Food Impaction
Posted , 4 users are following.
I have had this problem for 5-8 years now. It happens randomly and most times it is mild but the feeling causes me great panic. It occurs more often with solid foods like chips, crackers, rice. For example, a triscut cracker will be more problematic than a cheez-it because of the texture. The food doesn't pass and I need to stand up and drink water trying to get it to pass then the feeling will go away. Sometimes it passes rather quickly, other times it takes a minute or two to pass. Every once in awhile, maybe once or twice a year the food will get stuck and I cannot get it to pass. I drink water and the water doesn't want to pass and I start vomiting the water up, with little to no food coming up. The feeling will still be there and this cycle will go on for an hour or so. It slowly feels less and less the more I vomit but the feeling of something stuck is still there and it is unbearable. I drink more water, just a small sip and it is not passing, then a little more and I'm vomiting it back up. I am vomiting it back up and trace amounts of blood are coming up as well. Finally, after battling this unbearable feeling, I will feel something pass and the feeling is gone and I'm back to normal.
Now, I have seen a doctor who put me on omeprazole and that did not help because these episodes happen randomly. I then saw a gastroenterologist and they did a barium swallow and that was normal. Then they did an endoscopy and took some biopsies. The doctor seemed very confident that it was eosinophilic esophagitis. Well everything came back normal and I was left with no answers. I was told to eat slower.
I'm at a loss here because when I have an episode it is anything but mild. I'm in severe discomfort and it is impacting my life. Has anyone experienced this? Any answers or what I should do? I really cannot afford to go back to doctors to be ran through more endoscopies and end up with no answers. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
0 likes, 5 replies
Guest stephen7939
Posted
I personally haven't experienced this to the degree you have, although i can relate the the "triscuit vs cheez-it" analogy because i notice eating crackers or bread it often feels like i need to drink a lot of water with it. it doesn't impact my life as severe as yours though. Have you considered/looked into dialating your esophagus? (not as scary as it sounds) Only other thing i might suggest is considering a low dose of anxiety to help ease your fear
oladapo_51374 stephen7939
Posted
The idea of food not going through shows some issues with the esophagus.
Ordinarily gerd causes the sensation described as per feeling food getting stuck. It is usually a feeling and food has long gotten to the stomach.
I have a suggestion you might want to consider. Drink fizzy or carbonated water instead of still water. It helps to stimulate the esophagus and relieves the irritability that causes these feelings. Give it a try for a while and see if it helps.
oladapo_51374 stephen7939
Posted
The idea of food not going through shows some issues with the esophagus.
Ordinarily gerd causes the sensation described as per feeling food getting stuck. It is usually a feeling and food has long gotten to the stomach.
I have a suggestion you might want to consider. Drink fizzy or carbonated water instead of still water. It helps to stimulate the esophagus and relieves the irritability that causes these feelings. Give it a try for a while and see if it helps.
oladapo_51374 stephen7939
Posted
The idea of food not going through shows some issues with the esophagus.
Ordinarily gerd causes the sensation described as per feeling food getting stuck. It is usually a feeling and food has long gotten to the stomach.
I have a suggestion you might want to consider. Drink fizzy or carbonated water instead of still water. It helps to stimulate the esophagus and relieves the irritability that causes these feelings. Give it a try for a while and see if it helps.
angelic-blanc stephen7939
Posted
I have issues with swallow certain foods like bread, cracker, cake, sticky food. I don't know about meat as I've been avoiding them since this issues started.
It started more than a month ago when I accidentally swallowed a not so well chew cabbage. It was stuck in my throat, eventually it went down. The next day, I had my butter roll dipped in hot chocolate, went down fine but it will get stuck in my throat again if it is not dipped. After two days, I was having butter cracker at work, my phone rang so i swallowed it before it was moist enough. It got stuck, went into panic mode, went to ER. Able to breath and drink and talk but feel super uncomfortable. Eventually it went down before ENT doctor could see me. When it went down my upper middle abdomen hurt. I keep burping too and crying. Did a scope down to my throat through my nose, nothing was found to be stuck but my vocal cord was red.
Things are getting better now, at least I'm able to eat tofu, eggs, rice and soft steam vegetables. I tried a slice of cheesecake yesterday, was daring enough to eat in normal size bite, i swallowed once it was moist but it still got stuck. Eventually it went down after lots of water. I've been wondering could it be I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis, allergic to wheat/gluten as all the foods that I've issues with contains wheat which naturally have gluten. What puzzle me was if it was really EoE to wheat, why do this only happen now? I grow up eating lots of bread for breakfast as I live in Asia.
I'm due for an endoscopy at the end of this month. Super scare.