This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/palmtree2NYC on 2025-10-29 21:13:01+00:00.

Tldr: thanks to laziness on my part by not seeking out well regarded doctors and not trying anything new, I gave myself acid reflux by overusing Flonase for years.

Well, it wasn’t today, but I wanted to share my story with others so in case someone googles in the future, they might find this.

I started having eustachian tube dysfunction around a decade ago, made my head and ears feel miserable. Allergist suggested it was due to allergic rhinitis/hay fever (runs in my family). I started taking antihistamines as suggested. The ears improved, but I started having what I thought was a post nasal drip, which made me constantly clear my throat as it felt like so much mucus. Really annoying for me and everyone around me.

Allergist had me hit the antihistamines harder for the post nasal drip. Went up to daily Zyrtec and Singulair, and Flonase 2x a day. Switched from Zyrtec to Xyzal at some point because felt like it wasn’t working. Stopped following up with allergist because they had nothing else to offer but allergy shots.

Fst forward to two years ago, finally got a decent GP after years of just going to whoever was available. I told him about my throat and how the only things that would help was drinking something hot/applying heat to throat or lying on my stomach.

He suggested acid reflux (also in my family). That led me to consult a gastroenterologist (who diagnosed LPR/silent reflux/atypical reflux); try something called Gourmet Reflux, which further confirmed the diagnosis because it actually worked (highly recommended!!! Tastes decent!); and consult an ENT who looked at my larynx, said it looked fine and it was possibly a case of the throat getting irritated and then me trying to clear my throat, which irritated it further and getting stuck in that cycle and sent me to a speech therapist, who tried to teach me how to break the cycle by swallowing in certain ways, but was the first to suggest that maybe a medication I was taking was causing the issue by drying me out too much.

Around this time also went for a eustachian tube balloon dilation, which failed, but I stopped taking the Singulair at some point to see if I still needed it. My ears were fine without it. I lowered my dose of Xyzal (still taking it) and ears remained fine. On the verge of an endoscopy, I cut out the Flonase.

It was the Flonase. Gastro confirmed it was possible that it was causing some kind of throat thrush. I’ve steadily improved since then to the point that I would not consider it an issue.

Of course, the downside is now that I am suffering through god awful fall allergies for a few weeks (after having no allergic reactions for a decade!) and Claritin+Xyzal wasn’t doing the trick and I resorted to Flonase for the first time in months last night and today is the first day I have felt human in weeks, so who knows what happens next.