Today I was eating Chinese food (and probably a bit fast). Now, I’ve had the first part happen before with rice - after taking a few bites, I felt a sharp cramping pain in my chest. This got worse, and I felt a sharp pain under my right shoulder blade.
Usually a little water and relaxing will make this go away, but this time I started coughing just from the pain. The coughing got so bad, I went to the restroom in case something happened. Which it did - I threw up, and immediately felt fine.
So what did I manage to do to myself? I’m guessing that some food got stuck in my esophagus below the epiglottis and above the stomach.
I don’t know if this is going to help you, but I had a similar thing happen when I gulped down a glass of water. I was bolting down mouthfuls of water, which is similar to what you were doing with the rice. Horrible waves of pain began to radiate out from just above my diaphragm, and I felt faint for about a minute.
Perhaps the speed and size of what we were trying to swallow caused spasms in the esophagus? Or perhaps stretched it beyond its capacity?
IANAD, but I am a speech-language pathologist who’s worked with people who have orophagyneal dysphagia (i.e., swallowing problems due to oral or throat problems). If one of my patients described your symptoms, I’d recommend that they discuss their concerns with their doctor because it sounds like the food got stuck somewhere below the upper esophageal sphincter and above the lower esophageal sphincter. Things can get stuck because of a physical obstruction (e.g., a stricture in the esophagus) or because of a motility problem which interferes with esophageal peristalsis. Esophageal dysphagia is usually exacerbated by denser foods like soft bread (which turns into a thick doughy ball after chewing) or meat. It may be that your esophagus is fine, and you simply swallowed an overly large bolus, but if it bothers you, you should mention it to your doctor.
You may also want to check out what the Merck Manual has to say about esophageal dysphagia. It has lots of info on the causes and symptoms.
Isn’t this what happened with GWB and the pretzel? As I recall, swallowing oversize bits of food can cause pressure on the vagus nerve, which can result in fainting and other unpleasantness.
Moral: chew your food. And don’t invade foreign countries… no, no, stop it, I’m only joking…
chrisn - that does sound similar, although it normally only happens with (cooked) rice that’s on the dry side (I had it happen while eating some really dry turkey) - I suspect that the rice is actually sticking to the walls of the esophagus and causing it’s own obstruction.
Gingy - I’ve been gall bladderless for two years now. Maybe we should form a club?
