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I am a 49 year old male with a hiatal hernia and gerd for at…

I am a 49 year...

I am a 49 year old male with a hiatal hernia and gerd for at least 20 years. The other day, after taking 40 mg Prozac with chocolate milk, I had moderate pain radiating out from my solar plexus into the diaphragm. This had lasted for about 1.5 hours when I sat down to eat dinner. This consisted of chicken, rice-a-roni, and corn. Immediately after finishing, I felt as if my diaphragm was spasming, the pain in my diaphragm increased, and I began having problems breathing. This breathing problem developed into inspirational stridor in about 2 minutes. The stridor carried on for over 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived, at which time all my symptoms immediately vanished. My blood o2 tested normal (98), and my blood pressure was slightly elevated (132/80). The doctors in the ER and at the clinic didn't know what to make of this. UA, blood tests and chest xray came back normal. I'm not taking any street drugs or alcohol, just Prozac and Nexium.

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Answered in 1 hour by:

10/8/2012

Health Professional: RNMAD1, Nurse (RN) replied 9 years ago

RNMAD1, Nurse (RN)

Category: Health

Satisfied Customers: 34

Experience: 35 years of licensed nursing with 22 years in home health, specializing in wound care, IV therapy, and ostomy care.

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Hi,
Thanks for coming to just answer and I hope I can help you out. Just what is your question? I understand exactly what happened. It could have bee an allergic reaction of some sort. Are you on any other meds? If you could provide me with a list I will check out the interactions. Be sure to include supplements.
Do you or have you ever had a problem with dairy products?

Customer reply replied 9 years ago

Hi,

I'm looking for the culprit behind the attack that made me feel like I was suffocating and at death's door for over 20 minutes. I am only taking 40 mg prozac pd and nexium, along with a multi-vitamin. I should be avoiding chocolate and caffeine because of gerd and the emotional outburst problems they cause, but the last few days before the attack I had been ingesting chocolate and caffeine thinking somehow that prozac would protect me. I had just had an emotional blow-up at work that would have been definitely related to the chocolate and caffeine. I also checked the rice-a-roni box and found soy and msg listed in the ingredients, but I've never had an allergic reaction to those. Yet it was only right after eating that the breathing problems began and my diaphragm acted like it didn't want to respond to my desire to inhale. What could the whole problem with upper abdominal pain and then inspirational stridor be related to? I was given Ativan and a breathing treatment in the ER but I don't think the treatment did any good as I had another "asthma" attack soon after leaving the hospital to go back home.

Health Professional: RNMAD1, Nurse (RN) replied 9 years ago

Hi,
Having the hernia and gerd combined with some social issues along with ingesting too much caffeine and chocolate could be the culprit. It sounds like you are experiencing some reactions that you have already experienced in the past, they are just much greater. Finding the soy and msg in some food you were eating can cause some problems. Soy recently has been linked to a lot of health issues and there is a lot of uncertainty in its use right now. I can see that you believe your emotional state is triggered by things in your diet. So if i was you I would pay much closer attention to what I was eating. You can check the drug interactions on drugs.com and click on the interaction checker.
Having that suffocating feeling and being totally out of breath can definitely be triggered by an emotional problem combined with a reaction to your diet.

RNMAD1, Nurse (RN)

Category: Health

Satisfied Customers: 34

Experience: 35 years of licensed nursing with 22 years in home health, specializing in wound care, IV therapy, and ostomy care.

Verified

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