Esophageal Spasm?

[koosjr]

I has a bit of a scare this weekend!

A friend and I went to a nice restaurant and I ordered a T-bone. We had a good red wine with the meal.

I took the first bite of the piece of steak. It was nice soft, but when I swallowed it, my esophagus  went into spasm with the piece of meat stuck in the very top. As a reaction, a lot of mucus was produced and I was quickly having difficulty breathing. I tried to vomit, but it was impossible. I just stayed calm, figured out was was happening and concentrated to drive the mucus from my wind pipe and spit it out. The contraction was severe enough that there was also blood in the mucus.

I went to the hospital and finally a doctor sprayed some anaesthetic solution down my throat that helped the muscle to relax. Within a minute of so the obstruction went down with small sips of water. I had a bit of a raw throat for the next day but everything seems fine now.

This is the first time something like this happened to me, but if at all related, I had "warning sings" of this condition - most of the time with a piece of dry bread that gets stuck. However, it was always only for a few seconds. That already made me chew my food with a lot more care.

I have a good friend with exactly the same problem - the food always gets stuck in the top. He said it already happened a couple of times with him and in one case the food was stuck for over four hours.

What could be the cause of this? I am concerned that it might happen in a way that food may obstruct the trachea - it seems to be a real possibility for me.

The information that I can find on the net only refers to spasms lower down in the esophagus.

Would it help if I would carry a little spray bottle with an anaesthetic solution in case it happens again?

[koosjr]

Thanks for the comments so far. I am busy reading up where I can and what I read here certainly makes sense.

Any other comments would be appreciated.

[jane1935]

I have also had this problem, usually when eating a hamburger and eating too fast also causes it.  My gastroenterologist  stretched something, I believe he called it the Schatzk's Ring.    Before this was done, if eating out, I would always go to the restroom and do the Heimlich Process.  Putting my hands under my ribs, squeezing tightly and lifting up.  After several times, I could eject whatever was stuck.  You feel like you are choking or having a heart attack.  Hope this helps.

jane

[lizziecee]

Hi - my husband suffered from the same swallowing problem for years, on and off. With him, the second mouthful of meat would not go down and he would have to vomit the food up before he could breathe again. I finally got him to see my gastroenterologist (I have Crohn's) and he did an endoscopy to check for inflammation or and obstruction. He found nothing. However, he said my husband's oseophagus had thickened over the years and this was the cause of not being able to swallow properly. I believe it is called Schatzk's Ring. The procedure of putting the endoscope down did widen the oesophagus and my husband has had no problem since. The gastro did advise my husband to chew his food, meat particularly, very carefully before swallowing it.   Hope this helps, but I would see a dr just to be sure what is causing your problem.

Liz.