Hi, my name is John. I am a 21 year old male that is slightly overweight with no pre-existing conditions. Ever since June 6th I've suffered mainly a tickling throat and a constant cough sensation, accompanied by shortness of breath and many other symptoms. All of this started after drinking gin for the first time in the form of half a bottle. 5 shots of brandy that morning on an empty stomach and a lot of Brandy the night before did not help.

Some things to remember when looking at my situation: 1. This type of hard liquor binge drinking was not a normal thing, I was having a lot of stress and was on a 3 day self-medicating binge, 2. 6 months prior to June I turned 21 (in December) and started drinking more around January. I started habitually drinking for the first time around March and it was mostly excessive wine drinking every other night or so, up until June when this happened. 3. I started getting a lot of colds that lasted longer than usual when I started drinking a lot, but I usually get colds/sick around that time of the year, so it may have been a coincidence. 4. I know it looks like my excessive drinking caused my condition, but please be able to look beyond that and realize that there may be other factors at work here.

My symptoms as they stand: constant tickle in the throat, white/yellow furry thick coated tongue, sour taste in mouth/taste distortion, fatigue, drowsiness, brain fog, depression, anxiety, constant burping/gas, sore throats when I lie down, shortness of breath, post-nasal drip, excess phlegm, excess salivation, extremely odorous gas and bowel movements, particles/powder in bowel movement, bowel irregularities such as diarrhea/constipation, a burning throat sometimes that can spread all the way up to the back of my neck near my head that is not heartburn and is unresponsive to antacids/h2 blockers/PPI's or traditional cures, bloating, lack of interest in doing what I used to do (played an online game called WoW for 5 years every day since its been out, haven't signed into it in 2 months due to my problem, that's saying a lot), depersonalization/derealization or a 'fuzzy' feeling, lack of libido/sex drive, nasal congestion, white material on tonsils (right tonsil is very swollen), lump in throat after swallowing food, sensation of 'food sticking' when I swallow it, and headaches (started a couple days ago and have stayed). I also experience a pressure valve/squeezing bubbles that rise when I lie down or sometimes when not lieing down. My stomach will expel gas without a burp and this is very audible, sometimes it will gurgle as well.

Specifically, I would like you to pay attention to the fact my burping always has a "gurgling" sound accompanying it, it's an extreme gas sound. I hear the gas making noise, then I feel the pressure. Or if the gas pressure is a bit low, I won't hear it, but I'll feel the pressure and then I'll let out a very minor/silent burp.

If I drink any type of soda or go out to a restaurant and overindulge, my stomach will become super loud to the point where it's constantly expelling gas without burping. I feel the gas being shot out (or maybe around? I'm not even sure) but there isn't a burp all the time. There is no heartburn or chest/stomach pain associated with this, ever.

The sour taste in my mouth is more related to taste than stomach issues. If I suck on a cough drop or an altoid, I often get the sour taste. I know that I can often get it instantly from an altoid, so I know it's not stomach acid, just taste distortion. Cough drops help with my throat condition.

I bloat a lot and the burping is constant throughout the day and increased after eating. Sometimes this is accompanied by a raw throat, other times not.

My tongue has white/yellow thrush as stated, and acts like a chameleon. Whatever I eat/drink it takes on the color. It's so extreme that if I have a sandwhich that has avocados, my tongue will be a bright green for the whole day as if I had been eating green candy. It's almost as if the thrush is getting a paint job.

I've been scoped by ENTs before. One saw nothing, and as my symptoms increased, the last one saw "extreme thrush" with a "severely swollen/irritated throat/larynx" and "necrotic tonsils".

My tonsils get white/yellow material on them. Sometimes in the morning if I clear my throat they will come off. They are hard and smell bad when broken up. I can get them off with a Q-tip if I'm careful as well. This is all very new and has been going on for 4 months and a week.

I've had an EGD that was completely normal aside from a 3-4 cm sliding hiatal hernia. My mom, her brother, and her mom all have hiatal hernias. I don't want to jump on the genetic bandwagon, because that would make no sense. I was perfectly fine before June 6th, and as a hot sauce collector (everything from habanero to cayenne) with a history of having a very strong stomach, I highly doubt that genes sit around like a time bomb (unless it's something like cancer or alzheimers in later years).

I read that a hiatal hernia is often found coincidentally, and this may be my cause, but I also read that it can cause "GERD". I researched this "GERD" business and found that it is mainly the result of condition branding by big pharma. It also scares me though because I've found a few "LPR" forums where they mention a lot of my symptoms and say it lasts forever. I look at myself and see that I have a lot of their symptoms and lo and behold, it is not going away, so I worry if it's "permanent" or not, even though I don't "believe" in the whole "GERD" thing.

