Saturday, May 4, 2019

Flem Attack.

Okay I am an idiot. I have aways used flem, not phlegm. I will continue doing so. This is a report on an incident concerning my esophagus problems. For several weeks I have been starting the day with drinking Ensure, which is a protein drink. It seemed to be too thick for my esophagus and over time became more so. Finally it became uncomfortable and caused me to gag. So I gave it up. I always like to get something on my stomach first thing in the morning so my pill taking would not make me noxious.

I have been using a few spoons of applesauce. Which did not cause any problem. I can not eat a meal first thing in the morning. (I always ate first thing in the morning in years past.) But I recently passed out with a gulp in the night. With care I can eat a little after I have been up two or three hours.

I thought that my flem attack problem was due to the make up of Ensure. Not so. Yesterday I ate four grapes and had a terrible flem attack. My esophagus closed up completely and I was in distress until I managed to hawk up a lot of flem. So the flem is a new early morning thing? Caused by certain foods?

My swallowing problem started twenty years ago and the symptoms have changed over time. I am hoping that they might change for the better, but we will see. Maybe flem is better than passing out.


3 comments:

  1. I usually have an Atkins protein shake in the mornings. Its fairly watery, not thick like a shake.
    Years ago, when I was on temporary health kick, I'd eat a whole cantaloupe for lunch. Nearly always my air passageway in my throat seemed to shrink, or partially close off. I stopped with the cantaloupe lunches, cause I enjoy breathing.

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  2. Breathing is good. Better than cantaloupe. Health kicks are good.

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  3. I feel so bad for you because I know what its like. Before I had my esophagus stretched a few months back, I would also choke/gag and cough up copious amounts of thick, long stringy mucous, sometimes the strings reaching all the way down to the floor. Like you, I choked and gagged until the food came up and out.

    I know that you've mentioned that you don't want to do the stretching again, but I beg you to reconsider. I did a lot of damage to my esophagus because I waited too long to get it stretched. I feel so much better now without panicking every time I eat and wondering if I am going to choke to death. I know, as you know, that the stretching doesn't last forever, but I look back now and can't believe that I allowed myself to suffer like that for so long.

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