cough variant asthma or gerd help

can flu kickstart the gerd or is it asthma. background story i work in a dusty place had have to wear a mask been there 12 years. 2 and a half years ago i started coughing till was nearly sick and had a pain in the middle of my chest the cough got worse at night and also when having a shower can only describe the coughing fits as attacks because they dont last long but im scared when they happen went to the doctors had chest x rays which were clear, antibiotics etc did a peak flow test which was fine but i coughed my guts up after the test. i went to see specialist they sent me for a asthma test which i passed just i was boarderline. they decided that it was prob gerd by this time 4-5 month had passed and i was only haing the odd attack eg after doing something physical they put me on anti acids and sent me back to work. work moved me to a outside job and life was fine for a while. due to work changes they then put me back into my old job around a year ago. been fine then at christmas i got the flu and it reurned for 3 nights no sleep coughing pain in chest. 2 weeks later the cough has now returned to what it was 2 years ago eg after shower physical exercise etc. pain in middle of chest waking up in middle night, lack of sleep. could the flu have kickstared the gerd or is it asthma.

Coughing at night is usually due to GERD, try taking a zantac 20 minutes before you eat dinner,
to see if that helps and if that does, please go see a gi doctor for endoscopy some forms of gerd
are treatable with antibotics but they can only tell if they do an upper endo scope...
Hope this info helps...
and Hope your feeling better soon.
Healing Hugz