New to this!

You need to push for a Motility test, where a catheter with sensors is put down your nose into your stomach.  From that test they can tell 100% whether or not you have Achalasia, and which 'type.'  The test measures the movement or 'not' of the esophagus, ie contractions/relaxation to move food/liquids down.  I am now 2-weeks post Heller Myotomy & Fundoplication surgery.  The Motility test in June this year, gave the 100% diagnosis.

Hi. The hardest part for me was getting the diagnosis. I too had chest pains, which having never had anything like that before I couldn't figure out what was causing it. ECG tests etc proved nothing wrong with the heart.

I had about 6 to 8 months of being told it was acid reflux and being put on ever stronger PPI drugs. I knew they weren't doing anyhing, and knew that wasn't the problem, but I couldn't fully describe what was happening so stuck with it.

My wife stumbled across this forum after much googling, and straight away people's experiences on here seemed to ring true with what I was experienceing. Even once armed with a name of the condition, I still found it hard to get a diagnosis.

Anyway after a weekend of eating nothing and drinking very little (because I couldn't swallow anything and eveything I tried to swallow just came back up), I was admitted to hospital.

An Endoscopy showed something was up, and a barium swallow test a week later proved Achalasia.

A month later and I too had the Hellers and partial fundoplication. Since then I can eat and drink pretty much normally, although I do still occassionally get the check pains. But I can live with that!

The point I'm making is that I found this condition very difficult to explain to a doctor without it being mis-diagnosed. Getting the official diagnosis seemed to be the challenge, and then things started happening.

I got my operation on the back of an Endoscopy and a Barium swallow, no other tests were required in my case.

Good luck.

I think a barium swallow test is a very good thing to have done, and it is in some ways more usual than manometry before achalasia is diagnosed.

?It is actually important that the specialists can identify exactly where the issues are occurring because that affects how effective any surgery / treatment is and the details of locations on where they operate.  

?There is 'A Patient's guide to Achalasia' on the website of the Oesophageal Patients Association under the Oesophagus and Achalasia, towards the bottom of the page, that you can download.

Did the barium swallow last week and seems again consitant with Achalashia. The Barium did pass to the stomach but was slow. the report said " There was a tapering of the distal esphagus prior to barium passage. Multiple Dry swallows were attempted to propulse the Barium. During intermittent relaxation of the lower esophageal segment passage of barium occured howerever the the lower esophageal segment remained diffusely narrowed. There were eposides of nonpropulsive diffuse tertiary contractions of the esophgus. These findings may reflect a correlation. Additional considerations include dsital esophageal stricture or a mass resulting is pseudo-achalasia. There is no definite fixed focal intrinsic or extrinsic filling defect appreciated" 

IMPRESSION

Significantly delayed passage through the distal esophagus wiht tapered distal esophageal appreance as describedc above. Differential diagnosis includes achalasia, esophageal stricture, pseudo - achalasia"

Not sure what all that means but when they put the camera down into my stomach he didnt see any masses. 

I also got a letter from my GI Dr saying test results were consistant with Achaleasia is all. No type. Anyone have any ideas? My symptoms seem to be getting worse could just be the stress trying to get this figured out!!

Thanks all!