Hi everyone,
Hope you are all doing as well as you can.
For the past few days I’ve had terrible trouble swallowing food. It feels as if the food is getting stuck half way down. After a glass of water the food goes down. It feels exactly as if I am having a spasm just below my throat.
Just wondered if anyone suffers with this.
I’ve got an appt with my Neuro on Tuesday so I’ll ask him what he thinks.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
Shazzie
hi shazzie
long time no see eh?
as for your swallowing problem, a speech therapist could help with this.
back in my pre ms days i worked with children with disabilities.
SALT could help them with swallowing, ask your neuro if it could help you too.
good luck, it’s bad enough finding a meal that you like, then cooking it but to be let down at the last swallow is rubbish.
carole xxx
Hi Carole,
How are you huni?
Yes. I’ll mention to my neuro. He’ll probably say “so what do you think we should do?”
Shazzie xx
Hi Shazzie
What a horrible problem. Food is a great pleasure in life so to have swallowing problems is a bugger.
Some physiotherapists are pretty good on swallowing trouble. Or OT. If you have access to either of these, try and see if they can help. Or obviously as Carole said, speech therapists.
And your neuro. But as you say, they sometimes ask what you want from them rather than offering constructive help.
In my area, there is a dedicated Rehabilitation Neurologist who I see once a year in addition to the MS specialist. He’s absolutely brilliant and I’d ask him for help / ideas in a similar situation. Is there anything like that in your area who you could be referred to? Or even from outside of the area? My neuro is actually really good at referring to other specialists no matter whether they are in the same CCG or not. Maybe he’s just good at passing the buck? Or I might be doing him a disservice. He wants the best for his patients.
Hope you get some resolution.
Sue
Thanks Sue.
Yes. It is a pain.
I’m sure I’m relapsing so I reckon this is a new symptom.
I’ll let you know how I get on on Tuesday.
Thanks for your help Sue.
Shazzie xx
Are you taking any spasmodic drugs?
I get this now and then, I take it very easy when it is happening and relax as much as possible, I also make sure my food is very small and eat slowly till it is sorted.
Hi Shazzie, I have the same problem, after trying a few different tablets, I was given Glyceryl Trinitrate Spray, I spray it under my tongue 10 minutes before I eat. It relaxes the oesophagus and makes it much easier to swallow my food. I don’t feel like my food is backing up and not going down. I hope this may help.
Best wishes
Ella
Hi Paolo, Hebeyellow and Ellapiella
Sorry you seem to be suffering with this too.
Yes I take Baclofen and Gabapentin.
I saw my neuro today and she is sure that this is a relapse brought on by a couple of bad UTIs.
She said whatever you do don’t increase the Baclofen as this won’t help.
Just got to wait til it subsides.
My neuro is going to refer me to a speech therapist so hopefully I might get some help with the swallowing there.
Thanks for replying.
Shazzie x
My question was based upon observations made on my poor old mum.
She was in serious need of anti-spasm drugs (aka muscle relaxants) and one consequence of this was a very hard time swallowing.
Almost every day we seemed to witness a fairly significant choking incident, as we hoped to allow my mother at least some joy in life, in the form of still eating solids. As time went by, the ‘solids’ became more like ‘mushes’, and the majority of her sustenance was acquired via a gastro-tube which penetrated through the exterior of her midsection 
It is easy to presume that such challenges to peristalsis is yet another component of suffering brought by MS. But i always wondered what roles her daily cocktail of drugs played in diminishing the quality of her life. i was aware that some drugs were necessary due to other drugs! Being a long term advocate for the use of medical cannabis, such questions plagued me.
Does anyone know of any correlation / lack thereof, between the taking of anti-spasmodic drugs and difficulty swallowing etc?
All the very best.
Hi Shazzie, not dissing your neurologist but I’m really fed up of UTI’s been blamed as the cause of everything that goes wrong. Finally after pushing and asking about what was my swallowing problem and trying different meds’ I was referred to a gastroenterologist and he prescribed the spray for me. He diagnosed Dyskinesia of oesophagus, nothing to do with M.S. So it’s worth questioning them if your not getting answers you want.
Ella