Worried about Esophageal, Pancreas, or Stomach Problems

Hi everyone, just checking in to see if anyone else has had these symptoms before. A couple Sunday's ago I woke up with pretty bad heartburn. It stayed with me for about a week on and off. It pretty much went away when I took some TUMS and then would come back again the next day. Then the heartburn finally went away and then I had trouble swallowing. It felt like food was sticking in my chest and back of throat. It would go down but it took quite a few hard swallows or had to wash it down with water. Sometimes that didn't even work. At one point last week it felt like I had a baseball stuck in the back of the throat. That feeling lasted a few days and then went away and then I had the annoying feeling of an apple peel stuck in the back of the throat and that was on and off for a few days. It seems like when I eat anything dry and small like crackers or dried apples for example it seems to get stuck. It's that last bite of food that seems to get stuck and my swallow almost feels weak. Now I notice it more and I am constantly swallowing and getting a little pressure in my chest. It's rather annoying. I went to the docs on Wednesday and was prescribed Omeprazole because she thinks it might be GERD/acid reflux. I'm on day 5 taking it with no real huge improvement. Really starting to worry that it is something more sinister. Even when I swallow my own saliva it feels different and it feels like I'm taking an exaggerated swallow because of it.

Chris

Hi Chris

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this

I’m currently experiencing the same symptoms

I’m trying to be rational but my anxiety is sky high

I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone

Big hugs 🤗

Hi both, I just wanted to reassure both of you that I went through an awful anxiety ordeal a few months ago with the exactly same symptoms. I kept feeling like food was getting stuck, was more difficult to swallow, a crampy feeling in the esophagus, the feeling of hairballs in my throat. Eventually I has an endoscopy and they found nothing apart from a small hiatus hernia, which can cause reflux. I've been on lansoprezole now for months and it seems to work most of the time. It took a good few months to start working! So lease rest assured that reflux can give you really severe and horrible symptoms and that the medication can take a while to kick in. 😊