If you or a loved one has a hard time swallowing solids, please read on. It doesn’t have to be shameful to admit it. Some of us just have small Schatzki Rings. What in the world is a Schatzki Ring you might ask? Well, it’s actually a narrowing of the lower part of the esophagus that that can cause difficulty swallowing. It causes intermittent dysphagia, which is just a medical term for not passing food. The ring is named after the German-American physician Richard Schatzki who discovered it. But as I later learned, it is not widely known or offered because there is no money to make off of it.
This story probably goes back to when I was a kid and I often had to chug liquid to help the food pass. As I got older, my Schatzki Ring probably tightened up – or perhaps I just took bigger bites. Nevertheless, I can honestly say it was a problem because I started having problems passing food down my esophagus and it would just sit in between the end of the esophagus and the opening to my stomach.
The first time it was really bad I took a giant bite of Chinese food and it would not pass. The noodles, meat and whatever else I bit into was just stuck. It’s not a choking feeling per say, but an uncomfortable feeling where you can’t even swallow a sip of water. I will also add, which I just learned from the specialist I saw, that I would get a lot of saliva because I was eating and food makes you salivate. So imagine being hungry, salivating and not being able to pass. At times I had to throw up the food or wait five minutes to an hour until it passed.
As you might know, since this was an issue every time I ate a solid, it was a major problem. I’ve been in situations where I was having a nice dinner with the wife or in a social setting and the food would get stuck. The most embarrassing thing was getting out-eaten by a little lady. I’m six feet three inches and I’m taking baby bites. It changed my lifestyle. I have to cut meat in tiny pieces like I’m feeding a baby or take ‘bird bites’ as I thought of it.
Finally, I went to the doctor. I can admit I should have gone earlier, but we’ll leave that for another discussion. I got a physical and I told my doctor about the situation and we got some tests done. I had an upper GI and I was asked to drink barium. They x-rayed the flow of the barium down my esophagus and concluded there was some ‘blockage’. When I finally saw the specialist he disagreed there was any ‘blockage’ because to him it sounded like I had a classic case of Schatzki’s Ring. He identified the exact symptoms I felt and described exactly what I experienced when it happened.
The next step is to stick a camera down my esophagus and take a look. Hopefully, there isn’t anything else wrong going on down there and they can put me to sleep and stretch out my Ring. Apparently it should only be a 15-30 minute procedure.
My procedure is early next month and I’m excited to get it done so I can eat giant pieces of steak and potatoes and not worry about it getting stuck in my esophagus. I’ll let everyone know how it goes.
I strongly recommend anyone who suffers from this to see a doctor and first get blood tests done. If you’re healthy, it could be Schatzki’s Ring. Elder people usually suffer from this, but it can happen to anyone. I’m a healthy 30 year old man. I fully anticipate this to change my life for the better.
This experience has also shed some light about our health care system. I don’t know what will happen in the near future, but I was able to use my Blue Shield HMO insurance and quickly change doctors. I didn’t like my doctor, so I changed to a doctor affiliated with Hoag in Newport Beach and the experience has been great. I like my doctor so much, I will always stay with medical groups associated with Hoag as long as I live in Southern California.
On of the most impressive aspects I noticed was that the nurse and my doctor carted laptops around. They punched in information so that everything is electronically monitored. The Doctor clicked ‘print’ when he was done and on my way out of the doctor’s office I was handed off two print outs of the blood test and exam documents I needed.
I won’t get into the medical situation in this country because I am not well versed on the topic nor is it the point of this short article. I just want to encourage anyone who has a hard time swallowing food to keep this in mind and for anyone who suffers from anything, especially young men, to ask questions and do research and see the doctor. It’ worth it!
Reference:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schatzki_ring
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001257/
- www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://medicalimages.allrefer.com/large/upper-gastrointe
