So almost drowning yourself by accident kind of sucks

ScottyMcGee · #1

Several years ago I was diagnosed with this rare allergry condition called "eosinophilic esophagitis." Which pretty much means "Your esophagus cells are sensitive and we don't really know why."

What happens is that "at any given time" I could be eating and suddenly my esophagus decides to close up and food gets lodged in there. I don't choke or suffocate. I simply can't swallow, not even my own saliva. It hurts like a mothereffer and feels like heartburn, but it kind of isn't, yet it feels like it.

I went to several allergists and gastroenterologists and this is where the wonderful world of science falls into a gray area. Nobody really knows. It's a rare and new thing that's been going on and it could be tied to seasonal allergies, or could not. Who knows? One allergist identified yellow dye #5 as the culprit, since I was having a soda that had that ingredient. There is debate on food dyes and yellow dye #5 being detrimental. I think it's banned outside of the USA. But then other allergists say "That's an old wive's tale" and then try to pinpoint a food allergy but here's where it gets complicated - everything shows up positive on me. Everything except like bread and some other grains, but that doesn't make sense being that I have lived for so long with no problem to literally anything else. So it's weird. It's really weird.

There have only been two major "attacks" where I needed to go to the hospital because I couldn't dislodge the food. That sucked. And is expensive. Very expensive.

The best I can do is be mindful of how I eat - portions and speed. It's sometimes hard though becuase when you're really hungry you're not very conscious of how fast you're eating or how much.

Granted, today I had a pretty scary experience. Maybe I could have still survived but it still felt like I was honestly going to die. Like as this was happening I thought, "Damn. This is it, ain't it? This is how I'm gonna go. Right here. Right now. The guest bathroom of my house. Done. I had a good run."

I was having some chicken for lunch at home for my work break when something got stuck. It's been a long time since I needed to go to the hospital because I've been more mindful of how I eat. But this time this sucker just wouldn't want to go down or up. I kept regurgitating and my parents had to call work to notify them that I'd be either late or not return for the day.

This went on for a little over an hour. I start to really get worried that I might need to go to the hospital.

I then had this really dumb idea that I thought would turn out okay (Well, it did) but was really risky. I decided to chug a bottle of water in hopes that the pressure would push down the food into my stomach.

So I chug and when I'm done I get this SOARING PAIN in my throat. Like imagine if you just ate one of those spike balls from Super Smash Bros.

I felt some of the water trickle down past the food, but the rest stayed up.

And then this is where sh*t hit the fan.

My body's natural reaction to this feeling is to gag. So I start gagging, but then the water that trickled down past the food entered the wrong tube and I start choking. So now I can't cough up the water because there's a ball of chicken or whatever stuck in my throat, leaving me utterly breathless.

I don't know how long I was in this state. It felt like ages but it could have only barely been a minute. I kept gagging and choking and felt the food dislodge itself but not enough to let the water out. But now as the food is dislodging, MORE water is coming down and into the wrong pipe. I felt myself fill up with water and realized "Sh*t, this must be what drowning feels like." That's where I thought, "Sh*t this is going to be it." I immediately thought of how my girlfriend would react to my death, and I also thought about how word would get out to here. I frantically tried to recall if everything in my "Emergency Sudden Death Protocol" would be in effect. I have written down all my passwords to all my sites, and since I'm an aspiring writer I have everything I ever wrote backed up, complete with directions on what's what and even an assigned friend to take control of editing my work in the event that I actually, inexplicably, drop down and die.

The scary part was my father at the time in the living room didn't realize I was choking. He was so used to me trying to regurgitate that he thought I was just trying to do that. I'm stumbling around not knowing what to do. I try to tell him that I'm choking but it just comes out as, "HOB BLOB LBOLBLOBLBOBLB"

Finally, my body decides, "Oh wait, I can shoot this through your nose." And does so promptly. So I rush to the kitchen sink and everything comes out. Well, not everything, the food remained but it was now completely dislodged due to this very violent encounter and finally settled into my stomach. I spit out some blood too since I had been coughing and gagging for so long. I can now barely speak above a mumble.

So I settle down, my parents help me clean me up and I take a moment to lie down, then realize I'm okay to go back to work, and I'm just sitting down back at my desk frazzled and say to myself, "So THAT just happened."

It woke me up a bit in terms of telling people who much I care about them. I immediately called up my girlfriend, told her what happened, and told her I loved her like a bajillion times over. It gave me the same effect to everyone else, hence why I'm sharing it with you guys here and I want to say that I wish I paid attention more to this site when I was younger and spent more time. I always get a kick out of you guys and you're all awesome but I haven't even played a round of Smash or Mario Kart with anyone here and I really need to get on that.

#2

I am so sorry you had to experience that. Having rare health issues that experts cannot help you with isn't as much fun as it sounds.

I echo your sentiment that when your life is at threat, you appreciate those people in your world just that bit more. ;)

*giant hugs* Stay well and take time for those you love the most!!

#3

Wow, that's super awful. I hope you don't go through another episode again (at least, not that severe!), do take care!

ScottyMcGee · #4

Thanks, guys. My voice has still been hoarse but it's gradually getting better. The day after sucked because it felt like I was punched in the throat.

I like to do a lot of things in life, and when this crap happens I'm remineded of how immunology was the one Bio class I got a flat out A in. I get worried that I'll just work in seemingly droll biology labs all my life but then I realize that I have an urge to study this unknown allergy and I could actually do it. I've been working for a while at a crap place but I've been thinking about whether I can/want to pursue a Ph.D and research this thing.