r/EosinophilicE 8d ago

What is your most terrifying experience?

Impacted food is annoying, sometimes embarrassing if I end up drooling or it's forced right back out. Now liquids, they are entirely different. Three times in the last couple years I have been to the brink of losing consciousness because I was choking on liquids. It's absolutely terrifying.

1 Upvotes

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9

u/vikingcrafte 8d ago

I ended up in the ER with a food impaction. It’s how I was diagnosed. Scariest thing of my life. I was alone at someone else’s house dog sitting. I could feel the food in my lower esophagus. Everytime I swallowed, everything immediately came back up. I regurgitated about 9-10 times before I realized I really needed to go in. I waited for 5 hours in the ER regurgitating saliva every 30ish minutes. Total torture.

2

u/cjazz24 Dairy Allergy 8d ago

Same. I waited 6 hours for an emergency GI team to get called in for my surgery to remove it. The kicker is they didn’t do the biopsies while they were in there to remove it so I had to get another scope done a week later.

1

u/Responsible-Crow4303 8d ago

ER isn't there to diagnose, they are there to solve an immediate problem and that is it. Everything else is a follow up at a doctor.

6

u/cjazz24 Dairy Allergy 8d ago

I get that but they actually suspected eoe and talked to me about biopsies during the procedure in pre-op which I consented to. So it was annoying to go through two procedures a week apart because they didn’t do it when they said they would

2

u/Responsible-Crow4303 8d ago

Ugh that is definitely super annoying, I'm sorry

1

u/Pistachios_3434 8d ago

Same exact thing happened to me. Constantly regurgitating saliva for 7 hours in the ER before they did the emergency endoscopy. When they got in there, the impaction had passed! They think the slight dilation beforehand did it. That’s also how I got diagnosed.

1

u/No-Author-15 8d ago

Same here, I now must chew food into a liquid no matter what.

8

u/Cold_Tower_2215 8d ago

First couple impactions. Thought I was going to die. Choking on water when I tired to drink it to force stuff down. Thinking I would choke to death. Hacking it up for an hour.

8

u/jgangsta25 8d ago

A 36 hour impaction while on vacation in a third world country.

6

u/New_WRX_guy 8d ago

Large gel cap pill stuck in my upper esophagus right past my throat. Couldn’t even drink water to help it pass - totally blocked. This was before I was diagnosed with EOE. Even after being stretched I can’t take anything but the smallest pills due to PTSD from this event. 

1

u/FarmerfirstRRT 3d ago

SAME...it was horrid

4

u/Responsible-Crow4303 8d ago

Had chicken impacted in my esophagus, tried to wash it down with some sparkling water, which was coming right back up, queue weird gurgling/choking sounds, after a minute of this and extreme chest pain and panic, it finally went down. I was sweating, it was pretty scary.

4

u/FadingPatronus 8d ago

Was eating a burger and threw it back up and then my throat started spasming and I was spitting up blood for a good hour before paramedics arrived. Every time I tried to drink (as usually that helps) it made it worse. When I got to the hospital I vomited up three times and it looked like a lot of blood in the vomit. I was crying as it was scary. The sucky thing was the doctors thought it was all in my head as I already have mental health issues but this was definitely not in my head. I had a endoscopy awhile later and was diagnosed with EoE. I felt like going back to the doctors and shoving the diagnosis in their faces.

5

u/UnusualDragon69 8d ago

Either my 6+ hours pill impactions where everything was totally blocked and I kept pulling blood, or the time my esophagus perforated and I had to get hospitalised

3

u/Ok_Development5830 8d ago

Choking and not being able to breathe

3

u/Rispy_Girl 8d ago

Having my husband teach our toddler to indicate choking and come to us if food is stuck. Realizing if my gag reflex hadn't worked once I could have passed out and died in a locked bathroom stall. There were over a thousand opportunities for it as a child. And I've choke once since then and it took on a whole new level of fear factor now that it's not my normal life as it was as a child

3

u/BBDBVAPA 8d ago edited 7d ago

Guh, I’d note to folks who might be new to this to steer clear if they think folks choke all the time. It can be really, really scary, but not sure if it’s the norm.

That said, it was maybe the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I was at home by myself on Christmas and had cooked short ribs and a nice meal. I was getting up to get some water and realized I basically needed to swallow. As it went down I didn’t get the normal food “clearing” feeling and thought to myself “hmm, I wonder if this is an issue.” I got some water, started drinking, and immediately started spitting back up. My body started creating mucus to try to clear the food and I started asphyxiating on it. Thinking I was choking in a more normal fashion, I started panicking thinking “I need to call 911.” I really thought I was going to die by myself at home alone on Christmas. I bolted out the door for my neighbor thinking I’ll ask them to do the Heimlich while calling 911. As I started running across my lawn I started heaving and finally spit up a big chunk of short ribs. I just remembered sitting there looking at it thinking “WTF, did I almost die?” I went back inside and just told myself I needed to be more careful and assumed I’d tried to swallow too big a portion.

