Has Anyone Had Trouble Swallowing (Dysphagia)?

[puppylove]

Oh my gosh the preparing yourself for swallowing and food getting stuck started three years before I even got POTS. My mom actually took me to the doctor for it once and they said it was anxiety (of course )

[Friedbrain]

The swallowing process is actually quite complex, and things can be "wrong" at different levels. I have had numerous bouts with swallowing difficulties over the past 9 ys and, strangely enough, involving at least two different levels (so different reasons?)! They were both diagnosed with barium swallows, btw, which is no big deal and maybe worth the effort. I had early bouts of food getting stuck at the back of the throat and I had difficulty swallowing-I needed both gravity (tilting my head back) and liquid to push it down. That happened when I was having my worst neurological problems (and was even hospitalized); they thought I had MS initially (no data to support that, tho). Over the last few years, I was experiencing periodic intense upper chest pain and then realized I think pills were getting stuck in my esophagus; and feeling like there was a lump in my neck/esophagus. They wanted me to have an upper scope, but then it resolved so I skipped it. At a GI appt recently for another reason, I'd mentioned it was happening again and I was burping a lot-an annoyance but they wanted to do testing. I agreed to the mod barium swallow, thinking it was a waste of time because I wasn't right then and there having pain. BUT they did! I did an intake of solids to liquids, burping up while trying to drink the liquids. Apparently, there's a flap in the upper esophagus (so sorry don't have the name in front of me) that flips back and forth covering the trachea when you swallow. The liquids don't quite trigger the flap closure, or it's sluggish, so liquid catches and backs up when I drink, making me burp and/or choke; worse case scenario is I could aspirate liquid into my lungs (resulting in increased risk of pneumonia). They couldn't tell me WHY this is happening; I see my neuro next month and will ask, tho, cuz I'm still burping with liquids. They did say they usually don't see something like that in a 40yo; more like 70-80yo..... And get this.....my MOM has this exact problem! Except she chokes/coughs all the time, and my dad is always beating her on the back for it (trying to help lol). Yup, genetic weirdos. If it gets to be a problem, one solution is to thicken all liquids (idea being that the thicker it is, the better at triggering the flap closure).

So, long way of saying that "trouble swallowing" may happen from the back of the throat, where there might be sluggish response to sending food down; there might be problems along the esophagus (with solids or liquids).

[Katybug]

Monstrosity,

I'm surpised your doc doesn't feel it's related...your mouth/tongue/esophagus is part of the digestive system which we know is affected by the ANS. I am pretty sure I read somewhere (after researching back when this thread was started) that swallowing is "ruled" by the ANS. I'll have to see if I can find the info again.

K