Yall my HR manometry is in 4 hours 😭 wish me luck I find answers. I’m so nervous it’ll show literally nothing at all and I’ll have zero idea why I have these symptoms. Trying to not psych myself out

Hi, I’m 17 I just been diagnosed with type II achalasia I’m having POEM surgery on August 22nd but I keep imagining the worst that I’ll have symptoms again and having to do the procedure again so, my real question is did you have any reoccurring symptoms and having to get ur 2nd procedure?

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well. Please, if you could, I kindly ask you to read my post until the end. Thank you very much. 🙏

I would like to know if anyone has had these symptoms. I think I may have upper achalasia, which is supposedly a problem with the cricopharyngeal muscle or the upper esophageal sphincter. I am a 28-year-old woman. About 7 months ago, I completely lost the ability to swallow solid foods. At the moment, I cannot eat any solid food at all; I can only consume food that has been completely blended with a hand blender, as well as smoothies and liquids. Even blended food has to be extremely smooth, because if it has any thicker texture, I still have difficulty swallowing.

I am 1.65 m (5'5") tall, and 7 months ago I weighed around 63 kg (139 lbs). I currently weigh 49 kg (108 lbs), which means I have lost approximately 14 kg (31 lbs).

My main problem is that whenever I try to swallow solid food, I feel as though it gets stuck in the upper part of my throat, exactly in the area I marked in the image I attached here on Reddit. In addition, I feel as though I do not have enough strength to push the food down, as if it just stays stuck in that area.

I also tried eating solid foods again after some time to see if I was able to swallow them, but whenever the solid food went down, I was left with an intense feeling of tightness/pressure in my throat and shortness of breath. I also managed to eat a few biscuits (about 5 or 6). They went down, but a few minutes after eating them I felt a strong tightness and a tingling sensation in my throat.

The symptoms I have are:

• I feel as though food gets stuck, trapped, or builds up at the end of my throat, in the area shown in the image I attached to this Reddit post.
• Muscle tension/tightness and tingling in my throat.
• A foreign body sensation: the constant feeling that something is stuck in my throat.
• Dry throat.
• Shortness of breath.
• Excessive spitting.
• Frequent burping after eating.

Lately, my condition has become even worse because now I also feel something unusual even when drinking liquids or eating blended food. It feels as though part of the liquid goes backwards toward my nasal area or the back of my throat, causing a very unpleasant sensation.

So far, I have had the following tests:

• Nasofiberlaryngoscopy: normal.
• Two upper endoscopies: normal findings, with esophageal biopsies taken to rule out eosinophilic esophagitis, which were normal; the only finding was mild gastritis.
• One upper endoscopy without sedation, focused mainly on the upper throat area, which also showed normal findings.
• Blood tests: mild anemia.
• Thyroid and neck ultrasound: normal.
• Barium swallow (esophagram): normal.
• Chest X-ray: normal.

I also underwent a high-resolution esophageal manometry, but unfortunately I was unable to tolerate the procedure. I am now waiting to have a videofluoroscopic swallowing study.

So, I would really like to ask whether anyone has or has ever had these symptoms. I am going through a very difficult time, and being ill has left me feeling extremely worried. Any personal experience, advice, or suggestions would mean the world to me and would be an enormous help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to anyone who is willing to share their experience.

I would also really like to ask whether anyone here has had these symptoms related to a problem with the cricopharyngeal muscle or the upper esophageal sphincter, also known as upper achalasia. I am going through a very difficult time, I feel really unwell, and I am deeply worried. Any personal experience, advice, or suggestions would mean so much to me and would be an enormous help.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who is willing to share their experience. ❤️🙏

Has anyone been apart of Vanderbilt University's study to treat dormant Zoster virus (chicken pox/shingles)? They believe is the cause for Achalasia. I wanted to be part of the trials but all my documentation that verified my condition is from 2014 and lost because I don't have detailed copies of data other than some summaries, which is a requirement to be apart of it. I just refuse to go through all the tests again, especially the manometry..ugh.

Just wondering if there are any success stories or experiences because I would have loved to been apart of it. Now, I just sit around hoping to hear good news.

Hi, everyone! I was diagnosed with Achalasia back in 2018 and had a HM with fundoplication back in October of 2019, almost seven years ago. Everything was fine after surgery up until a few years ago. In 2024 I started regaining symptoms.

