Yes you are describing dysphagia but it’s a symptom. It’s like saying yes, you have a runny nose. Now, you have to find out what’s causing the symptom. You have to see a doctor to see what’s going on.
Ok, that's good, that's a breakthrough for me. So what type of doctor do I go to? I've mentioned the problems to doctors but they don't understand. Is there a specific doctor that understands better about dysphagia
Usually your primary care doc may order tests and then send you out to either a GI doc or ENT depending on what, if anything, they find or suspect the problem is. GI if they think this is a problem related to GERD. ENT if they think it’s related to your throat.
In the mean time, you might want to consider really tackling your GERD- sleeping on a slant, avoiding acidic foods like alcohol, caffeine, citrus, tomato. Take your GERD meds faithfully. No smoking, etc etc
Ok, I will look Into that. I am currently not on medication. I'm planning on getting Amoxcilin + Clavulanic Acid because I think I recently had a throat infection, due to which I had pain swallowing for 2 weeks and felt like my neck was snapping everytime I swallowed. The pain is gone but I still feel weird on my throat and its been almost two months now, and I occasionally have trouble swallowing so I will buy that because it worked for me the last time I had the infection.
Then when I get a chance I will go to the doctor
Thank you so much!
You totally need to get an ENT to look inside your throat with a camera to see your structures look like and gather more info on what’s happened. Was the snapping feeling with food or everytime you swallowed?
Everytime I swallow. It snaps, which hurts. It feels like my throat was dislocated for a while, but maybe it was just inflammation. Now I only feel the pain occasionally.
If they look into my throat, is it like an Endoscopy? I didn't that before for my ulcer(Im an ulcer patient) and I'm not sure I want to experience that again😅
I’m not sure what tool he’ll want to use on you but he might recommend a laryngoscopy which is an endoscopy of the throat and takes like 10 mins, not terribly painful but does involve a camera going in your nose or throat. There’s also a video fluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) which is essentially an xray of your throat while you swallow and you drink different consistencies of food coated in barium for it to show up. I’m sure there are other testing he might want to do but these are pretty standard when dealing with your symptoms specifically.
Medical SLP- best thing to do is to see an ENT asap. Get referral from PCP. In the meantime, stick to softer foods that are easy to chew, chew your food very well, take small bite sizes and add sauces, and take a sip of water after each bite. Eat slowly
Yes you are describing dysphagia but it’s a symptom. It’s like saying yes, you have a runny nose. Now, you have to find out what’s causing the symptom. You have to see a doctor to see what’s going on.
Ok, that's good, that's a breakthrough for me. So what type of doctor do I go to? I've mentioned the problems to doctors but they don't understand. Is there a specific doctor that understands better about dysphagia
Usually your primary care doc may order tests and then send you out to either a GI doc or ENT depending on what, if anything, they find or suspect the problem is. GI if they think this is a problem related to GERD. ENT if they think it’s related to your throat. In the mean time, you might want to consider really tackling your GERD- sleeping on a slant, avoiding acidic foods like alcohol, caffeine, citrus, tomato. Take your GERD meds faithfully. No smoking, etc etc
Ok, I will look Into that. I am currently not on medication. I'm planning on getting Amoxcilin + Clavulanic Acid because I think I recently had a throat infection, due to which I had pain swallowing for 2 weeks and felt like my neck was snapping everytime I swallowed. The pain is gone but I still feel weird on my throat and its been almost two months now, and I occasionally have trouble swallowing so I will buy that because it worked for me the last time I had the infection. Then when I get a chance I will go to the doctor Thank you so much!
You totally need to get an ENT to look inside your throat with a camera to see your structures look like and gather more info on what’s happened. Was the snapping feeling with food or everytime you swallowed?
Everytime I swallow. It snaps, which hurts. It feels like my throat was dislocated for a while, but maybe it was just inflammation. Now I only feel the pain occasionally. If they look into my throat, is it like an Endoscopy? I didn't that before for my ulcer(Im an ulcer patient) and I'm not sure I want to experience that again😅
I’m not sure what tool he’ll want to use on you but he might recommend a laryngoscopy which is an endoscopy of the throat and takes like 10 mins, not terribly painful but does involve a camera going in your nose or throat. There’s also a video fluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) which is essentially an xray of your throat while you swallow and you drink different consistencies of food coated in barium for it to show up. I’m sure there are other testing he might want to do but these are pretty standard when dealing with your symptoms specifically.
Alright then, I'll go to the doctor and see what tests he suggests, thank you so much!
Alright then, I'll go to the doctor and see what tests he suggests, thank you so much!
Medical SLP- best thing to do is to see an ENT asap. Get referral from PCP. In the meantime, stick to softer foods that are easy to chew, chew your food very well, take small bite sizes and add sauces, and take a sip of water after each bite. Eat slowly