ER Visit

I have a pocket in my throat just above my esophagus. I found out that I had this pocket on Jeff's baptism day (September 29, 2001). We went to Golden Corral afterward to celebrate. I ate one piece of pork and it got stuck. The pork was so stuck that I couldn't even swallow my own saliva. We ended up in the ER that night having an endoscope put down my throat to push the pork down the rest of the way. After letting my throat heal for a month or so, I went in to have my throat dilated.

Then in 2005 I started to feel like food was having a harder time going down my throat, so I went in and had my throat dilated again.

Tuesday night we were signed up to feed our missionaries dinner. I made BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and zucchini squash. We sat down to eat about 6:30pm. I cut up my chicken into small pieces and took one bite. I soon noticed that the chicken wasn't going down, so I got up from the table and went upstairs to my bathroom to try to push down the chicken with some water. Usually I can gulp some water and whatever is stuck will be forced down. Not this time, just like the time at Golden Corral, I couldn't even get my saliva down. So when I tryed to swallow the water, and it wouldn't go down, I would have to puke it back up. Fun. Fun. Let me tell you! After trying this for about a half hour, with no success, I went down stairs and asked Jeff and the missionaries to give me a Priesthood blessing. I then went back upstairs and continued trying to get the chicken unstuck. I was finally able to get the chicken to move a little so I could swallow my saliva. At around 10:30pm I drank about 6ozs. of milk, this took me about 30 minutes just to get in down.

After that I decided to go to bed in hopes that my throat muscles would relax enough for the chicken to get unstuck and go down. I woke up Wednesday morning and the chicken was still stuck. Jeff called in sick to work, we dropped the boys off at some friends of ours, and we were off to SHMC ER. Luckily there wasn't anyone in the waiting room so we got right in.

My nurse got right to work on plan A: she put in an IV and put some medicine in the IV that is suppose to relax my throat muscles enough for the stuck chicken to be able to go down on its own. The medicine is suppose to work within 45 minutes. (They tried this the last time in 2001 and it didn't work.) If, after 45 minutes, the food was still stuck, it would be onto plan B. Well plan A did not work, so plan B it was. A gastroentologist (sp) was called in. I was taken to endoscopy and put to sleep. The Dr. put an endoscope down my throat and pushed the chicken down into my stomach. During the procedure he also dilated my throat.

This time has been way different that the two times before. I am in SO much more pain! Because the chicken was stuck for a longer period of time, and they pushed the chicken down and dilated my throat in the same procedure, my throat hurts way more. It also hurts all the way down to the top of my stomach any time I have to swallow. I don't remember having any pain past my throat the last time. I also can't take deep breaths with out it hurting really bad.

Yesterday I could literally feel everything going down until it would reach my stomach. It hurt so bad that I would usually be in a hunched over position until it reached my stomach. (it even hurt to swallow my saliva) So, I was basically in a hunched over position all day. From Tuesday at 12:30 until now (Thursday morning) I have only been able to eat probably about a cup and a half of soft food (yogurt, applesauce, and ice cream). And I have only been able to drink a few ounces of water. (The bite of chicken that got stuck at 6:30 Tuesday night was my first bite of food)

Since I can't eat anything but soft foods, I also can't swallow any pain pills. The hospital didn't give me any prescriptions or anything and Target pharmacy didn't have anything over the counter in adult strength. So I am stuck taking the Children's strengths, but they don't make the pain go away, they just make it so I am not hunched over in pain every time I swallow.

Oh and unfortunately for me, the dilation procedure is not a permanent fix. My throat will go back down to its normal size after about one year. I have heard that there is a new procedure that is suppose to basically dilate the throat permanently. The last I heard, it was still in its trail phase, not an accredited procedure. I don't want to be a Genia pig and have the procedure go wrong and end up with a feeding tube the rest of my life.