When I occasionally had the same problem, septimus, I discovered that it was from acid reflux caused by the ibuprofen I was taking. No more ibuprofen, no more trouble swallowing.
Let’s hope your issue is as easily solved.
Obviously, go to medical professional. But my uncle had this issue - think it was associated with acid reflux, but not positive. He had his esophagus stretched. Think it was something like this. Was definitely a minor, outpatient type of thing.
I have something similar. For me, it’s my first or second bite out of something hot and/or meaty. I have reflux. It’s not every meal every day.
While you should totally see a doctor, in the meantime while you wait two suggestions I read that do seem to help. Chew very thoroughly and when it feels “stuck”, take a sip of diet coke. Supposedly it helps push it down. Not regular coke, not sprite, but diet coke. Could just be woo, but I’m ok with the placebo effect if it’s working.
:eek: If I were choking to death on my vomit here, I think I’d take offense. In fact, however, my condition is very minor … and I think this is funny! 
I thank Dopers for their concern, but I may have made the problem seem worse than it is. Usually there’s no problem. The problem may be provoked by haste or distraction: when I had the problem eating alone at the restaurant I was trying to read a book at the same time. The act of reading may have put my throat into an inappropriate posture. Still, I plan a visit to hospital and will discuss this there.
I also suffer occasionally from acid reflux, but that may not correlate with the swallowing problem.
Many year ago, around the time I was in high school, I started getting food caught in my throat. I’d casually mention it to people (doctors or otherwise) and I pretty typically got back the ‘it’s all in your head’ reply, like you would if you told someone that you can’t swallow pills. Since, at the time, it didn’t happen often, I didn’t worry too much about it. Usually, I could give it a few seconds and I could feel the food slide down. I attributed it to eating too fast and heartburn (lots of heartburn, all the time).
Fast forward about 20ish years and it’s starting to get pretty bad. Back in the day, I could toss a handful of pills in my mouth and they’d go right down with a sip of water. At this point I can really only swallow a Tylenol caplet, anything else goes in the pull crusher. Food was regularly getting stuck. I got very good at excusing myself to a bathroom (if I wasn’t at home) and throwing up just enough to dislodge whatever was stuck, same for pills that got stuck.
I mentioned it to my ENT a few times and he sorta blew me off with the ‘it’s all in your head’ thing, even when I explained to him how painful it is when it’s stuck and how I can ‘pop’ things back up (or rather ‘no, it’s not in my head, it’s in my throat’). He did a nasopharyngoscopy (camera up your nose, to your throat), said it was good and that everything in his jurisdiction is fine. I had to insist that it was a problem so he ordered a barium swallow, also came back ok.
I eventually made an appointment for a GI doctor. Told them what was going on, they ordered a EGD with dilation.
I get to the appointment, they knock me out, I wake back up and ask if they fixed it or found anything, their response ‘your esophagus is so restricted that we couldn’t get the camera down it, we need you to come back in a few weeks after we borrow the pediatric scope from Children’s Hospital’.
A few weeks later I come back, I’m in the OR, the nurse is joking about how tiny the camera is. Knocked out, wake up, everything went well, they couldn’t dilate as much as they’d like to, come back again. I went back again, same deal, they wanted me back one more time, but I passed. A combination of 3 EGDs was plenty and it would have been in the new year so my deductible would be back at $0 and the procedure would cost thousands instead of $50.
Now, as someone else I know that had the same thing done I could swallow a kielbasa.
Really, giant pills, no problem. A tough stringy fatty piece of meat that I’ll never be able to chew well enough, practically falls down my throat.
Since I had the procedure done a few years back I think I have stuff stuck in my throat 2 or 3 times.
I was told that I had no strictures or ulcers which surprised me because I have heartburn so often. But they did diagnose me with EE. Apparently my white blood cells in my esophagus were off the chart. I haven’t checked to see if the thinking on causes of EE has changed, but at the time the current thinking was that EE may be caused by allergies, so they sent me to an allergist.
Someone had mentioned a diverticulum to me at one point and that really made sense. It’s a pocket in your esophagus that can catch food. The barium swallow should have/did rule that out though, but it’s another thing you can look in to.
I know this post got really long but on preview I see something from Fair Rarity I wanted to address because it’s something I heard a lot of. I was always told ‘just take a sip of water’ or ‘take a bite of bread’. Basically I was being told to wash or push it down. That always made matters much worse. Once something was stuck nothing got past it. Taking a sip of liquid was horribly painful. My throat would be trying to push the liquid down but was just pushing against whatever was stuck. It would make all kinds of noises as the liquid would gurgle back up into my throat and hurt like a mother.
