Sally, the HUG is a very common symptom for me. No idea what triggers it but mine usually comes on in the evening or the night; although I've also had it hit right in the middle of the day while doing something as well.

Sometimes sipping on ice cold water will get it to back off for me if I do that at the start of it.

I can sometimes get it to ease off by either laying on my back with a couple of pillows under the knees or sitting up, then pressing my fingertips up under my ribs and holding the pressure for a minute or two. Doing that makes the pain worse temporarily and sometimes will make the pain that goes around to the back feel like a knife going straight through from front to back, but when I let off the finger pressure, it is usually better for a bit. I just keep doing that every few minutes to every hour or so while it is going on. Mine can last for days and during that time only vary in intensity.

When my hands/arms aren't working I use the cap end of a water bottle (with the cap on) to apply the pressure. The water bottle gives more leverage and pressure than the fingers.

I have also bent forward on the end of my walking stick while holding the hand end below the ribs or against the belly. Sometimes I have put the ground end of the walking stick up against something like a wall or tree (the stupid thing has caught me while out walking in the woods more than a few times), and then put the hand end below the ribs and leaned into it.

When it is hanging on for more than an hour I take Baclofen too. I try anything and everything I can possibly think of to get the pain to ease off.
Sometimes it is successful and sometimes it is not. It has put me in the ER a few times when I couldn't breathe but the docs were pretty much as unsuccessful as I was in their attempts to get it to ease off. From there it is basically a waiting game while I suck back oxygen.

Your symptoms sound like it might be an esophageal spasm rather than the HUG but everyone's symptoms are different, as we have all learned. That too can come from nerve irritiation/damage.

Whatever it is I hope that it goes away completely and never comes back.
Stupid disease.

With love, Erika