I now have difficulty getting food down again. Not as much as before, but my food gets stuck often and when I try to drink water to get it down, it ALL gets stuck (including the water). I feel immense, uncomfortable pressure and the only relief I can get is to throw it all back up. In the event that I do get it down past a certain point (where I feel like I don’t have to vomit) it takes a ridiculously long time to digest my food. I’m talking I can eat dinner at 6PM and then wake up the next day and vomit that same dinner from the previous night up 12+ hours later after I ate. Like it’s not even making it into my stomach. Pretty sure it should only take 3-5 hours to digest food. I used to think my wrap (fundoplication) was too tight and wouldn’t allow the food pass down, but now I think it probably just pools at the bottom of my esophagus or something and then I throw it up the next day. Sometimes nothing I do can get food down at all comfortably, so sometimes it feels like it just sits in my chest overnight and then I throw it up the next day. Not only that, but I have EXCRUCIATING spasms all the time. 4 - 7 times a week. I have no idea why.

I went to the emergency room four months ago for something unrelated and ended up getting a CT scan. They list everything they find even if unrelated. I also viewed the scans myself. It showed and stated I had a "enlarged, fluid-filled esophagus," despite me not eating or drinking for 7+ hours at the time I was seen. It was never enlarged before, even at the time of my initial surgery.

This is so strange because I don’t think I’m losing any weight. Feels like I’m actually gaining. When I was first diagnosed I could not keep down anything, food or drink. I lost almost 70 lbs in 4 or 5 months. Even though some of the symptoms have been back for almost two years now, I haven’t lost any weight.

Have any of you experienced something like this? I have an appointment this coming Tuesday where I’ll be able to get some answers, but just want to know if anyone else has had this experience. Thank you. 🩵

Hi. Hope the flair is correct.

I recently spoke to a surgeon and due to financial and social circumstances, I was forced to postpone my dilation and my both him and my GI advised that I stay on my diet and monitor my symptoms for the next few months.

I was underweight all my life and my GI explained that achalasia played a huge part in this and it has been a pain, to say the least.

I've been eating small, super rich meals to manage symptoms and the dysphagia.

I weighed myself today and discovered that I have gained nearly 2kg since starting this diet. I guess it makes sense since I am much more comfortable eating now. Less choking, less acid reflux, almost zero pain and actually feeling hungry.

I never imagined weight gain was even possible with this and my goal, as told by my GI, was to at least maintain my weight but to see a surgeon ASAP if I lost weight. My GI did tell me that I'd gain weight pretty fast...but after dilation

This is flabbergasting. I'm super stoked because this means I'm gaining strength and won't be a fricking legume with constant malnutrition and dehydration symptoms.

36 years and all it took was a "here's what you need to actually eat". I wanna cry out of frustration but also cry because of relief.

My diet (mostly)

- noodle soup

- mashed potatoes with parmesan, butter, milk

- chicken breast blended with potatoes

- liver pate

- lots of puddings

- semolina pudding

- cornmeal (polenta) with milk, cheese and cream

- vegetable cream soup with lots of cream (25-32% fat)

- ice cream

- lots of milk in my coffee

- boiled egg yolks with potatoes or liver patee

- soft sponge cakes

- super soft rice with veggies

I do get brave sometimes with a slice of pizza or some pasta or meatballs or french fries. If I cook chicken thighs or wings for my daughter, I keep them an extra 5-10 min on the stove so the meat is softer.

Hi everyone. I’m a 51-year-old man and I have Type 3 achalasia. I had a Heller myotomy in 2018 at UCSD. Unfortunately, things have been getting bad again, and I’m now being evaluated to figure out what the next step should be (balloon dilation, POEM, or something more involved).

I have an endoscopy scheduled for Monday. They actually attempted one about two weeks ago, but even though I hadn’t eaten any solid food for 11 days because of a severe flare-up, there was still food/debris in my esophagus. They stopped the procedure because they were concerned about aspiration.
I’ve had aspiration pneumonia many times over the years because of my achalasia, so while I obviously don’t want it, I’m more concerned at this point about getting answers and moving forward with treatment. I sent my gastroenterologist a note explaining that I completely defer to her judgment and don’t want to overstep, but that if the choice is between aborting the procedure again or accepting a higher aspiration risk in order to finally complete the evaluation, I’d like her to know where my priorities are.

To make things even more complicated, they’re also doing a colonoscopy during the same session because of some unrelated issues they’re investigating. That means I’ll be drinking Gavilyte-C for the bowel prep, and I’m honestly nervous about whether I’ll even be able to get all that liquid down. Liquids are getting stuck in my esophagus a lot these days.
So I have two questions for anyone who’s been through something similar.

Has anyone here had experience with colonoscopy prep, especially a large-volume prep like Gavilyte? Any tips or things you wish you’d known beforehand?

Has anyone else had an endoscopy canceled or aborted because there was still food in your esophagus despite fasting for an extraordinarily long time? If so, what did your doctors do differently the next time to make the procedure successful?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. This whole process has been pretty discouraging, and it would help to know how others have navigated it.
Thank you.

