Update on my medical testing

On July 2, I had bribed the kids to clean the whole house. I told them that if they cleaned the house and picked weeds I'd take them to lunch. We needed to get it all clean so we could have the bug guy come spray, and then get the carpets cleaned after that. They decided that they wanted to go to Denny's so after they were done off we went. Kent had come home from work early, and we offered to wait for him to get there. He couldn't go because he had too much work so it was just me and the kids. They ordered a variety of things, some breakfast and some lunch. I ordered breakfast, thinking it would be easy to swallow. I'd been having a lot of issues since May of 2009 with my swallowing. And during the past few months it had gotten worse. It wasn't happening at every meal so I wasn't sure why it would happen at different times of day and not consistently with the same foods. It was frustrating, and I'd almost had to go to the ER a few times because of food getting stuck.

That morning I'd had a difficult time eating breakfast so I thought eggs and toast would go down just fine. Unfortunately I was wrong. After eating only 4 bites of my food (2 bites of scrambled eggs, 1 bite of sausage and 1 bite of bacon) the food got stuck. I went to the bathroom and tried to cough or throw up so I could breathe easy again. However, this didn't work. I was struggling to breathe and talk, and was in quite a bit of pain. After about 15 minutes in the bathroom, I was sweating so bad, and starting to shake because I was really under quite a bit of stress from not being able to get the food to dislodge. The boys sent Natalie in, and she said I didn't look good. And then she looked again and asked if I was going to go to the hospital. So, I managed to pay (probably freaked the cashier out a bit because I could hardly speak or breathe), and drove myself the 2 miles to the nearest ER, throwing up a tiny bit at a time the entire time. Justin called Kent while I was driving to fill him in on the situation. He was very brave, but I could tell he was very worried. I really didn't want the kids to have to go with me, but at that point taking them home was not an option. I needed help as soon as possible. Kent came to get them, and I waited to be admitted. I got back pretty quickly, but they didn't give me anything to help right away. I had to try to talk to the doctor, who got me a room in the back. This was the worst episode by far of any of the episodes. I was pretty miserable until they gave some muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety medication, and morphine. When all that failed to get rid of the food, and I was probably starting my third hour of retching, they called a GI specialist who ordered a cup of ginger ale. That helped to dislodge whatever it was. The GI doctor had me go upstairs where I got a scope down the throat to see what was left there and then he took 2 biopsies. After all that I had a sore throat for about 3 days. I was discharged with the vague diagnosis of having dysphagia, a condition that causes the esophagus to not work properly... Makes eating and drinking extremely difficult. (The test results were normal for this test.)

Before all this happened, I had gone to an ENT to see if he could help me figure out what was going on. It seemed to start in the throat area so I figured he'd be the best place to start. He ordered a neck CT and a swallow study with barium. So on July 8 I did my best to not complain or get sick as the tech jabbed my arm with the needle trying to start the IV in my left arm (aka- the bad arm) for my neck CT. I've had at least 20-30 IVs in my life, so I directed her to the 2 veins that work the best for IV's, but she "didn't like those ones." (Oy vey!) This was her first day also, so when she was trying to get those bad veins she was moving the needle all around. I really thought I was going to be sick. The "best" (according to her and her trainer) vein rolled so the trainer suggested she take it out and try to start an IV in the other arm... which worked! (And it was in the vein that I suggested initially...) It hurt so bad! It felt like she jabbed me with a nail in that arm. Fortunately the barium swallow study was without incident, so I was thrilled about that. Both of those tests came back with normal results... no issues at all. (Test results normal again.)

I met with the doctor who had done the biopsies. He said everything so far was coming back normal so he wasn't sure what course of action to take because "he couldn't treat normal." He ordered another test to measure the pressure in the esophagus, and said we'd go from there.

Then, on Thursday (Aug. 12) I had to go in for an esophageal manometry. I can honestly say that was one of the most horrible tests I've ever had. For the test they had to numb from the back of my nose down to the back of my throat with lidocaine using a long Q-Tip. Then they stuck a tube up my nose and down to the back of my throat, where they kept it until I stopped gagging. (Easier said than done. It took about 5 minutes so my throat took a beating from the tube.) After that they advanced the tube until it was in the top of my stomach. They took some baseline measurements, and then had me take a sip of water 10 times. The tube had sensors on it that measured the pressure from the top to the bottom. Fortunately this yielded results. The worst possibility of the 5 they were testing for has been ruled out, thank goodness. I'll meet with the doctor next Friday to discuss options, but I'll probably have to have surgery in the next few weeks. They are fairly certain that I have a hiatal hernia. The doctor who performed the test also hinted at some other issues related to it, but he said he wants the other doctor to review the test and decide the course of treatment. Friday cannot get here soon enough.
I am looking forward to being able to eat and drink again without worrying about gagging. It's so bad sometimes that it can take me more than 1 hour to drink a protein shake. And when it acts up I can only eat 3-4 bites before I start gagging again. I'm hoping that this will lead to further weight loss, but so far the scale isn't budging. My primary care physician thinks that my body is in fat storing mode because of the issues, and while I'm glad to know that I would really like to lose weight since my caloric intake has dropped significantly most days! It'll happen. I know it! Any and all prayers are appreciated. I am so glad that they finally found something to explain everything! It's a huge relief, and is something that can be corrected.