Thank you for this resource

[Guest guest]

My name is Andre. I'm 38 years old, in Sydney, Australia, and yesterday I was

diagnosed (barium swallow) with a " grossly dilated " esophagus and Achalasia. A

couple of weeks ago I'd never even heard of the name, despite TWELVE YEARS of

the medical merry-go-round to find the cause of weird symptoms I'd been

experiencing since that first sharp, stabbing pain in the side of my neck back

in 2000.

I had an " all clear " upper endoscopy (probably my fourth or so over the years)

back in late 2010 - and a month later started having trouble swallowing for the

first time ever (as far as I knew). Since the endoscopy yet again failed to find

any reason for the various pains in my neck and chest, I tried to live with the

swallowing issue for over a year. Eventually it got to the point where I was

choking during meals, and my wife convinced me to go to the doctor one more

time. Barium swallow (second one - previous was 5 or 6 years ago) this time

clearly detected a " bird's beak " and a " grossly dilated " esophagus. I imagine I

can even see the begginings of a sigmoid shape, but I don't really know. The

report says nothing on that score.

Now I'm waiting to see the doctor again, in a few days time, scared, angry at

myself and the world for not going back straight away after the dysphagia

started about 18 months ago, and looking at my two beautiful infant daughters

with a fair amount of fear that I may not get to watch them grow. My wife has

been very supportive, and if it wasn't for my family I don't know what I'd do.

Thank you all for contributing to this site, and for making me feel slightly

less alone and worried.

All the best to all of you,

Andre