My mother just went to the ER because she couldn't swallow anything and had difficulty breathing. Examination revealed a swollen esophagus that was putting pressure on her wind pipe, making it difficult to breath. The Dr.'s didn't know what was causing it and didn't see anything except swelling and redness in the esophagus. She's scared (of course) and I said I would see what I could dig up on the Internet. I'm mainly looking for possibilities that she could pass on to her Dr. for further exploration. One idea I had was epiglottitis. Do you have any other possibilities?