I know it's been mentioned on here before, but usually amongst a host of other issues.

Anyone else have trouble with Gagging all the time when your neck muscles crap/ TOS symptoms get bad?
Anyone found any kind of relief, or have any suggestions of how to calm it down long enough to get dinner in?

Among the host of other symptoms, this one is becoming a real problem while I was for surgery. Having a hard time eating. I can lay down and ice/heat/relax my neck all day in prep to try and eat, but as soon as I sit up my neck spasms and I start gagging.

My PT after shoulder surgery to regain mobility is REALLY setting off my TOS symptoms. They're at a loss as to how to help me with this kind of thing tho, and TOS surgery isn't for another 2 months.

I had swallowing problems when my top rib was raised & stuck, most of that went away after the top rib mobilizations that dropped it back into proper place..

I had some of this when I was at my absolute worst in 2011. Like Jo*mar, it subsided after my ribs got adjusted by a chiro.

Later I had a different kind of swallowing problem where food would get stuck in my esophagus. It was really weird and really bad. It went away after I got on an inversion board program, though I wasn't expecting that. Since the inversion stretched out my spine and reduce pressure on nerves, I speculate that nerve compression may have been interfering with the enervation of the muscles along the esophagus.

So some things for you "try queue":

-- See chiro

-- Try inversion or some other form of traction

-- Learn self rib adjustment / mobility

Good luck.

I have GERD and burning sensation on my left side of the neck, foodpipe whenever i eat anything.

Thanks guys!

Chroma- any rib ninja moves that work well for you?
I've tried a few rib mobilization techniques, but have trouble with a lot of them due to inability to keep arms raised for periods of times/hyper sensitive post injury nerves in brachial plexus.

Still looking for suggestions if anyone has any ideas on how to deal with this awfulness when I happens or when you're in the throes

..I've actually tried all of these so far, minus the rib cutty, which I am less than patiently waiting on

Also tried many chiros. Only one not grossed out by my arm sent me to ER by accident, haha! He also saw issue with rib compression, and I harassed him in to attempting to mobilize, but my nerves were too reactive and I wound up like squished cockroach

My grossly dislocating demon shoulder was originally diagnosed as gallstones, than an ulcer, so I spent a lot of time on GERD treatment. Then more than doing inversion in case it was a hiatal hernia or cervical compression. My arm still stuck out in front of my chest like I was Kuato in Total Recall, but such is the tale of the previously

However, I may actually be able to be of some help to the previous posters.
I know if sounds like hippie shenanigans, but Apple cider vinegar, Braggs with the mother still in it, changed my acid reflux over 48 hours. Instant relief with the ability to eat like I used to in 2 days. It was crazy!! I had been taking acid reducers for months and months (non stop, dr orders) to deal with what certainly felt and behave like GERD. The misery was constant! Oh man! Didn't want food, could swallow, and after a week or so on the meds all my hair started falling out (calcium blocker) and I couldn't digest anything so it sat around in me like concrete. I got food poisoning like biweekly. Tagamet is great if you wanna be bald in your 20s and burp rice.
I started taking this vinegar to get my stomach acid production back up. I usually a stickler on the peer reviewed research, but ACV has been curing everything from pregnancy to leprosy the bubonic plague, I felt better Immediately, and at meal like a grown up. Afterwards I listened to my guts which craved endless citrus and tomatoes

If you're ready for an anatomy deluge.
The GERD turn out was a from a long thoracic nerve stretch injury causing initial pain, and spasming in serratus anterior muscles. My dislocated arm and nerve issue collapsed my shoulder, straining my Scalenes and pec minors (chest pain, head forward posture, brachial compression), and what Lovely little muscle mingles with the lower scalenes, but your omohyoid, one of your many tiny swallowing muscles. When you omohyoid becomes irritated it drags your myohyoid down with it, which is the large flat muscle under your tongue (there are many hyoids, these in my opinion are the most frustrating) While any upset to those muscles is creepy and gaggy, the nerves that control them mostly intersect in the sternocleidomastoid muscle, usually visible at the front of your neck, who exists literally to just chew gum and kick ***. And cause headaches and ear aches. This also contains the supraclavicular and upper trapezius nerves so things out of place/hunched shoulders or vulture Patrice really irritate you're tight jaw a visa versa. Also, the root nerve to most of this mess is the Vagus nerve,which does a Lot of stuff. Like.. The muscles on the back of your throat, gag reflex, spit production, swallowing muscles, parts of digestion, whether the acid containing sphincters on your esophagus are open or closed, coughing reflexes, and of all freaking things, Ear Wax!!

I hope this is totally unnecessary, but this is not advocating changing refining that's working for anyone. Or not working for that matter


If anyone if feeling barfy or clenchy on the east coast, my family dentist developed occupational TOS and and a life mission of of dealing it in patients.
He was was the Only only doc treating my arm and neck twitches, facial spasms,,posture, all of it until it got insured. Dentist! He's been there, he knows what's up .
Danny Sarubin- Neruomuscular dentist
http://smilebaltimore.com/dr-danny-sarubin/

@SnappleOfDiscord, first of all, I love your forum name.

2nd, I posted my rib ninja moves in a fresh thread with detailed instructions and notes:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh....php?p=1159114

Regarding chiro, the Activator approach seems more gentle than other approaches and the Activator chiros seem very sensitive to details which of course are important regarding the complexity of the neck.

Another thought is to use yelp or something similar to find a good one. However, the first one I ever saw was no good at all and he had great yelp reviews, so not sure what was going on there.

And maybe chiro just isn't right for you. TOS varies so much and so do individuals. The only consistency is to try things and see what helps you.

Oh and the anatomy deluge was definitely interesting stuff.

Brilliant stuff snapple. You seem to have nailed why I get GERD on eating on my left side of the face(which was badly injured in a fall).

I had trouble swallowing and felt like I was choking or somebody was strangling me at times pre-op. This got better after surgery. Pre-surgery, rib mobilization done by a PT helped with this particular symptom. It was a scary symptom, I'm sure some people thought I was crazy when I described this... I have asthma, so it was also aggravated when allergens were present so I didn't know what was causing it...really both I think.