This has affected my life so much that I have stopped attending college (I want to go but I can't, so I'm enrolled in a few classes but haven't been able to show up, I haven't dropped out yet, I don't want to). I don't enjoy the same things I used to. The funny thing is, everything good is happening in my life.

I see new movies/food/comp program updates and game releases that I really like, and then I think, "it would be so awesome to enjoy this as my old self". My girlfriend of 6 years finally moved down to California and I got to meet her and we see each other every weekend, yet I still feel terrible and wish I could appreciate it more.

Halloween, my favorite holiday is coming. I should be looking forward to Thanksgiving and planning where I'll go for my birthday dinner, but none of this matters. I'm constantly stuck in this haze, this constant tickling throat, all these symptoms....they're ruining my life. The more something good happens, the more depressed I get that I can't fully enjoy it. This leads me to contemplate suicide, in a very logical, rational, and analytical fashion. To seriously consider it, if I'm going to have to live like this forever. Which seems that way from all the people with supposed "acid reflux disease" having it for life and my "hiatal hernia" possibly being a permanent structural abnormality.

I've hung out with the med guys, had the tests done, barium swallow, EKG for my heart, pulmonary function tests, anti-biotic trials, anti-anxiety trials, antacid/h2 blocker/PPI trials, Chest X-Rays, all negative, unresponsive to all meds. Before this happened, I wouldn't even go to the doctor for a checkup. I am not a hypochondriac or an anxious person at all, but this problem has caused me a great deal of anxiety.

I've stopped eating fast food, stopped the alcohol, started eating better. The only thing I haven't done is exercise, but it's so hard to believe that something like lack of exercise or a bad food choices could cause this many symptoms at such a young age. It's not even intermittent or something I can deal with. It's there in the car, when I lay down to sleep, when I get up, when I eat, when I walk to the store, it's constantly there, there is no reprieve, not a second. Its been this way since June 6th.

I have birds in the house so I don't know if they can be the cause, 2 cockatiels and a dove. They aren't mine and we're rather sick of them so they are going soon. I had a water bed that had black mold in it. I ended up tossing it a month or two into this problem. My house is not infected by mold, the mold in the water bed was due to it popping numerous times.

I've never had allergies ever. The birds have been here for years and so has the bed. The symptoms started immediately after trying gin for the first time, a drink I had never drank in my life (I've had whiskey/vodka before, so it wasn't the alcohol content that affected me).

I feel like somehow it was written in stone that: "John, you can drink, eat, or do whatever you want without any consequences, but the second you drink gin, you will have a lifelong ailment", sort of like an achilles heal. This kind of sounds irrational and it's more logical to think that my sedentary lifestyle/bad diet/drinking caused this, and even MORE scary to think that it's possibly a permanent condition or due to the hiatal hernia.

I'm a college student with literally no money. I have no money to buy humaworm dewormer or Moreless's herbs. I have no money to buy Colloidal silver or cleansing kits, but I will do anything, and I mean anything to feel better. I'll drink a quart of olive oil, I'll test new cleanses, I'll jump through rings of fire and slay dragons, I don't care, I just want this gone, my life is on the line here, or whats left of it.

I know this site is genuine, you people are the only ones I can trust. I've posted on the Candida forum and a few others, but I thought I'd stop by here with a more detailed post.

I know it's likely that whatever forum I go to, I'll get a response in support of that forums theme (such as going to the Candida forum I will get a possible "yes it's candida" or to the parasite forum = "yes, you have a parasite), this isn't a bad thing, it's natural. I'd just like an honest answer, do you think a parasite could be my problem? What should I do?

Besides eating healthy, exercising, and doing a liver flush/cleanse (haven't tried the flushes cleanses yet), what should I do?

I've tried alfalfa supplements, probiotics, St Johns wort, Betaine HCL, candidase, acupuncture, chinese herbal remedies, L-glutamic acid, digestive enzymes, apple cider vinegar, aloe vera juice, and I'm just now recently starting on some liquid chlorophyll. I'm thinking about starting on cod liver oil and tonight I took (for the first time) a dose of oregano oil. I'm trying everything within my price range and I'm at my wits end. I've even gone so far as to chew on raw garlic/ginger, hoping for relief, that never came.

I will accept any advice, even if it's harsh.

Thanks