Esophageal spasm is unreal

Don't fret Spiritspinner, one does not have to drink alcohol to be exciting (or to have fun). I used to drink every weekend and then some and since I've quit drinking all alcohol, I've learned to go to bars and nightclubs and only drink bottled water and ginger ale. I find that I have just as much fun as when I used to drink.    And because I'm not drinking booze, I go to the bathroom less which means I get to spend more time on the dance floor!  (Oh yeah!).  

Eggs are a tricky food because some people get reactions when they eat regular, commercial eggs. And some people find they can eat organic eggs.  For now, I'm staying away from eggs and will introduce them slowly back into my diet.

Hollandaise sauce is one of my food triggers and I can no longer eat it (maybe when my esophagus heals up I'll be able to). Certain breads also irritate my stomach lining, so I've cut out all breads for the next 90 days.  I will introduce it later as one of my foods to test.  But for now, no breads of any kind for me.

I'm currently not on any medication because I'm waiting for my consultation with my new GI doctor next week.  During my first bought of gastritis and erosive esophagitis my last GI doctor put me on Dexilant which had some light side effects for a couple of days, but then they went away.  That PPI worked really well for me. 

In the interim I am on a very strict diet because my erosive esophagitis (caused by GERD) can only handle certain foods right now. I have found eating organic bananas and half a peeled red apple in the morning to do wonders for me and I eat them with a little bit of organic raw honey.  I'm eating organic applesauce, a little bit of steamed white rice, and homemade vegetable soup made from homemade bone broth for my lunches and dinners.  I also do shots of wheatgrass and carrot juice on most days. 

This basic diet has helped me deal with my symptoms along with everything else the wonderful people have advised me to do over the years that I've been reading here (elevating my bed, not eating 4-5 hours before bedtime, avoiding all fried foods, no alcohol or caffeine, no spicy foods, etc.).

It is my personal belief that most people can get better by eating the right foods. Some people need medication because their symptoms are so severe and some don't. I am learning that everyone is unique in that we all have different degrees of symptomology, different food triggers, and medications affect everyone differently

Yes, stress an anxiety are definite factors. There have been countless studies on stress and anxiety and their impact on our overall wellbeing. They also affect how our digestive system behaves. This is one of the main reasons why I started meditating a couple of years ago. At first, I thought it was silly, but I was so desperate back then that I was willing to try anything.

Boy am I glad I got into meditation. Now I can't live without it. The thing with meditation is that the more you practice it, the better you will get at it. There was a time when it took me 15-30 minutes just to get into a meditative state. On most days now it only takes me a few minutes because I focus on my breath and I know how to clear my mind.

Good luck to you.

 

Hello I'm Heather,

I came across this site through some google research I've been doing. I'm relieved to know I'm not crazy and I'm not alone in fighting this mysterious esophageal motility disorder.

I'm a 27 year old, healthy, stress free girl but in the last 2 years I started having weird esophageal encounters. It started with my food getting stuck in the middle of my chest, causing severe pain. I would try push the food down with a big gulp of water, which is the scariest thing ever because sometimes that wouldn't even work because the water couldn't even go down. On one occasion this happened, causing so much pain, followed by a weird popping in my throat, which eventually lead to me hanging over the sink and my mom having to give me the heimlich maneuver to force it all out! I'll clarify that for me this is not a choking issue, the food is well past my throat at the time of it getting stuck and I always eat slow and I chew my food well. After this scary incident 2 years ago, I had the endoscopy test done and they told me that I have a "shelf" in my chest but there were no serious signs of any potential issues. So I figured I'm fine I'll just go on with my life, so I did and I had the rare occasion where food would get stuck but I kind of figured out what foods triggered it for me; such as rice, breaded foods, pork etc. so I stayed away from those foods so for the most part I was fine.

But then in the past 5 months my symptoms have progressed to extreme chest pain, heartburn (only sometimes), shortness of breath, lightheadedness, lots of pressure build-up in my chest and all on random occasions from random foods! These symptoms are happening very frequently. I'm a pretty tough girl but the pain is so extreme that I start balling my eyes out and head over to the E.R. but as soon as I get there the pain usually subsides and I figure that they can't really help me anyways so I head home. For me the pain is very rarely in the morning and it's always after I eat food. The pain usually lasts anywhere between 5 minutes to 2 hours and these episodes happen almost every day.

So I recently went back to the doctor, insisting that there's obviously something wrong and a week later I was booked for a barium swallow test. The test showed no blockages or whatever else they look for but the doctor asked me a few questions and by what I told him he figured that I had an esophageal spasm but he told me that when I go for my PH testing in a couple weeks, they'd be able to tell me for sure.

The more I read of esophageal spasms the more freaked out I get because it doesn't sound like there's much hope. I would like to clear this medical issue up holistically if possible. If it's a diet thing, easy, I just need to eliminate the "trigger" foods........ NOT EASY!!! How can I tell what foods trigger a spasm when EVERY food triggers a spasm and it's so random. I can eat the same meal one day and have no problems, then eat it another day and BAM so much pain. It's weird too because I used to kind of be able to "control" the spasms but now they seem just too random and frequent. I did take Rabeprazole for a week just because the heart burn got so severe at one point and I actually did notice a lot of relief with this drug. I will not continue use because the drug is not actually solving the problem it's just masking it. I'm not even sure if the heart burn is even related to the spasms but I have never really experienced heart burn until now.

So after all my blabbering I would like to know what helps everyone. Any advice or feedback is greatly appreciated.

P.S. I have noticed that drinking carbonated drinks with meals relieves a good amount of pressure build up during a spasm but it doesn't totally clear it up.