The story of Linda
About 10 years ago I had an excruciating pain in my chest. It wasn’t a heart attack. They did endoscopy, CT scans and a barium swallow and told me the I had ‘diffuse oesophageal spasm’. They gave me anti reflux medication and sent me on my way. I started to notice that I was struggling to swallow certain foods and had to have water with me at all times, to aid getting food down and to ease the increasingly frequent and violent oesophageal spasms. I started to bring food up in my sleep, occasionally it would get into my lung and cause a chest infection, sometimes I would wake up choking, not able to breathe. Terrifying. The GP just upped my anti reflux meds and said I had anxiety. At the beginning of 2023 I had a number of episodes where I could not get anything food or liquid into my stomach at all and had to bring it all back. I thought I had oesophageal cancer. I was fast tracked for endoscopy which showed no cancer but possibly achalasia. A few months later I had a manometry test which confirmed achalasia type 1. By this point my life was severely affected by the symptoms. I became a shadow of myself, could not go anywhere and was afraid to eat in front of people at all. I had to have a bucket by me at night and when I ate as so much came back. I opted for a Hellers Myotomy and fundoplication as treatment. I had the surgery this week. Eating and drinking for me will never be the same again, I know, but I am confident that the procedure will help me return to something resembling a normal life and enable me to emerge from the shadows again. Time will tell. I will never take such a simple action as eating a sandwich for granted ever again!