esophagael spasm

[Rpetherb]

I just finished reading so many peoples problems with this condition.  My wife has been suffering with constant pain right under the sternum.  Like everyone else says, she cannot function when the spasm occurs.  Some times she feels the tightening in the chest and other times a burning.  She has had endoscope tests for viral infections and signs of damage and nothing has shown up.  Barium swallow was normal.  Colonoscopy was normal, blood work was normal for signs of infection and liver, pancrease and gall bladder function.  Ultrasound showed no inflammation or gall stones.  Echocardiagram was normal.  She gets the chest pain that radiates up into her left shoulder and down into her arm.  It takes hours to subside.  She takes Zanec (form of valium) to relax the esophagus every 4 hours, pain killers every 4 hours, nexium once a day and zantec when burning gets to be to much along with mylanta for immediate relief from the burning.  She has lost over 20 pounds and finds it hard to eat because of fear of making the pain increase from pressure from the stomach.  Belching and farting helps, but the air gets trapped causing the pain.  The doctor finally has her consulting a pain therapist because he says if she can relieve the pain then the muscles will relax and help the problem go away.  Well the pain is not going away and she is becoming immune to the pain meds and we are at a loss for what to do.  We are going to another gastro doctor.  This will be the 3rd one.  Is there any herbal remedy out there?  Has anyone had surgery that has worked?  Are there other things to look for?   Our current gastro doctor says he has exhausted all possible conditions but pain therapy seems like it won't work, since the pain meds are not really helping.  The last 2 weeks my wife as been barely functional and spends most her time in a recliner or in bed.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  She also smokes, but she says that helps her feel better and I am not sure how to get her to eat small portions every 2-3 hours, since when she eats she feels worse and gives up on that.  I make her at least have some bread and take several ensures each day to get the nutrition she needs.

Desparate.

Ron  

[crambone]

i get same thing,mine radiates to my back though,ive had thousands of dollars in tests,gallbladder/pancreas..barrium swallow,2 ct scans,blood work,and all came back ok.

i also get that weard upward pressure after eating and i luv to eat,so we got a problem folks!

i think this has either something to do with esophigeal spasms,,,or some kind of unseen hernia like in the area where the esophigaus attaches to the stomach.
believe me its not in her mind,and something is wrong,i deal with pain every day and have been on and off for 9 years now.
check into sphincter of oddi disfunction. this could be something..

all i know is everything is just an educated guess and you people yourself can almost diagnos yourselves.
these docs anymore are just about pushing meds,and not fixing the problems.
if they fix ya,you would have to come back right?

[jason80]

Sorry to hear this. I can relate to the symptoms you mentioned. Mine is similar except that the pain remains under the chest and doesn't radiate to my arms.  Note that I have separate other symptoms happening that I think are related. I also sometimes feel like my esophagus/stomach is vibrating, it doesn't hurt, but is very uncomfortable when it does this.

I also have a clean endo and barium swallow.  I've been taking Priloseec 40mg/day and Reglans 2/day to help. I think it may be helping slightly.

In my case, it seems like it usually better for a couple hours after eating and then I experience the pain, whereas I thought GERD sufferers feel the pain more quickly after they eat.