Ornery Medication

Have any of you ever taken a pill that seemed to get “stuck” halfway down and subsequently caused you much pain?

I have a pill that I have to take two of every night, and occasionally (tonight being an example), the pills seem to get stuck right in the middle of my chest. It hurts like HELL. I almost never have heartburn, but this is worse than the worst heartburn I’ve ever felt.

I try eating a little piece of bread and drinking water, but it doesn’t always help. I wind up just lying in bed, moaning and writhing (and not in a good way), until it subsides.

I’m going to call my doctor tomorrow, but I’m curious: does this ever happen to anyone else out there?

Quite often. I think the reason why you can’t “wash it down” is because the pill has already gone down, but it’s bruised the throat.

What really hurts is when you have a pill that gets in sideways and goes all the way down like that.

Oh God yes. It happened once to me, and it was so bad I could barely walk. I got to drive to the supermarket to get antacid or something (Pepcid, I think). Gah, that was awful. Worse than any heartburn I’ve ever felt.

I’ve had that happen a few times, and every time was awful. The worst was an aspirin that got stuck and started to dissolve in my esophagus - I’m sure I have an overactive imagination, but I could feel that sucker burning a hole in the tissue. I finally got it to quit by eating bread and drinking milk, but that feeling stayed with me for days.

You have described my greatest fear, and the reason for which I go through an elaborate ritual in regards to swallowing pills. I ritual that earned me the nickname ‘Iguana Boy’ from my roommate.