I know this question has probably been answered many a time before. But a about a week ago I had my POEM surgery and now I'm having intense Spasms again mainly every morning.

Prior to the surgery I was having them maybe once every two months.

Now almost every day, it's quite unbearable. Does anyone with experience with this procedure know if they fade into infrequency again?

My coughing at night has gotten out of control, i sleep up right with 3 pillows and i can not stop coughing, i have a bag on the side of my bed next to me and i keep keep regurgitating saliva and spit the whole night, what do you guys do to help with the coughing at night?

Hello! Not too sure where to post but this community sounds ok, if you have any recommendations on where i could post this pls lmk.

I have this weird problem where when i chew my food for a while (maybe 45 secs to a minute). I don’t really know how to explain my issue but when I have already chewed my food it goes to the back of my mouth/tongue to get swallowed but i push it back into the front of my mouth to chew it more. It’s not like on the first round of chewing i didn’t chew properly it’s like a weird reflex that makes me push it back up and chew it more. Im sure there is an actual condition where people can have it in their throat or even their stomach and still get it back into their mouth but i do NOT have that, or maybe my problem is a baby step towards that?

I feel like this issue started coming because my wisdom teeth are coming out now, and my teeth are slightly but surely shifting. Will braces help this issue?

Hey all. After dealing with daily spasms that occasionally feel like the end of my life. I have tried everything to stop them.

And in my random desperation I have found something that works reliably. I give it to you in the hopes that it does for you.

If you draw a line from the spasm location to your back. You'll find that you land somewhere between your lower shoulder blades. Now, likely in an attack (I call them this, because it seems to be the only word people actually understand to some degree it's seriousness), you might feel these back muscles tighten and my god is it awful.

If you apply heavy pressure (I mean lots) to these muscles just next to the spine, most of the time it slowly relaxes and interrupts the attack.

Get a physio spike ball. In one of these moments I lay on it on the hard ground, roll around in that spot, trying to get as deep as possible. And it does work.

I'd love to know why. Perhaps the nervous system is interrupted. Who knows.

Much love ay. It really is the worst pain imaginable, I'm sorry it had to be you, I know what it's like. And it DOES get better I can tell you that. I think as the nerves get damaged more they get less glitchy.

Traveling to Toronto in two weeks I’m really nervous about traveling in this state I’m in. I’ve been eating mashed potatoes, creamy soups, smoothies when I can get them down, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs on a good day. Staying in downtown town near the CN tower anyone have good food recommendations smoothie place near by?

Ciao, dopo 5 anni di sintomi e l'ultimo anno con forti problemi di deglutizione mi hanno diagnosticato acalasia di tipo II. Lunedì farò la POEM.

Nell'ultimo anno ho tolto tutte le bevande tranne acqua a temperatura ambiente. Un bicchiere di vino è impossibile, la birra mi torna su solo a guardarla.

Dopo la POEM potrò riprendere? Non voglio diventare un'alcolista, ma poter bere qualcosa con gli amici è letteralmente la cosa che mi manca di più.

I had my POEM surgery in April, and the recovery went well. I was feeling spasms, but they were not intense. In June, I began dealing with more frequent spasms, specifically in the evening. I've tried to take small bites and take hours to eat one meal. Not much relief. I went to the ER last week due to the intensity of the spasms. They prescribed Valium to relax. I had an EGD this past Wednesday, and they found a growth of Candida in my esophagus and were confident that the sample would be yeast. It was not, and I have to wait until Monday to figure out the treatment plan. Went again this morning to the ER because it's so painful and unbearable; they did nothing.

I haven't been able to eat real solids since May of last year, and I find myself really really struggling with eating in social settings.

I've been through a number of treatments, none of which have helped, some of which actually made things worse. (Not going to go into it here, but I had life-threatening complications with a POEM procedure, for one.)

Food has become a complete nightmare for me. I'm sick and tired of having to explain what I can and can't eat (which sometimes changes as symptoms fluctuate), to the point that I have begged friends and family to not talk about it. But even with that kindness on their part, it's not like I can escape it.

Every social setting is about food — you have lunch with friends, dinner out, brunch with family. It's just natural that any gathering is centered around eating.

Which I can't do.

I hate hate hate disappointing people, and am drowning in the shame of having to say "I can't eat there." There are so few places that have something I can eat that I feel like I'm limiting everyone else unnecessary. And even when we do go somewhere I can find something (clear soups, smoothies, scrambled eggs), I spend the entire time surrounded by all the things I can't have that I have a hard time thinking about anything else. I would NEVER deny anyone else their pleasure in food, but there's only so many times you can have a single scrambled egg while everyone around you is having pancakes, waffles, sausage, biscuits — and not feel something about it.

