The Long Road to Diagnosis- My Health Story (Part 1)

I always considered myself a healthy person. I never had any serious illnesses, no surgeries or stays in the hospital growing up. I went all through my BYU years without any health problems, and served a mission in Germany with maybe one cold the entire time. I was seriously blessed. About 6 months after I got back from my mission is when this crazy ride started. I remember the exact moment....I was riding in the car with my friend, eating out of a bag of Gardetto's snack mix (mmmm, love that stuff), when all of a sudden one of the pretzels wouldn't go down when I swallowed. It was such a weird, stuck feeling, and I hurried and took a drink of water from my friend's water bottle sitting there, and all was well. But then it kept happening every now and then after that night, especially when I ate french fries or chips or anything hard and dry.

At the same time, one night I was sleeping, and I woke up with serious pains in my chest. It totally freaked me out, and I thought I was having a heart attack and was going to die right then. Luckily, when I drank some water, the pain subsided and I went back to sleep. I talked to my dad and some other people about it the next day, and they all said "Oh yeah, that's heartburn" since it went away with water and all. So one day I was a healthy, 23 year old young woman, and the next day I felt like a 75 year old man with swallowing problems and heartburn. Yippee.

I did all sorts of things to try to treat the frequent sudden onsets of burning. I tried different medicines, and even subscribed to a website of tried and true home remedies, involving apple cider vinegar and honey. I remember eating spoonfuls of honey whenever the heartburn hit in the night, but alas, it did not work. Pretty much the only thing that brought relief was drinking water, so I stuck with that. Thus started the habit of carrying a water bottle around with me wherever I go. I even smuggle one in with me when I go to the temple, because the one time I did not have water with me was when Jake and I were being sealed together for time and all eternity! Talk about a sucky time for heartburn. So Jake has never known me as the carefree, healthy young lass that I once was. He met me right after all this started, and has learned to accept that he has a 70 year old for a wife.

In 2007, I decided to go to a gastroenterologist to find out what the problem was. I had an endoscopy (after which I was so out of it, I kept asking Jake how he was feeling and how his day was), and then they had me do a barium swallowing test and CT Scan while I was still out of it. In the end, the doc said that everything looked pretty normal, except for a delay in swallowing the pill. She said I had esophagitis (still not sure what that is...just a way to say I have a sluggish esophagus) , gave me some acid reflux medicine, and sent me on my way.

Over the next 4 years, I learned to just deal with my issues. I found that if I took small bites, ate slowly, chewed really well, and washed everything down with water, I was ok most of the time. The good thing to come out of this was that it made me lose weight, and keep it off. Social eating wasn't much fun anymore though, cuz I always had to be conscious of every bite and swallow, and often times I'd have to get up and go to the bathroom wait for the food to go down. It's the worst feeling of something getting stuck in your throat/chest...it feels like you can't breathe and always made me panicky. Laaame.

I don't remember anything changing much when I was pregnant with Cami and afterwards. But boy did things change when I got pregnant with Lexi. I noticed 2 things: 1) the heartburn surprisingly disappeared, and 2) the swallowing unfortunately got worse. In the 3rd trimester, I started losing weight, instead of gaining, and it became a chore to actually eat anything. With all my other issues that popped up over the 9 months (foot cramps, itchy legs, blurry vision, tingly hands, constipation, fatigue, anemia, dry mouth, ongoing cough and sore throat, trouble sleeping) I was pretty much miserable. And I worried about the baby getting enough nutrition, since I myself was not.

The swallowing got so bad in September, that it felt like a big painful lump was in my chest, keeping anything from going down. Even water was painful to swallow, especially when I first woke up in the mornings. I tried to drink Ensure shakes, and get some cream of wheat and soup down during the day. Just about every night, I'd wake up choking and coughing because food or liquid would actually make it's way back up my throat and I'd have to spit it out. Quite disturbing. So I made a definite decision that as soon as this baby came out, I was going to put an end to the misery and finally get some answers as to what was going on.

Luckily, Alexia decided to come one week early, bless her little heart, and the labor and delivery were perfect. Afterwards, when it's usually such a little party to get to eat all those yummy hospital snacks and enjoy a meal even in the middle of the night, I was bummed because I couldn't even sip apple juice. It still hurt. I couldn't swallow any pain pills either, (didn't even try), so the nurses hooked me up with Children's liquid orange flavored Motrin. lBless them. Then they brought an array of soft foods, hoping I could get something down. So that night, I tried a little at a time to drink juice, eat some applesauce, jello, yogurt...and finally I was beginning to feel normal again! The next day and a half, I actually was able to eat and get things down,and things were looking p! Maybe the swallowing thing was finally going to simmer down now that I wasn't pregnant anymore. I knew it wouldn't go away, but at least hopefully be mild like before pregnancy.

But alas, when I left the hospital and went home on Thursday, Sept. 29th, things did not improve. It still hurt to swallow, I was still choking at night, and I was trying to nurse all at the same time. So I called my OBGYN and asked if he had a referral for a good gastroenterologist. I'd already called the one that both he and the anesthesiologist had raved about while I was in labor, but he was booked out for months and not taking new patients. I was totally let down. So when the nurse told me over the phone to go to Granite Peaks Gastroenterology, I said "hey I've been there before. That's where I got my colonoscopies". Kind of a funny story-

I got a colonoscopy initially, just because I'd given birth to Cami and maxed out my deductible, and decided to just see if I was healthy in that region. Turns out I was, except for a polyp that the gastroenterologist didn't remove at the time because he wasn't positive that it was a polyp. I later got a letter saying that it needed to be removed in a follow up colonoscopy. Well, by that time my insurance had changed because I quit my job to stay home with Cam and was now on Jake's insurance, so we'd have to pay for the whole procedure. Yeah right! I was mad that the polyp wasn't just removed the first time. I wrote the doc a letter, explaining my frustration, and he finally wrote a letter back saying that even though he believed he'd done the right thing, he was willing to do another colonoscopy for me free of charge because it needed to be done. So he did, and it was a little awkward seeing him again, but he was a nice guy.

ANYways, so now I was being referred to his office again for a different reason, but I figured I could just see one of the other doctors. Nope...when I called to set up an appointment, they said I had to see the same doctor that I'd previously seen becasuse that's their policy. Fine, whatever, just somebody help me! So originally he was booked out a few weeks, but they called me back and said he'd had an opening come up for the next day. THANK YOU. I was acually so excited to go to his office for the consultation and be able to just lay everything out for him and get his feedback. Jake went with me, and I explained all the symptoms I'd been having, and the doc listened really well and was very knowledgable and asked lots of questions. He concluded that he thought it sounded like something called ACHALASIA.

Wow, a name for all the problems I'd been having all these years? That would be amazing if I could be diagnosed with something and find a way to treat it. I left feeling very hopeful, and with an appointment for an upper endoscopy in 2 days. Who ever thought someone could be excited to have a scope shoved down their esophagus while they're out cold with anesthesia? I totally was. Now before this post gets too much longer, I'm going to leave it at that and continue with the saga in Part 2. Just you wait- it gets better! And it explains how I ended up in the hospital 5 days later.