After the post three weeks ago about my emergency room visit I got a response from one my friends. The friend will remain nameless as she told me someone in her family has the same problem. At first she told me this through myspace, but she sent me a more detailed email today. I’ll copy it below.

–unfortunetely this might not be what I have as they looked for a “pocket” during the x-ray process. Although – since the food had technically passed by then – maybe it just didn’t show up…

“asked my dad about his swallowing difficulty. He told me that he had never been to the doctor for it since his brother went and got diagnosed with a hiatal hernia. The way dad explained it to me is that there is a little pocket in his esophagus that food gets caught in. Basically, there isn’t a whole lot they can do for it. Surgery is an option in extreme cases, but for the most part, it is tolerable for most people. My uncle actually had it happen at work one day and was in tons of pain from it. This lasted for almost an hour. I guess they ended up calling a squad because everyone he worked with was freaked out. My uncle was humiliated when, just as the medics walked in…the food went down and he was fine! My dad says that the only prevention is to know what foods get stuck easier than others. He said that chicken is the worst for some reason, but if he drinks water before each bite and continues to drink water, it can prevent it sometimes. Rice and carrots are bad too. Anything that is kinda jagged can get caught. When it does happen, he said that the best thing to do is to keep your esophagus as straight as possible and bounce on your heels. It sounds silly, but he says it works. Just tilt your head back, chin up, standing up as straight as possible and bounce…(think a bouncing sword swallower). He said that he used to try to puke, but being bent over like that almost totally prevents it from dislodging because your esophagus isn’t straight. I looked up some info on this for you.
Here is the web site : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001137.htm
Then, there is another spot on it that talks specifically about difficulty swallowing:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003115.htm
Hopefully this is helpful to you. Of course, this may not be what is going on with you, but maybe it’ll at least point you in the right direction. I didn’t read all of the info on this site, but I skimmed it a little, and it seemed to be what dad was talking about. When I actually talked to dad about this a little more, he was telling me how painful it can be at times. I’m sorry that you have to go through that 🙁 Maybe if you learn what foods trigger it, you can prevent it all together. I guess my great-grandma had the same thing as my dad and uncle too…I hope I don’t get it. Oh, just thought I’d mention too, that I think I read at one point that obesity, smoking, etc, makes these things worse. You aren’t alone though, my dad, uncle, and great-grandma have never been fat, and never smoked either as far as I know.”