I’m not saying it doesn’t work for other people, but for me, it never worked.
When I use water, it burns and makes my situation worse. Sometime a sip of diet coke does seem to “push” it down. I don’t know why. So I totally get what you’re saying but this weird thing works for me and others… even if it’s just in our heads with no true medical reason.
If I don’t have a diet coke, I just wait it out.
I’ve seen a lot of anecdotes that say Diet Coke seems to work well for stuck food. I wonder what it has that other sodas don’t.
I’m sure, like a lot of [medical] things, one size does not fit all. Maybe food was getting caught in a different spot or in a different way than it was for me. Maybe Diet Coke works for you and not for me, who knows.
On the one hand, I can tell you, at least for me, it wasn’t in my head (it was in my throat ), OTOH, I’m a big believer in the placebo effect. Anytime someone comments (not about this/me, just in general after I tell someone that [something] works for [some person] to fix [a medical issue] and hear "that doesn’t actually work, it’s the placebo effect, my response is usually ‘so what, if Joanne says putting chapstick on her pinkies before bed gets rid of a headache, does it really matter if it’s just in her head? If it works, if works’.
The one thing, other than popping it back up, that does work sometimes for me is jumping up and down. It seems to give the advantage to gravity and maybe 1 out of 10 times the food goes the rest of the way down. Similarly, my ‘trick’ to getting myself to throw up ‘just a little’ is to press/massage my neck, right around my esophagus. Just hard enough (and it is a bit hard, but not enough to do damage) to give me a chocking sensation. Sometimes I can ‘massage’ the food down. But, again, not often. If I have food stuck, I can count on throwing up a little in the next few minutes.
But, like I said earlier, getting my esophagus dilated is what did the trick. I’m still kicking myself for not doing it 10 years earlier.
I am not a doctor, NP, just a patient, but Thailand has excellent care, no insurance?, whatever. GO TO A DOCTOR. Insist on a EGD diagnose. Hopefully that Barium solution will taste better than mine. Your life will much easier once your symptoms are solved. Don’t suffer like I did for two years puking up before seeking a medical professional. Acid reflux’s is probably the least of your problem. Again, I am not offering medical advice. I just went through same symptoms myself for two years. Besides hospital nurses are cute.
Me too. Really made a difference for myself. Glad you are doing well. Please don’t ask for pictures of your pre-op/ post op surgery. I did, and it still grosses me out. I have the DVD to prove it.
I started having this issue a couple of years ago. My doctor suggested sipping water through a straw to dislodge the item. Works for me.
For those who had the procedure, is it outpatient? I’m a single parent and I’m nervous that if I need it done how I would be able to do it.
Possibilities include achalasia, esophageal spasm, esophagitis and a number of rarer and more dangerous things. No one can diagnose you online. But you probably need either a barium swallow (you drink chalk, they take X-rays) or a specialist to look with a camera (EGD).
That kind of stuff doesn’t bother me. In fact, when I had shoulder surgery was looking at the images (emailed to me) before the doc was even in the room, while I was still grogy.
But with that, I used to watch the surgery channel.
Er, depending on the nature of the issue, a simple stretching procedure under sedation may be all that’s required.
An upper GI is pretty much a nonevent (I’ve had several due to a history of reflux).
The first was just because of the history; all the doc did was take a look and nab a couple samples for biopsy.
The second was because I was having actual symptoms of worsening reflux such as hoarseness, “asthma” (reflux mimics asthma symptoms) etc. Shortly before the endoscopy, I also developed a “lump in the throat” sensation. The scope showed no serious strictures but some tightness, so he stretched it a bit while I was under.
Here’s a decent description. I think my doc just did one stretch per the notes I saw. https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/adult_health/aha_esophageal_dilation_with_bougies/
The sensation is called “globus pharyngeus”. Depending on how it’s coded on your paperwork, they might call it “globus hystericus” (I think that’s how they listed it on mine!) which is a bit insulting.
The stretching procedure might leave you with a bit of a sore throat for a few days. In my case, the pain was (briefly) worse than the sensation had been, though I know the lump sensation would not have gone away on its own.
This procedure is indeed outpatient. You’ll be sedated, so you can’t drive yourself to/from, and you might want to have help at home if the kids are young enough to need supervision, but it’s truly a nonevent aside from the logistics. No prep required, even, just don’t eat that morning.
Reflux is a common cause of this sensation. You can have “silent reflux” where you’re not aware of the acid sensation - that’s what was going on that prompted my second endoscopy. Consider if you’ve had medication changes that might affect your gut, or any other symptoms that point to silent reflux. An acid reducer / proton pump inhibitor might be all that’s needed, but my GI really didn’t want to address it with meds until he’d had a look, as that might have masked some issues.
