Ok, I am in Georgia visiting my family. Yesterday, i was at my brothers visiting with my mon and day and nephew for about 4 or 5 hours. Nothing too strenuous- just talking and watching the Olympics. Iwent back to the hotel about 2:00 pm, totally exhausted and feeling weaker than I have in a long time and aching all over like I had the worse case of the flu ever. I was having some difficulty swallowing last night, which is not really new since I have had fibro, but it has never been really, really bad. I woke upon the middle of the night with the most horrible pain in my chest. I could barely swallow and when I did, i thought I might just die from the pain. Went to a walkin clinic this morning and she diagnosed esophageal spasms, put me on meds and recommended some GI tests which I said I would talk to my PCP about when I went home.
Just wondering if others have had this kind of pain and if anything helped. I know fibro affects your whole body and different people in different ways, but, seriously, don’t f*** with my eating. It is one of the few comforts I have left in my life! LOL
Sorry to just carry on. I just keep thinking, why me and why now? Why can’t I just have these four days to enjoy myself? It sucks.
I have problems swallowing and things getting stuck in my throat. Petunia started a discussion about it last week I think. I don't know what esophageal spasms are exactly but I think they use codeine? Not sure. Doesn't matter as long as you get your damn food!
I do get rib pain now which sucks big time when I keep coughing to dislodge the food, but I have found its an excellent reason to eat more cookies and chocolate... "Oh I better have another one to dislodge the last one" (instead of hurting myself to cough). Works for me every time. I even look forward to it now. So consider it a "blessing in disguise".
Esophageal spasms are when your food pipe goes into spasms and keeps contracting. (ok, pretty simple explanation, but I skipped that lecture in med school) It is about the worst pain imaginable. The meds sem to be helping some but the doc didn’t give me any pain meds and I stupidly left mine at home. I am definitely going to try the “eat another cookie” approach. I was thinking ice cream for dinner tonight, though. That makes me smile.
How about stick toffee pudding wih the ice cream? Just what doctor Jo ordered. Cheesecake's quite soft too... Oh and I love your Hersheys Chocolate Cream Pie over there!!
MBP, oh no, oh no, ANYTHING but taking food away from us!
Honestly, MBP, I'm not quite sure how to answer this because a few days ago, while I was swigging some cold sparkling water, I had a Gawd awful sharp pain in my digestive tract as it went down. It was frightening and very fierce, but went away quickly. I've felt similar pain starting so I drink slower. I don't know if it's a return of my ulcer or something like what you're going thru, MBP. My guess is that what you're going thru is yet ANOTHER fibro symptom.
Hey, I'm really sorry it had to happen to you at all, let alone when you were visiting family for a few days. You're right, it does sukk. I'm glad you got it checked out and made sure it wasn't your heart.
What else did they say about esophagal spasms? Any explanation on their end for what causes them or how serious they are?
I suppose if other other muscles can spasm, so too can our esophagus. Man, that sukks!
Omg I know exactly what pain you mean now! I do that "big gulp" thing sometimes and it frickin hurts like a mofo! So I don't know how you cope with that. It must be awful.
Okay kids, since this turned to food, I'll jump in and add that I asked my Rheumatologist about the 'anti-inflammatory diet' he said that unless you have a food allergy to just EAT!! Surely he is not suggesting we weigh 800 lbs, eat sensibly. By the way, those gourmet cookies count as a vegetable!
I know some people think it helps, some people cannot eat certain foods, but I did this 'weeds and seeds' ordeal for nearly a year long before I could get a dx, got so stinking weak could barely navigate, my Chiropractor told me to EAT, go get fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy with some green veggies and EAT IT!!
Now I know a bunch of you are going to come after me after my tome about radiant food, and rightly so. I eat as radiantly as my level of energy and motion of gathering it and preparing it will go, but I have not forgotten it, I still do swear by it. There is not alot of processed food in my life.
If you eat radiantly every bite, a genuine good for you, but gotta do what you can when you can.
If I felt well enough to go through a small fraction of the ordeal that some of this entails, let me tell you, I'd be back on the sales floor making money, going to the beach, going on vacation with my husband and running the grandkids ragged, instead of the other way around!
I'm not sure, Jo, if that's what MBP meant or not. But it sure does hurt! I wonder if non-fibro people get it too? It's the first time it's ever happened to me. I was driving at the time, too, and thought I'd crash, the pain was so bad.
BTW, that stick toffee pudding sounds sooooooo good. I hope MBP can eat lots of yummy, soft stuff.
Hey, at least your doctor told you to eat and you did so before your newest "shakes only" lifestyle set in. It would have been an awful bummer to have had the shakes only phase set in right after the weeds and seeds diet. That would be enough to make anyone wicked mad!
I have progressed past the shakes only diet, though food has not been the same to me since starting the clinical trials. Just lost a lot of it's appeal, but again, back to the ordeals...
Eh? What clinical trials? I wasn't aware that you were involved in research studies. What studies are you participating in? It must be nice to be helping researchers figure out some of these illnesses.
Everything is clinical trials once you get an autoimmune dx. Insurance usually dictatates where you start, always with chemical meds, in my case Sulfasalazine, then Methotrexate, now on to Enbrel, the very first biologic on the market, and most pure.
But, this may not always work or work well enough, so then on to the next. It is not really clinical research, but surely still a trail and error thing they label as clinical trials. According to my GP, you are lucky to come out ahead in the end.
He wants me to stay on this another 6 months, though he will see me in 3, he said if the Enbrel is not slowing it down enough or if I still feel the 'drag' before my next shot, then there is another biologic he wants me to try that I can use twice a week.
Kind of sounds like you and others with autoimmune diseases are guinea pigs then. And what is the benefit of lableling the meds as clinical trials? Lack of liability on the drug mfcrs part?
It seems pointless to start at MTX as so few people seem to get benefit from them. At any rate, if the Enbrel isn't working, I hope the next biologic does. And btw, I just read there is a new drug for rheumatoid arthritis. Don't know if it's also for PsA or not but I'll see if I can find the link and post it on the PsA site if I find it.
This is not a one time thing- i think i have been building up to this. I’m thinking you’re right about the muscle spasms thing. The doc I went to was at a walkin clinic and she wanted to schedule some tests but I told her I would deal with it when I got home. I really didn’t want to get involved in any discussions with her since I won’t see her again and I just didn’t have the energy. I just wanted something to ease the problem til I could get home. I did call my PCP and he is going to start scheduling the tests. Just one more thing to deal with. The meds helped some but now I am tired, it’s been a long day, and it is hurting like hell again. The whiny part of me wants just to go to sleep and wake up in my own bed!
I don’t know what causes the spasms- the doc didn’t go into it. She recommended some tests and I already talked to my PCP so they are getting the ball rolling on that. That pie looks good, and soft so I could eat it. Problem is there are so many goodies here (especially the ones I made) and I want to try it all. The pain stops me before I eat too much, which is a good thing. LOL
Thanks Jo! The meds she gave me helped some but it is now 4 am and I have a couple of hours before I can take it again. I would take it now but it is a once a day med and I don’t want it to wear off too early. Gonna see everybody today. Big party day. Whoo-hoo! How are things in merry old England? Is that what they say? Wow, I just blanked out there. Fibro fog and fatigue catching up to me. I just wish I could actually sleep. Have a great day.