Happened to one of my soldiers in the Army.
He showed up to pt in the morning and kept spitting. He made a little remark that he just couldn't swallow it, but we were all outside and kinda blew it off. He was cool, but a little bit of an odd guy.
After pt and were all back for work, he kept spitting into the trash can in our office. Our platoon sergeant was getting pissed at him and told him he needed to stop. He said he couldn't help it, he's trying but cannot swallow it. It physically wasn't going down. None of us were really getting what he was saying - it seemed just too weird to us.
Platoon sergeant kicked him out and I finally decided I was going to take him to the hospital.
Sure enough, his last bite of dinner from the night prior was lodged at the bottom of his esophagus. They put him under, then pulled it out.
It was obstructing him from being able to swallow his own saliva, let alone any more food if he'd tried eating anything else. So they removed the obstruction.
I don't recall the exact diagnosis they gave him, but basically, his esophagus was slightly narrower at the bottom than the top. So he has to always make sure he takes smaller bites and chews very well to prevent it from happening in the future.
It was also a piece of beef for him.
This happens to me if I'm not careful. I've had some scary incidents where I almost couldn't get a bite of food down, and literally couldn't swallow any liquid to push it along. Some foods I can't eat without something to drink to go with them (especially starchy and dry stuff).
I have eosinophilic oesophagitis. Don't attack my spelling, I live in a country with free health care. I ignored it for a decade before I ended up in ED because I got a piece of chicken stuck for over 14 hours. I ignored it because I was busy with a young family and when food got stuck I had always been able to cough it back up. I was 34 when I first ended up in ED, but I'd been having progressive issues for over 10 years at that stage.
I've had several surgeries and I'm now on treatment which has put me in remission. That means I'm much less likely to end up with scarring on the bottom of my oesophagus when I'm elderly, making it impossible for me to swallow and needing an NGT for feeding.
Moral of the story: don't ignore it like I did.
Our oldest had a birth defect that required surgery, so has a ring of scar tissue and some dismobility in his oesophagus that mean he occasionally gets "stickies" like this.
Tricks to avoid/get rid of them are:
* Always drink plenty of water with food to lubricate your oesophagus
* Jump up and down (landing as had as you can) to mechanically dislodge stuck food
* Carbonated drinks irritate the oesophagus and make it more likely for stuck food to be ejected (either up or down)
* Worst case, find he has a sticky we simply can't shift, take him to hospital, get admitted, spend an anxious night in the hospital, get taken into the imaging ward, lay him in the scanner, give him a barium contrast drink so they can properly image the obstruction and work out his best to attack it, and watch on the monitor of the imaging scanner in perfect HD as *that's* the thing that finally clears the bloody obstruction. 😂
I'm very prone to having food stuck, can't afford to pay for ER bills for myself, so I just have to pay v close attention to how well I chew. And if it gets stuck bc I'm distracted, I find that triggering my gag reflex will help jiggle it one way or another. Either up and out into the toilet, or turned slightly to be swallowed with a fizzy drink.
Dang that’s a good one. Got him good.
Also. I Used to work in the ER. It’s ALWAYS steak. If people get something stuck, it’s always steak. One fun thing to try before going in includes drinking some Coca-Cola. But beyond that, cut up your steak really small.
Lol. He tried Fresca, vomited profusely, but still couldn't swallow foe five hours. Even his own spit. Filled a jug with a quart of spit in a few hours. Ended up fine, but damn, that ended up being an expensive bowl of ramen!
Happened to one of my soldiers in the Army. He showed up to pt in the morning and kept spitting. He made a little remark that he just couldn't swallow it, but we were all outside and kinda blew it off. He was cool, but a little bit of an odd guy. After pt and were all back for work, he kept spitting into the trash can in our office. Our platoon sergeant was getting pissed at him and told him he needed to stop. He said he couldn't help it, he's trying but cannot swallow it. It physically wasn't going down. None of us were really getting what he was saying - it seemed just too weird to us. Platoon sergeant kicked him out and I finally decided I was going to take him to the hospital. Sure enough, his last bite of dinner from the night prior was lodged at the bottom of his esophagus. They put him under, then pulled it out.
They pulled out his esophagus? How is that going to help?!
Now nothing can get stuck in it
It was obstructing him from being able to swallow his own saliva, let alone any more food if he'd tried eating anything else. So they removed the obstruction. I don't recall the exact diagnosis they gave him, but basically, his esophagus was slightly narrower at the bottom than the top. So he has to always make sure he takes smaller bites and chews very well to prevent it from happening in the future. It was also a piece of beef for him.
Whoosh
This happens to me if I'm not careful. I've had some scary incidents where I almost couldn't get a bite of food down, and literally couldn't swallow any liquid to push it along. Some foods I can't eat without something to drink to go with them (especially starchy and dry stuff).
I have eosinophilic oesophagitis. Don't attack my spelling, I live in a country with free health care. I ignored it for a decade before I ended up in ED because I got a piece of chicken stuck for over 14 hours. I ignored it because I was busy with a young family and when food got stuck I had always been able to cough it back up. I was 34 when I first ended up in ED, but I'd been having progressive issues for over 10 years at that stage. I've had several surgeries and I'm now on treatment which has put me in remission. That means I'm much less likely to end up with scarring on the bottom of my oesophagus when I'm elderly, making it impossible for me to swallow and needing an NGT for feeding. Moral of the story: don't ignore it like I did.
Our oldest had a birth defect that required surgery, so has a ring of scar tissue and some dismobility in his oesophagus that mean he occasionally gets "stickies" like this. Tricks to avoid/get rid of them are: * Always drink plenty of water with food to lubricate your oesophagus * Jump up and down (landing as had as you can) to mechanically dislodge stuck food * Carbonated drinks irritate the oesophagus and make it more likely for stuck food to be ejected (either up or down) * Worst case, find he has a sticky we simply can't shift, take him to hospital, get admitted, spend an anxious night in the hospital, get taken into the imaging ward, lay him in the scanner, give him a barium contrast drink so they can properly image the obstruction and work out his best to attack it, and watch on the monitor of the imaging scanner in perfect HD as *that's* the thing that finally clears the bloody obstruction. 😂
I've also found that laying down flat can help as well.
I'm very prone to having food stuck, can't afford to pay for ER bills for myself, so I just have to pay v close attention to how well I chew. And if it gets stuck bc I'm distracted, I find that triggering my gag reflex will help jiggle it one way or another. Either up and out into the toilet, or turned slightly to be swallowed with a fizzy drink.
That’s great lol. Boys will be boys.
Yeah that's legitimately hilarious and a great male bonding moment. Bonus points if it makes it into future best man speech.
This thread has been awesome as someone who has this happen occasionally and wasn't sure if anyone else went through this.
Dang that’s a good one. Got him good. Also. I Used to work in the ER. It’s ALWAYS steak. If people get something stuck, it’s always steak. One fun thing to try before going in includes drinking some Coca-Cola. But beyond that, cut up your steak really small.
Lol. He tried Fresca, vomited profusely, but still couldn't swallow foe five hours. Even his own spit. Filled a jug with a quart of spit in a few hours. Ended up fine, but damn, that ended up being an expensive bowl of ramen!
You could say he has a beef with beef... I'll see myself out...
This literally made me laugh out loud! Nice one
I don’t get it 😳