Dysphagia

I am a 29 year old woman. I am 5 ft tall and a vegetarian, I do not smoke or drink or do any drugs. I am overweight for my size. Approximately 3 months ago I began choking while eating, the sensation feels a bit like everything in my chest pauses and I can't swallow. Eventually it passes. The worst episode I had instigated a panic attack and I almost hyperventilated. Fortunately my boyfriend was around and helped me through it. I also have a sore throat all the time, its mild and sort of just irritated and I constantly produce a very dry foamy saliva that I can't swallow.

I have since developed a huge fear of eating and drinking, and am completely unable to do either when I am alone. When I do eat it is only in very small bits, I can get down crackers and mashed potatoes if I go very slowly. I have lost over 30lbs.

I immediately went to my doctor for assistance. So far I have had a barium swallow test that revealed a small hiatal hernia that my dr felt wasn't severe enough to be causing these symptoms. I had an endoscopy and a biopsy, which indicated acid reflux. They put me on prilosec and ativan. The ativan made me sleep all the time and when I was awake all I wanted to do was cry. The prilosec gave me diarrhea and burning in my intestines. I stopped taking both.

They tried to give me an esophageal motility test but were unable to get the catheter down my nose and after repeated attempts stopped. They have told me the only way to diagnose esophageal spasms in thru this test but I DO NOT want to go through that all over again. It was horrible and VERY traumatic.

They tested my thyroid and gave me a celiac test, both came back normal. I had a thyroid ultrasound which showed a few small nodes but nothing of concern. I had my blood and urine tested. All my blood tests came back normal, but I had crystals in my urine indicating kidney stones (I have a history of this) and also I have a UTI (I have not experienced any symptoms though.)

I also had an abdominal ultrasound which revealed small gallstones but everything else was normal.

I have gone to see an acupuncturist a few times, most of the needles on the left side were too painful and so they had to take them out but other than that they were successful in easing the gut pain.

Yesterday morning I woke up with my throat feeling more irritated, I looked into the back with a flashlight and saw on both sides very large tonsil stones poking out. My tonsils are not inflamed but the stones would not come out with gargling or a qtip. I am running a mild fever of around 100.

I don't know what to do, I can't continue like this much longer and every test comes back with something minor they don't think could be causing it. I'm at a complete loss. I have been drinking alkaline water and I am on a liquid antibiotic for the UTI.

Are any of these "small" things related? What options do I have?

Alert Webmaster & Moderators