, non-smoker and for about 10 months now I've been plagued with a chronic, constant throat clearing "hawking" which sometimes leads to a non-productive whooping type of cough. It started when I came down with a cold or flu type illness in Nov. 2006 which passed like any other typical cold/flu, but left me with this throat thing. It's absolutely maddening! And no one seems to know what's going on or what to do to cure these symptoms.

It starts as soon as I wake up, that feeling of something in the back of my throat that causes me to start the "aheming" which goes on all day long. For a while my ribs were hurting because of it. I think at this point my body has adapted so that I don't hurt from it or lose sleep, but it's still just absolutely crazy making! It's as if there's something in my throat that I can neither cough up or swallow down, triggering both a very hard, constant swallowing and throat clearing. The symptoms remain constant no matter where I go in or out of town.

I'm not on any medications other than the ones I've been given to treat this, whatever it is. I've had a chest x-ray, sinus scope, endoscopy, an allergy test. All my vital signs are normal, healthy, no signs of infection. I've seen the Allergist, Internist, ENT, and Gastrointeroligist. Each one sees possible signs of causes related to they're own specialties and thus I've been put on Rx (Protonix, Asiphex, Prilosec) for reflux, Mucinex and (Claritin-d, Allegra, Flonase, Astalin and local bee honey), for allergies. Yet I don't experience allergies nor heartburn-reflux type symptoms and for several months now I've been popping pills and sniffing nasal sprays all to no avail.

My doctors seemed stumped. Medications are not working. This throat thing is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do next! Can anyone out there help me or know someone who could?
did they check your thyroid? it will make you feel like something is in your throat.