Yes, it’s outpatient. You’re only in the hospital for a few hours (mostly just waiting). You’ll go home that day but they’ll require you to have a ride. I don’t recall for myself, but I know in some cases they’ll ask that someone else be present to hear the post op instructions since you likely won’t remember them.
If they don’t require someone to be in the room when you’re done, while the doc is talking, you could probably arrange for Lyft/Uber to pick you up.
I know that if you absolutely cannot get a ride home, you can request that they keep you overnight, but I’d be concerned about cost at that point.
Try to find someone to pick you up. Hell, one of my good customers at my store asked me to pick her up since she didn’t have family in the area.
Good to know. Not that I know if I need it, but I’m a worryer so it takes one load off my mind.
Fun fact, any contract you sign within 24 hours of being under is null and void. You could buy a house or car later that day* and back out of it. OTOH, I think many (most? all?) have a clause that states that you haven’t been under anesthesia in the last 24 hours.
*Just as a side note, beyond any nausea or headaches, you’ll be clear headed within an hour or three after waking up. While you shouldn’t drive home 20 minutes later, a few hours later you’ll be okay to drive. I wouldn’t suggest it, I haven’t done it, but you’re ‘sober’ as soon as the grogginess wears off.
Also, one other thing, for an EGD, they do a ‘twilight sedation’. It’s not technically general anesthesia. They do it because they need to talk to you while they’re manipulating the scope into your throat. You’re also clearly (from their point of view) awake enough that when I told them I gag easily, they gave me a double shot of stuff to numb my throat before hand. Having said that, it might as well be general. I don’t recall if the knockout drops included Versed (I think it did), but you’re not going to be aware of anything. I’ve had general as well and it was exactly the same. They put something in your IV and then you wake up. Literally, that’s what happens. The time between the nurse giving your the meds and you waking up is gone. Non-existent. Didn’t happen. You (generally) don’t dream, you don’t recall anything, it honestly feels like you blinked or dozed off for a minute.
I was really worried about this twilight thing because I gag so easily and the thought of a giant tube being shoved down my throat is the main reason I put it off for 10 years. But you’ll never know it happened (I had a really sore throat once, but that was it). I remember them putting one of those nasal oxygen things on me, I remember them putting the tooth guard on and I remember them giving me 2 of the three meds and saying ‘okay, you’re going to feel tired, don’t fight it’.
I also remember the doc (same doc all three times) playing Bob Marley in the OR.
TL;DR, ignoring any financial issues, an EGD is about the easiest thing you can do that requires being knocked out. You don’t know it’s happening and there’s no recovery to speak of. The most intrusive part of the procedure is not being able to eat before hand and having to take a day off of work.
And you get such good results for something so minor. Especially if all you need is a dilation.
Most places will NOT do an outpatient procedure with sedation unless you have someone with you. They’re afraid of liability in case the driver takes advantage of you, and they’re afraid of having you home, without help, in case anything goes wrong. Vanishingly rare with just an upper GI scope (other procedures might pose a larger risk of bleeding, for example).
My gastro’s office paperwork says “If someone is not with you, we will NOT do your procedure”. My son drove me this last time, and I sent him to get himself some breakfast; I had to assure them that he was indeed nearby and would be back before I was discharged.
They’ve never had my husband or anyone in the room when the doc chatted with me afterward.
You can certainly take a cab etc. if someone’s with you - I did that for a friend a couple months back (I was not able to drive at the time). Though some places can get a bit snarky; when I had my surgery, in the phone call where we did paperwork etc the interviewer was very concerned over the fact that my husband would not be driving, that a friend was going to pick us up afterward. They pushed to have her phone number entered into the records.
On the day of, it was a nonissue. When I was ready to leave, my husband phoned the friend, and nobody cared.
Forgot to mention re sore throat: As I mentioned above, I had some pain after the one where they did a bit of stretching. The two others, I had no discomfort whatsoever even though they took a couple of biopsies each time.
Things have changed dramatically over the years. A friend once called me after she had a D&C. She lived within walking distance of the surgical center, but became lightheaded walking home. Luckily she was near a payphone (pre-cellphone); she called me, I picked her up and drove her home.
After a short time in the ER after a car wreck, I was discharged. I had a concussion. I walked out and began looking for my car. Eventually I remembered it had been in a wreck and was towed. I sat on the curb and tried to figure out what to do. Eventually I called a friend who came and got me.