Food stuck in throat

[edlowe67]

On sunday after I ate dinner I could feel food caught in my throat after I was done. In a short time I was able to swallow it and thought I was ok. On Monday after supper I had the same feeling this time lasting 2 hours, ending when I coughed up a bit of food so  this morning I made an internal medicine apointment for Friday . Later I ate breakfast and could feel the food stuck in my throat. I drank plenty of water trying to wash it down and tried to cough it up. After 6 hours I thought it was reasonable to go to the ER. I am not the sort of person who visits the ER for evey little thing. When the ER doctor came in he told me I had a problem but it was not serious enough to treat in the ER because I could swallow and was not haveing breathing difficulties. He did not examine me only looking in my mouth and saying he did not see any thing in there . He ordered no lab work. Then his first suggestion on the cause of the problem was I could have cancer. He scheduled an endoscopy in two weeks and ended our visit by telling me the food would come up or go down on its own and not to come back unless I had breathing difficulties or could not swallow at all. I have now had food stuck in my throat for over 14 hours and feel miserable. I was able to eat a bit at supper but now feel that even more food is stuck in my throat. I cant see my Doctor till Friday and I have been told not to return to the ER, what should I do?

[boron]

Well, if you can't get rid of that food particle, you sure will go to ER, so they can remove it.

[edlowe67]

Well I got a few hours of sleep and the food has gone down .I am kind of afraid to eat anything. But for now I only need to deal with the fear of cancer. I keep trying to tell myself that other things can cause this.  Both my father and grandfather had hiatal hernias, they were older than I am when it started but I suppose the posibility is there for that. This food sticking is a new problem that started Sunday but something was going on with me over the weekend starting Friday, I had a sore throat cough , vomiting and diahrea. I wanted to see a doc but since the doctors offices were all closed I just toughed it out till monday morning . I felt better by then despite haveing my first incident of food getting stuck on Sunday night because it only lasted a few minutes and I thought it was all over. It was not untill  the problem repeated on Monday and lasted much longer that I knew I had a real problem with this.

[boron]

Hiatal hernia causes acid reflux and acid may cause inflammation of the throat. If you were vomiting, acid again may caused some inflammation in your throat. Hard swallowing is typical in these occasions.

Throat cancer goes with huskiness and in smokers.

[edlowe67]

I am just going to try not to worry too much and keep my appointment at internal med and see what they say. This ER doctor was young and not exactly filled with compassion. Of course I will get the endoscopy also.

[edlowe67]

Today I feel much better, I can eat soft foods and they go down well and I no longer have a consticted feeling in my throat. I am hopefulll this means the problem I have is not cancer. My Dr. has prescribed some alprazolam for my anxiety in this regard. Today I can swallow those easily and I could not yesterday. Mabey its just the med but I really feel better and also thanks to boron for his responces.

[lvfrogs]

The ER doctor had no right to tell you that it might be cancer. He didn't even do anything to make any kind of prognosis call.  I think the endoscopy is a good idea.  I had somewhat the same trouble 2 years ago, lots of indigestion, some swallowing trouble and they found a hiatel hernia from the endoscopy. At least it will bring you piece of mind.  

[edlowe67]

I do feel that it was irresponsible for the ER doctor to be mentioning cancer when he had clearly decided he was not going to do anything for me before he even came into the room. Cancer is only one of many possible causes, it is the most serious and he may have felt he was being honest but I feel he treated me in a very callous way and was  unnecessarilly alarming.  I went to the ER at noon, and was very uncomfortable for many hours after. He not only told me not to come back if I could still swallow water or had no breathing difficulty he did so in a threatening way, describeing several unpleasant sounding treatments he would have to perform on me if I came back and how much better off I would be if I didn't.

[lvfrogs]

You probably should have reported him to the hospital. There is no reason for his behavior and I imagine they would be appalled.  We have to stand up for ourselves in our medical care. Let me know what happens once you get the endoscopy. Good Luck!

[Twilight_Princess]

That was horrible he told you it might be cancer! It was also very unprofessional of him, especially since he did no kind of tests! I went to a young doctor 2 years ago with diarrhea problems. He did some blood work and when I came back for my follow-up appt. he told me my results showed this and that was elevated. He then told me all of my  symptoms and blood work point to Pancreatic cancer! You can't imagine how I felt! I drove home and all I kept thinking was "I'll never be able to beat this", well I did my own research and NONE of my symptoms pointed to pancreatic cancer. Anyway, I seen him again 2 weeks later and I brought up what he told me the last time - the jerk looked at me and said "What do I have to do to convince you that you don't have cancer?" Can you believe this?! I never went back to him again! He was also one that told me I was too young for a colonoscopy. Sorry for the long story, but that ER doctor reminded me of the same jerk I went to.

I hope everything turns out to be fine for you. Maybe it is just a hiatel hernia and last week you were coming down with something that caused the sore throat. Let us know what you find out after the endo. Best of luck.

[edlowe67]

Hi, Yesterday I went to internal medicine & I saw a nurse practioner , because I was haveing so much of a problem swallowing she got me an appointment right away with the doctor that will be performing my endoscopy. He took my problem seriously ,actually examed me and in less than 5 minutes diagnosed me with a viral infection and acid reflux. He prescribed prilosec and by the time I took two of them I could swallow normally! He also moved my endoscopy up to monday so I wont have to wait so long. He did not entirely rule out cancer but told me it was very unlikely. When I compare my experiance with a competent doctor to the abuse I recieved in the ER, I have decided to file a complaint with the hospital next week. Not only because of the casual way he threw out the word cancer but if he is unable to diagnose acid reflux in my opinion he should not be practiceing medicine. Because of the way that ER doctor treated me I spent most of the week miserable, that was unnessasary, he spent more time telling me I did not belong in the ER than it would have taken to write a prescription that would have relieved my symptoms. Also big thanks to all who have posted your kind replies!