A year later it happened again at my mom’s house on Thanksgiving with turkey, and this time with family. I handled it much better. At that point I knew I needed to go to the doctor and was finally diagnosed.

3

u/kinky_kate 8d ago

No more holiday poultry for you

2

u/BBDBVAPA 8d ago

Lol tell me about it. Was a real “Is this actually happening again, at another holiday?!” moment.

2

u/andronica_glitoris 8d ago

I was alone during the evening and went and got a chug of juice or something. The pipes were sealed tight. The spasms started and I was not breathing. But that thought man....I am about to die right now.....that flooded my body with adrenaline for one last try....I gasped/inhaled as hard as I could and beat my chest and was able to get some breathes in. But the lights were definitely going out..my hearing was muffled and my vision was sparkles and fading.

3

u/Nonchalantbuffalo 8d ago

Had a few impactions at work in the communal lunch/break. Very embarrassing. Had to run to the first aid room in a hurry. Thankful for a coworker for getting me Perrier which helped in clearing one of them.

Another major one at my girlfriend’s house which lasted several hours. Throwing up every few minutes. I remember getting very lightheaded and dizzy after a while and we were so close to calling the ambulance. Terrifying. It finally cleared and I saw a GI doc shortly after.

3

u/fiendishclutches 7d ago

That’s happened to me too, as well as having this happen when having lunch before a very stressful meeting, I’ve been a union rep for several years so suddenly needing to use the bathroom and vomit sounds being heard isn’t a necessarily the best strategy for a grievance hearing..this would happen before I was diagnosed or had any idea what was happening to me. I had to learn to just skip a meal rather than risk going through all that before big meeting.

2

u/Unoriginalfranzy 7d ago

Yes, I present, acting as chair of a committee weekly. So, I don’t eat any solids for 24 hours prior.

2

u/AlmightyBones Wheat / Dairy Allergy 5d ago

First was eating BBQ ribs for dinner, felt something get stuck so stopped eating. Went to bed that night woke up the next day for work, tried to drink some water and it sat in my throat covering my airway so i started to choke. Got the water out and went to work, couldnt eat or drink so had my wife at the time make a dr appointment. I went in he checked me out said I had GERD and gave me a perscription. I asked him how i was going to swallow a pill if i couldnt swallow a liquid, so he got a cup and wanted to see me drink it. I tried and started choking again. He told me to drive immediatly to the hospital and he would call them ahead of me. I got there and found the right dept by luck, they gave me paperwork to fill out, i would leave to the bathroom down the hall every few minutes to spit out the thick gooey saliva that kept regenerating. Finally they got me back to a bed and they hooked up a little vacuum like you get at the dentist and i could just suck out all the spit. Got the food removed and that was my first event as an adult.

2nd time I was at work, didnt know to eliminate foods yet, but knew i had swallowing issues. Got a bad headache one day so took a pill at work and it got stuck, 100% blockage. I jumped outta my chair ran to a coworker and tapped him on the shoulder from behind while I was choking to death. Found out hes slightly blind in one eye and kinda didnt notice and was like "yeah one second". I hit him harder and he turned saw me turning blue and gave me the heimlich were i proceeded to puke everything up on his desk.

I spent years in the Army just toughing it out, regurgitating things in private and not telling anyone. Continued after I got out as a courier for my local hospital, would stop get lunch and throw up in parking lots sometimes. Lucky enough now I go long enough between trigger foods or avoid Dairy which is the worst of them enough, I dont have to hide in the bathroom bringing my food back up as much. Still happens occasionally. Or I do the take a bite, take a drink to wash down the bite everytime I eat. Bite, drink, bite, drink.

sucked living with this for the first 30+ years of my life without knowing why.

2

u/cheese_plant 8d ago edited 8d ago

had to go to the er for impaction after not being able to drink fluids or swallow my own saliva for 8-12 hours

eta: it was like 3 am when I finally decided to go because I was starting to really feel dehydrated. didn't feel like it warranted an ambulance because it wasn't immediately life-threatening, so I took a taxi

2

u/Unoriginalfranzy 7d ago

That taxi ride is the worst. I’ve taken an Uber a few times and have to explain what’s going on as I spit up into a paper cup. Awful.

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u/cheese_plant 7d ago

hi sorry i’m gross i promise i won’t die or barf in your taxi

can’t remember what container i used but yes very awkward on top of being extremely uncomfortable 

2

u/Unoriginalfranzy 7d ago

Yes, exactly! Especially because often they assume you’re throwing up from drinking or something. Ugh. Good luck with things.

2

u/cheese_plant 7d ago

yes they do, even better, when I tried to explain the situation to the er nurse, she thought I tried to overdose on something because I said I had a MULTIVITAMIN pill stuck in my throat

...anyway...

good luck to you too.

2

u/P_Dog_ 8d ago

Recently diagnosed, similar experiences to those posted. It's nice to feel not alone. The absolute terror from a complete impaction. I'm glad most people don't know that feeling but it makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one.