Problems swallowing and 'choking' at night

[Lesley998]

Hi
I am a 45 year old woman who has suffered from severe
epigastric (mid sternum) pain for years, along with chronic belching.  Upper endoscopy and other tests revealed mild gastritis and nothing sinister.  

I was prescribed Losec (lanzaprole) which made absolutely no difference so I am no longer taking it. I now take over the counter indigestion tablets and drink water to control the symptoms.

Recently I have been having problems every single night when I lay down to go to sleep.  I seem to have problems swallowing, my throat fees very constricted. I feel as though I have an air bubble trapped in my gullet, which continually trying to rise up into my mouth.  When  I sit up I usually belch repeatedly.  Then when I lie down again I feel this 'bubble' rising which is sometimes acid.

Then just as I am on the verge of sleep I wake suddenly with a panicky feeling like I am choking on my saliva.

This is keeping me awake every night and is beginning to afect my quality of life.  The doctors tell me it is simply anxiety, but I do not agree.  I know my body and I am sure there is some physiological reason.

I have raised the bed head by a couple of inches and am careful not to lie flat.

Has any one any experience of this?

[imaginetolive]

I too have had problems swallowing and find that I need to drink a bit of water or just concentrate on relaxing my mouth and neck to swallow.  For years I had problems choking in my sleep.  It would happen several times every night and what helped was increasing the thyroid treatment.  I find that many people do not understand the consequences of magnesium deficiency.  Ask your doctor to check your RBC Mg (red blood cell magnesium).  The regular Mg test is useless.  The magnesium will help anyone with GERD or esophageal spasms but I find that I am now still suffering with the swallowing problems no matter what I do.  I am in my 40's and had hand tremors for the past couple of years and was concerned about Parkinson's and ALS.  I thought that I would try some L-Dopa to see if it would help and sure enough it stopped the tremors.  I started taking it last summer.  I had other symptoms as well like muscle weakness and hand and feet spasms, eye twitching but they can be controlled with the magnesium.  With the swallowing problems escalating, I am worried if this is neurological and have yet to discuss it with my doctor.  I am already a handful medically as I have IBS, IBD, Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia so I have been putting the discussion off.  I am allergic to everything under the sun but the worst are mold related foods and gluten.  It is important to test IgG Food Intolerance as it will give you a good idea of what to avoid.  IgE is 0.001% of the immune system while IgG is close to 80%.  IgE is Emergency response and IgG is slow reacting but long term immune activity.  Studies prove is you have IgG there is IgE antibodies as well.  The IgG are more sensitive tests in my opinion and worth the money of getting the 200 food test.  I am lucky to not be overweight but I have a good lifestyle and an excellent physician.  Find someone who listens.   If anyone can suggest something natural for my choking and swallowing problems, I would really appreciate any help.  

[baybeethick1980]

I wouldn't be so quick to say that some sort of "extremely bad" problem is happening here. I have been diagnosed with GERD and have gastritis...issues that are bad enough, but could be worse. A few months ago I began choking in my sleep. It felt like someone suddenly cut off my air and I would wake up gasping, afraid to go to back to sleep. I occasionally still have this problem, but I have been helped greatly by lifting my head up at night, eating earlier, no fried, fatty foods or CHEESE and taking Kapidex that my doctor prescribed, a PPI that has worked MIRACLES...hope you feel better..get the EGD done with your doctor. It might give you a clue as to what's going on!

[DR_RTewari]

Another possibility is nut cracker esophagus which can only be diagnosd by manomety
Regards
Dr Tewari

[DR_RTewari]

Dear Lasely
You may be suffeing from achelasia cardia or ? Zanker's diveriticulum. Barium swallow / endosocpy should be done in your case. Consult your doctor
Best wishes
Dr Tewari

[karlianne]

For the past few weeks I have been unable to fall asleep at night because just as I am drifting off my throat muslces relax and I involuntarily swallow which wakes me up.  This happens over and over again and can keep me awake all night.  My doctors too beleive this is anxiety but I am sure it is a physical symptom that I cannot control.  My problem started after a visit to the chiropractor where I had my neck adjusted and when I got home I started having a gagging sensation like the back of my throat was closing.  Ever since then, I have been unable to sleep do to my throat closing and involuntary swallowing upon falling asleep.  Im wondering if nerve damage could be the cause??

[ggreg]

I don't think I had what you have, but here is what happened to me.  I gained a lot of weight and was on some heavyduty medicines for anxiety and pain.  The combination caused my throat to close up on itself when I relaxed.  I was OVERrelaxed.  So, I discontinued one of the meds and the choking feeling went away.  This panicky sudden-waking deal went on for years.  Terrifying feeling.  I felt like I was at death's door when I woke up, very very strange feeling.  Yours sounds like a mechanical problem of some kind, though, whatever it might be.  If you are dried out from otc meds, you have got to stay hydrated or everything will swell up and get stuck.

[Lesley998]

Thanks for your helpful reply.

Did you also have breathless feelings at night? Sometimes I am not sure if the jerking awake is due to choking sensation or breathlessness.

Did you have chest pain also?

[Manhattan]

No chest pain but I guess the breathlessness goes along with it where I would suddenly start gasping for breath as I was falling asleep or just having fallen asleep. Sometimes I'd have the forceful involuntary swallowing and other times just the gasping for breath. I believe that if you are having any kind of throat issues it can bring it on but if it continues I was told that MS can also cause this. If you have no other symptoms though, most likely it is just a local problem. When I have the gasping for breath alone I think that is a different issue for me probably having to do with my heart because once I cought it on a holter and it showed a tachycardia. I do notice that if I have a cold or scratchy throat I tend to get this forceful swallowing that sometimes hurts and it always seems to be as I am falling asleep or just fell asleep.

[Manhattan]

I had this happen to me before and was told it was Myoclonic Jerk. At the time I had a viral infection and my throat was affected but it can also happen with other conditions.