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Well, earlier I posted about problems I’d been having swallowing because of esophagus. I saw the doctor, and he wanted to “stretch” my esophagus again. So this morning I got up early to be at the hospital for the surgery. Yes, it is surgery, but it’s about as minor as it gets, and it’s all outpatient. Anyway, I go in, they get me all ready, give me an IV and everything, and wheel me into the operating room. I receive anesthesia, and the next thing I know, I wake up and it’s all done, and I’m back where I started.
Apparently, however, the doctor didn’t find what expected when he put the scope down my throat. There was no web in my esophagus for him to stretch this time around. Instead, there were two swollen ulcers that have been what are the cause of me having trouble swallowing. Though I’ve never had heartburn, I’ve probably had gastric reflux all along, and the web was keeping the acids from coming up into my throat. Since he stretched my throat to get rid of the web about a year ago, acid has churned up into my esophagus, causing the ulcers. So now, I’m going to be taking some medication, and after a couple weeks they should hopefully go away.

The great thing in all this is that I can have a normal diet. When I had my throat stretched before, I couldn’t eat normal food for days; I could only have liquids at first, and then only very soft foods, and that just plain sucks for me, since I really like good food. But now I can eat whatever I want, as long as I’m still careful about not getting anything stuck again. (I definitely do not want to go to the emergency room again.) I’m still a bit groggy from the anesthesia, but if you’ll excuse me, I’m starving, and I’m going to have a real lunch. Woohoo!

Well, I had another trip to the emergency room last night. Why you ask? Well, sometimes I have a problem swallowing food, and it gets stuck in my throat. No, it’s not because I take bites that are too big or I don’t chew my food enough (but still, always be sure to chew your food, kids!), it’s because I have a narrowing of my esophagus. It’s a genetic condition that I apparently got from my grandmother. At the base of my esophagus, right before my stomach, I have a web of scar tissue which constricts the passage of food. I had a procedure done about a year ago that “stretched” my esophagus, but apparently the problem has come back, otherwise I wouldn’t have had to go to the hospital.

So I’m eating dinner with my family last night, and I have another “episode.” I wait, hoping it will pass on it’s own as it sometimes does, but this time it doesn’t, so my dad takes me to the emergency room. They give me a muscle relaxant through an IV, and thankfully, it relaxed my esophagus enough for it to pass. Otherwise I would’ve had to wait until the morning until they could get a doctor and technicians in to perform an endoscopy to remove it. I don’t think there’s any way to explain to someone how miserable it is to have something stuck in your throat like this. I constantly have the subconscious urge to both swallow and gag at the same time, and I can do neither. Normally I’d be embarrassed to have this happen, but it’s so uncomfortable I just don’t care. One of the first things I did this morning was schedule an appointment with the gastroenterologist (who performed the procedure I had) and we’ll see what he wants to do. This sure sucks for a guy who likes to eat food.