I went to the doctor the other day because I've been having a recurring problem with my upper digestive tract - in other words, stuff has been getting stuck in my throat. I mentioned this briefly in another post. However, this is not a new problem, but something that I have been enduring for the past five years or so.
Basically, what happens is:
1. I eat something that triggers the effect (such as bread, rice, and the famous canned tuna).
2. After i chew and swallow the first bite, I get a strange sensation in my throat just around and below my neck, as if something has got stuck in that position, aka. the gag reflex.
3. If it's just a little bit of food, I can usually have a drink of water to wash whatever is stuck there, and I can continue the rest of my meal with no problems. However, if I have been silly enough to eat too much after the first swallow, it can get stuck too far down for me to bring up immediately.
This is what happened the last time with the tuna-throwing-up incident. But last Mother's Day, I had a piece of beef pie that got stuck too far down for me to bring up on my own.
I spent the better part of the evening leaning over a bucket, trying to regurgitate this chunk of food I hadn't swallowed properly. I tried drinking water, but that was useless - it didn't knock the food loose, and I just threw the water back up again after a minute. And I wasn't game to try swallowing something else to push it down. I kept thinking of Homer Simpson stuck in the waterslide.
It took me four hours of putting up with this to start looking up stuff online about this, and one of the first things I found said
If something is suspected to be lodged in the throat,
seek medical advice urgently.
seek medical advice urgently.
AAAAAAHHH!!!
I raced in to the emergency department, explained the problem, and was told to drink a bottle of Coke, of all things. I bought one, and hesitantly took a gulp (fully expecting this to end in an explosive disaster) - and what do you know, the damn stuff WORKED.
I still had to wait another four hours to see the doctor, though, just to make sure there wasn't anything else wrong with me... and I fell asleep in the waiting room a few times. I'd done an early shift that day, and... etc.
I'd left a note for the folks at home to explain where I'd gone and why - and when I got back, everyone was FREAKING OUT and saying "are you all right? did you die?"
On Tuesday, I finally got to see my regular GP regarding this problem. It's important to get some resolution on this, as it could get worse, and I don't fancy choking to death on something down the track. I have to make an appointment with a gastroenterologist. Hopefully then, we'll be able to see if anything is wrong with my upperguts, and work from there.
Also: I have also started playing Super Paper Mario for Wii, after having finished Super Mario Galaxy as Mario I haven't finished Luigi's game yet.
