Hi everyone,
Thanks to all of you who told me to call the dr. regarding my choking/aspirating problem.
I finally called last week, and she immediately had me schedule a barium swallow and barium video in order to see what's up in my throat. I'm going to have it on Wednesday, and then I need to make an appt with the pcp for a few days following the procedure.
In the meantime, I'm trying to drink warm water like a few of you suggested, and trying to remember to lower my head forward when I swallow.
I'll let you know how everything comes out...
thanks again!

Drink it fast, if you drink slow you think about the taste. And big gulps so you get rid of it faster.

Once I got to sipping it it make me nauseous

Good luck!

I had that test and it wasn't bad. It wasn't a lot of barium and also included little bites of dry food to see how you swallow.

I found out that they could see I struggled with swallowing but also learned I had acid reflux that went so high it put presure on my throat. I never ever feel heartburn. But get this pressure in my neck and then the swallowing problem.

I went to a nutritionist and treated the gerd and other digestive problems and no more swallowing problems.

Hope you get the answers you need.

Warmly Jan

AAAHHHH! The Barium Buffet!

Nothing but fun!

I remember that test well in evaluating my GERD and discovery of my Hiatal Hernia. As mentioned drink fast, big, and don't breath while doing it. They try but it still taste crappy.

It's a concoction that even liquer can't make better. Bummer!

Best wishes to you. I'll be thinking of you Wednesday.

Let us know how it went and what they saw.

Good luck and I hope you get some answers!

Thanks everyone, for your advice and wishes...say, the scheduler told me there's no med restrictions...I take Prilosec for heartburn in the morning. Would it be better not to, in order for the radiologists to see what's going on without that med impacting the test?

I'm glad you are going Debbie! Call the doc and ask about that med and see what he/she says....

Good Luck!

Good luck Debbie. If it were ME I would not take the Prilosec
But you might want to call that dept and ask the tech or MD there what they recommend.

Let us know k?
Jan

Hi all,
I had the swallow study this morning...there was a speech pathologist there to administer the items I had to swallow...they took a video and she went over it with me afterwards.
She didn't see any problems at all...no reflux, no spasms, nothing. She said that since most of my choking problems occur in the late afternoon/evening, if I do have MS, my muscles might fatigue at that point and then the choking might be more likely.
So we went over tucking the head down before swallowing, and she said to make liquids a bit thicker if I feel I'm having a problem.
Glad I had it done, but now I feel like a hypochondriac. Isn't it weird that our bodies never misbehave when a dr. is present, or we're undergoing labs, etc?
Thanks again for all the info/encouragement.