My Dramatic Weight Loss
It's been over a year now since I have been diagnosed with achalasia. Since then, I have lost over 75 pounds--nearly a small child. I kind of look at it as a blessing in disguise.
Here I was at my biggest moment:
(I'm the one on the very right.)
For a while, I was eating portians that a gastric bi-pass patient should have been eating. I would literally eat 4 bites and be stuffed. I'm finally learning that the reason I felt "full" so quickly is because the food was not going down. After several months, I realized that as long as I had some water or noncarbonated beverage, I would be fine.
If I do not have a drink at my side when I am eating I will be miserable. I get that horrible feeling from the food not going down. See, that "full" feeling I was talking about earlier, it's not so much a "full" feeling as it is more like a "vommiting" feeling.
There was actually an instance where my windpipe got blocked because the food was building up in my esophagus and not going down. It was the worst and scariest feeling I have ever experienced. I was getting ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver on myself and in all my state of panicing, the food went down.
Although I had surgery to correct my swallowing, it still doesn't mean that my esophagus will actually act as a normal one would. I have to do all the work. Don't take your body's involuntary actions for granted. One day, they may just stop working involuntarily.
My Digestive Problems
Here is a good example of what my esophagus once looked like.
Found on www.gastrolab.net.
Last night I made a horrible decision. I ate way too late. My husband owns a hobby/games store and usually doesn't get home until after 9:00 p.m. I decided to wait on him to eat rather than eating alone--isn't that one of the perks of being married--and regret it all night long.
I coughed all night long. Although I had the surgery last summer, I still suffer from the effects of achalasia. Achalasia does not just affect the esophagus, but the whole gastrointestinal tract. It basically means paralysis. My duodenum (connects stomach to small intestine) doesn't contract either. (This was actually discovered 2 years before I was diagnosed with achalasia by way of a gastroscope.) Back then I was diagnosed with acid reflux.
Getting back to the coughing, last year I had coughed so much one week that my neck became swollen. It looked like I had strep throat, but it did not hurt to swallow. Though, it did hurt to the touch so I went to the ER. After being examined, the doctor came in and told me that it could be a few different things, one of which possibly being a tumor. He said, "That's probably not what you wanted to hear this morning." Of course not! Who would want to hear that? To make a long story short, it turned out that somehow or another my salivary glands became blocked and became swollen. They gave me a shot in the most uncomfortable place and it went down a week later.
My coughing hasn't caused too much trouble lately. Let's hope it stays that way.
My Struggle with Achalasia
The main reason I decided to create this Blog is because not many people are familiar with achalasia. Not only do I want to familiarize society with this condition, but I would also like to find others who have been diagnosed as well.
I have done little research on achalasia. Off hand, I know that it is a gastrointestinal tract disorder, only 2000 people are diagnosed with it each year, and it is unknown why people become laden with it.
As stated in the 30th edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, it says that achalasia is: "1. failure to relax of the smooth muscle fibers of the gastrointestinal tract at any point of junction of one part with another. 2. specifically, failure of the esophagogastric sphincter to relax with swallowing, due to degeneration of ganglion cells in the wall of the organ. The thoracic esophagus also loses its normal peristaltic activity and becomes dilated."
To simplify, it causes difficulty swallowing. Before I was diagnosed, I was having horrible symptoms. I couldn't keep anything down even if I ate several hours before bed time. In the middle of the night, I would wake up finding that I had vomitted in my sleep. It was not pleasant. I lost 20 pounds in two months.
There are three different options an achalasia patient can take: dilation, botox injections, or surgical repair. I decided to take the permanant approach and got the surgery. It took about six or seven months to adjust, but I finally feel close to normal again. Though, I still experience occasional pain when swallowing.
Another reason I created this blog is because I want to learn more. When my doctor first told me I had achalasia he actually advised me to research it on the Internet for myself. What kind of doctor would say that? He didn't even have a pamphlet to give me.
I hope this blog finds someone out there with achalasia or someone who is knowledgeable of it. Please send me a comment anytime!