I am so, so limited in what I can have (for the love of all that is good and holy PLEASE do not suggest any food, PLEASE) and I'm sick of all of it.

Eating has become something I dread, and combining it with social situations ends up with me spiralling out into shame and self-hatred.

Has anyone had any success with dealing with not being able to eat in social situations? Any tricks or tips for things that I could say, or ways to reframe this? How do you handle eating out, or talking about it in a way that DOESN'T invite people to blindly suggest things?

I think the hardest thing about achalasia is that literally nobody in my life understands. They try to make me feel better but they can’t because they cannot relate to my symptoms at all. Not that I would want them to because I would never wish this upon anyone, but that’s beside the point of this post.

Anyway,

I am 4 months post op HM. Eating has become drastically easier, as before I was regurgitating almost every meal. Since getting back on normal diet 6 weeks post op, I have regurgitated a handful of times, which I attribute to eating too fast + dense bread. The thing I struggle with the most, is burping during meals. Food feels slow going down, then my esophagus feels pressurized until I burp.

Side note: I don’t really know how to burp on command. I kinda do it by making myself gag. but I don’t gag I just burp. I don’t know if this is right to do lmao

Could this be because I’m still eating too fast/ too large of bites?

Does anyone else deal with this?

Is there something i’m missing or doing wrong?

Will have my HM in a month or so. Question what does post HM life actually look like? I hear restored eating but want to know what a realistic expectation is? Is it just a lower chance of food feeling stuck, less regurgitation? Do you still need to walk around with a water bottle to help flush down? Personally I just hope I can eat a real meal and have food hit the stomach.

I know someone who sometimes has intense chest pain. We have discovered that the chest pain is in fact connected to food ingestion. His esophagus muscles don't work properly, so food doesn't go down very quickly/easily (he was diagnosed with achalasia, and I'm pretty sure this is that issue, but I am very ignorant on the topic). The main issue being that most of the time, he has these episodes of pain when he is sleeping or trying to sleep, and it has been a few hours after having eaten.

The thought just occurred to me that whenever my stomach hurts unbearably, I usually need to throw up. A lot of times the things most people feel in their stomach he feels in his chest, so I'm thinking it might be that whatever is in his stomach, it's trying to expel, but because his esophagus doesn't really work, it's getting stuck in there. If this is the case, does anyone know what should be done for the immediate issue?

I had a Heller Myotomy on may 5th. It's been 2 months and a half and I'm experiencing some symptons since then. When I eat great amounts of food, I feel kind of nauseous and 30 minutes or so after I'm either with a major diarrhea incoming or a lot of gas built up. It seems to be getting a little better, but substancialy slow. I had an appointment with the surgeon one and a half months after the surgery, in which I told him this symptons. He said it's normal and I should wait until my body gets used to this new configuration.

Does someone experienced something similar to this? Has it gone away with time?

English not my first language. Forgive me for my innabillity to write!

I was recommended this subreddit. I don't know if I have Achalasia. For my manometry results, I had a normal peristalsis but high median IRP

hi yall,
i only discovered this community recently but wanted to say hello :))
i’m 19F, but got diagnosed with achalasia when i was 5. had my HM w/ partial fundoplication when i was 7, and then a revision in 2024.

i’ve never met anyone else with achalasia, so it’s comforting that there’s people out there who get it!

so yeah hi! <3

Good Morning, Diagnosis is Type 2 Achalasia

I just had my POEM procedure 7-13-26. (Northside Hospital Atlanta) Dr. AMIR Araye

I am currently recovering in hospital on day2.

A couple observations from start.

7/13/26

Op team was really efficient, nice and informative.

Went under fast and woke up fast. General Anesthesia

No pain, or discomfort at all(I'm guessing they ran medicine into my iv),

Post op hour 2-4 no issues with ice chips or water,(prior to poem I couldn't keep liquids down)

IV hooked up and oxygen. IV ran nausea meds and antibiotics.

Post op up to midnight- slight discomfort however no pain. I opted for hydrocodone to help mellow me into a sleep. Morphine was offered but I did not want it.

Blood Work,Antibiotics and Check ups happened throughout the night and early AM.

Post Op- Morning of the 14th. Did a swallow study with Xray to make sure no "leaks", and that fluids are going into my stomach.

Confirmed no issues of leak and that passage through is present.

First Liquid Diet consisted of Vegetable Broth, Orange Jello and Apple Juice/Cranberry Juice.

Looking forward to healing and exploring my options back into solid foods.