Chew your food

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, eating a pulled pork sandwich with fried potatoes for supper last night.

I occasionally have problems where food seems ‘stuck’, but a solid drink of water clears it. Last night, it didn’t seem to be working, so I drank some more water. Tight feeling in my throat, spasms, dash to the toilet, puke up what appears to be water.

Hmm, I’m slow, things still seem stuck, let’s try more water - same result.

OK, let’s just let things settle for a bit. A little later, I throw up what appears to be mostly saliva (no bad taste for any of the episodes).

I’m worried, wife is worried - off to urgent care. Urgent care says “yeah, go the ER”.

Eventually, the gastroenterologist gets there, puts me into twilight sleep and pulls some amount of well stuck food. I apparently have a narrowing of the esophagus, so Thursday I get to go in for a full anesthesia endo scope to see what is going on.

In the meantime, soft food only, well chewed (well as much as one can chew yogurt, oatmeal and scrambled eggs). I guess I need to investigate smoothies also to try and get some fruits and vegetables.

Getting old kind of sucks. Oh, and they didn’t like the EKG readings, so I also get to go see a cardiologist later in the month.

2

Wow! Sorry to hear it. Hope all goes well. Let us know.

3

A guy I know had a similar problem and had his esophagus dilated.

The cool part was the tool they used to gradually dilate his esophagus was called a bougie, and the act of using the bougie was *bougienage *. He had several appointments for bougienage, and when he used the term he extended his pinkie and twirled his mustache.

4

Okay, now I want that procedure, just for the mustache-twirling…

5

Huh. Bougie is French for ‘candle’, which is apparently where the name of the tool comes from.

6

OP, any news?

7

Yeah, had the procedure on Thursday after. Apparently I had a Schatzki ring (narrowing of the esophagus), which they expanded. Apparently something that will recur anywhere from 1 to 4 years. Hopefully I’ll notice prior to need another visit to the ER>

Terrible heartburn yesterday, but things seem to be reverting to normal, which means minor heartburn. I didn’t really know what heartburn felt like previously, but now I realize that I’ve had it off and on for a while now.

Thanks for asking.

8

Just curious, but how old is the OP? At what point am I going to start to worry about this sort of thing?

9

Glad to hear you are feeling somewhat better, I hope you continue to improve.

10

approaching 60

11

I’m glad you’re improving (and glad to hear there’s a procedure to treat this)!

12

My husband had this in his early 40s.

13

Mine started at 29 (Am now 70). Had my Schatzki ring expanded at one point along the way. However, the most recent thinking is that for me it is eosinophilic esophagitis—sort of like “asthma of the esophagus.” One ENT had me on a Flovent inhaler, except I wasn’t to inhale, but pump away and swallow. Seemed to work. Haven’t used that for some 8 years now, though. I manage to get by with being careful, and as stated in the title of this thread, chew my food.

14

I’m in similar boat. Started when I was even younger–diagnosed mid-20’s and I have my esophagus “stretched” about once a year.