u/Helpful-Shift1829

So I, 20f had LPR for almost four years now, which began after I had a sinus infection in 2022. I don’t know what caused it, I just began to have constant post nasal drip after the infection cleared up. Then it turned into a stuffy nose and chronic cough along with the post nasal drip, to the point where people were concerned about me.

At the time, I had never heard of LPR and was originally thought to have allergies. I saw an ENT for this issue, and she said I had a deviated septum, which may have possibly been causing it. I had surgery on it to see if it would help my sinus issues, it did make the post nasal drip less thick, and helped the chronic cough some, but it was still pretty bad afterwards. I took every allergy medication to get rid of it (cetrizine, Claritin, Flonase, etc.), nothing worked.

It wasn’t until late last year that I discovered LPR. I knew something was wrong my freshman year of college in 2024 when I began having extreme pain in my esophagus area in the middle of the day if I hadn’t eaten enough. It also occurred when I ate citrus. I began taking Omeprazole for the pain, which was hit and miss (sometimes it worked, other days the pain was worse). I cut citrus out of my diet all together, and also switched from Omeprazole to Rabeprazole,which has helped with the pain, but the relief is only temporary.

I didn’t learn about LPR until last year after I had my septoplasty. It was recommended that I try baking soda and alkaline water to help with the post nasal drip, and it actually does help a lot, but the relief is only temporary. One of my doctors did a scan and said there was a lot of crap in my sinuses, which was causing the post nasal drip, not certain about what caused that though. He was an amazing doctor with an answer to everything. Unfortunately, he ended up passing away in 2025 after battling cancer. I tried the baking soda and alkaline water a couple months after he passed, and it worked well. However, I have not been able to find permanent relief.

Has anyone else experienced this, and how did you fix it?

Note: Neither of my parents are runners, my dad was forced to run the mile in high school and got DQ’d for walking it lol.

So here’s some background: I’ve had a really shitty XC season this last year because my coach has been horrible to me. My parents agreed that he’s a bad person, yet they will not stop nagging me on how to improve my times. They keep telling me I have all summer to train super hard (and I do, but in my own way). My mom constantly insists that to do well, I need to switch up my routes a bit, run more and just sprint at the end of races. This might work for some athletes, but all it does for me is burn me out.

To clarify, I run between 20-25 miles a week for XC, so I do not need to “run more.” Doing 30-35 got me injured, along with sprinting the ends of races. Plus, racing is for spreading your energy out conservatively, not just sprinting the end. That may work for some, but for me, it’s all about spreading out my energy in between different spots throughout the race. I’ve told them numerous times about what works for me, and have mention that their constant reminders of “how to be good” make me less motivated and struggle to listen. They reply with “I’m just trying to help, to be good you have to train hard.” While this is true, doing their exact suggestions has not been beneficial to me (they know this), doing my own workouts and runs at my own speed and time is what works best for me. They just seem to be piling on more and more pressure of how I need to be good in order to prove my coach wrong. I understand what they’re trying to do, but I’m already training well, and this extra pressure only makes me less motivated.

My times are solid, consistent, and fairly fast. My parents think I’m not doing enough or running fast enough. They never believed in me in high school, always making comments like, “have you been able to keep up with your teammates? I know you’re not the fastest runner on the team,” and “You’re not going to run in college, to walk on to a team, you have to actually be good.”

I am very lucky to be able to run for a D3 college currently, my parents support me a lot more now that I’ve made it to college. However, this constant nagging is driving me crazy. I understand I’m coming off as entitled and rude. But I am a good athlete, and don’t want to lose my enjoyment of the sports simply because of this.

Has anybody else felt this way about their parents? I obviously love them and appreciate their support, but constantly being told I’m not running enough and need to be faster is making me want to quit.