I had to travel up to Boston yesterday to visit with my new gastroenterologist for my swallowing issues. It was a long drive, a long wait in the waiting room and a long drive home just for him to listen to my 5 minute speel and recommend an endoscopy and dilation/biopsy of my esophagus. So that is scheduled for July 9 back in Boston at 7:15 in the morning. Tom will be taking me since sedation is involved. Now we just need someone to take the girls for us.
The doctor has a few theories about what is going on in my esophagus. One is my original diagnosis of a Schatzki's Ring (click on it if you want to know more). I didn't even know I had that as a diagnosis until I got my old records just last week from my previous GI doc (way to communicate!). Apparently that was the diagnosis they came up with in 2003 prior to my first dilation (I was told they really didn't find anything that would cause my problems). This doctor yesterday said that it is highly unusual for someone my age to have a Schatzki's Ring and that he would look for other possible causes when he does the endoscopy and biopsy. At the same time he will dilate which means I will have some pain for a couple of weeks after the procedure. He also said absolutely no applesauce or water when something gets stuck as I could obstruct my airway (that's happened actually). He would rather see me in the ER getting food pushed down than to choke to death (me too!)
My friend Wendy was nice enough to watch the girls yesterday and even kept them overnight (Thank you Wendy!). So when I got home from Boston, I met Tom out for a drink and then we went to a movie. There wasn't much playing, so we decided on The Love Guru with Mike Meyers. I have to admit it was pretty funny. Similar to Austin Powers, but not as over the top. If you want a good laugh, I would recommend it.
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Hello, My dear Hubby Spence also has this condition. He's had it for years, and was getting worse where food was getting stuck almost every day. Finally a few weeks ago he got a "clog, as we call it", that lasted for 16 or so hours. As you know there's no drinking or eating when you have this so he was getting pretty dehydrated. He went to ER and had the peanut (yes his esophagus is that small) removed. About 4 years ago a doctor cut his ring or something, and that did NOT work at all. So don't let anybody do that. His new Dr. says he'll have to have it dilated to help out. In fact he had that done with the peanut episode and he's been fine since, the next time will be doing so it's more of a permanent dilation I guess. Never fear, there's help. I wondered if that's what you had. Kristi
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