Hello everyone,
I've had esophageal spasms for about 9 months now. It was diagnosed through a manometry, a horrible test, but useful if you're having problems swallowing. the gi can really learn a lot from this test!
Unfortunately, with the esophageal spasms I've had nausea and vomiting and have lost about 45 lbs in the past 7-8 months!
I've had all sorts of test to try to figure out why I have the vomiting and nausea and everything's come back negative. So it seems it's the spasms that aren't allowing the food to go down, and eventually, they come back up, along with everything else in the stomach!
When I say I've had a lot of tests, I mean, endoscopy, cat scans (abdomen and head - to rule out neurological problems), cancer testing, 24 ph test, ultrasounds, esophagrams...you name it!
I've been put on all sorts of medicine, from motility drugs to proton pump inhibitors (about 4 different ones - noene helped), recently anti-depressant, as well as calcium channel blockers and even nitrates (not all these drugs at once of course!) And nothing seems to work! I continue to lose weight. I may go a day or two where I don't throw up, and then all of a sudden it's like it flares up and I can't eat or drink anything.
I even had one GI that told me not to come back because he didn't have an answer for me! (he shouldn't even have a license!)
Finally, last week, I decided to try acupuncture, and went to my first treatment yesterday. The acupuncturist also gave me some herbs to drink. It's only been one day and she told me I may not feel a difference after the first treatment, but so far, I feel different. I feel like I have more energy and I haven't thrown up or felt nauseous. Now, I'm still getting full quickly, and still feel a lump like some food is stuck, but it's gone away after a little while!
I'm going back for a second treatment on Thursday...let's hope this is really helping.
Well, I just wanted to share, and would love to hear if anyone else has had a similar problem, or has tried acupuncture and if it's helped.