I had a pleasant weekend - full of distractions. I ate what I wanted and laughed alot! Good things!
Still some weird swallows. It’s there in the morning when I wake up. Not much change there. Still rubbing the site with lots of cream and wearing silicon patches. My swallows feel really smooth most of the time. Just waiting on the last little bit to resolve I guess.
In two weeks I will hit the one year anniversary of “the week” that my diagnosis started to come together. I look forward to looking back at that and trying to appreciate how FAR I’ve come in a year.
Sew Momma… wow one year to get the diagnosis. Congratulations and I bow to you for getting that figured out so fast. I am grateful for this “interweb” as I backed into the diagnosis with searching my symptoms after a plethora of primary and specialist visits…then ES popped up as rare and then I looked for a doctor who had some experience with ES, he had a 4/5 month waiting list…but after waiting within 10 days of meeting him we had a diagnosis.
We are so grateful to know what we have as that is half the battle and knowing it can be treated to improve our quality of life.
My heart is filled with gratitude and my belly full of grilled salmon today. I am appreciating eating and no more chick fil a soup for awhile!! Although I must give a shout out to their new mac and cheese. That is too crazy good!
SewMomma ~ I thought of you and your peach post this morning as I ate some amazing Palisade peaches handpicked by my in-laws who’s neighbors have peach orchards
So glad to hear you are getting better, can’t wait to hear your one year anniversary tribute!
YUM!! Since we’re at the end of peach season, I stop buying them around now. Have had too many over the years that are “spongy”. I’m saying this because I’m envious that your folks have access to a local peach orchard where you get them fresh picked. TOTALLY AWESOME!!
We ended up having company last week during my big one year milestone. I was distracted which was good so I couldn’t dwell too much on the memories. September 17, 2018 was the day I went to my primary care provider on the verge of pulling my hair out. I had been having trouble swallowing since January and was tired of all the “just ignore it” remarks I was getting. We tried a variety of meds including anxiety medicine to help me think clearly. Three days later on the 20th I convinced an oral surgeon to work me in and try some shots in the area. It wasn’t even the typical shots people get for this. I had brought some research with me about steroids and numbing to help see if that would help with possible muscular issues in the throat. It was a reach. Luckily, he had called my dentist before I arrived to get my latest x-rays. Thank goodness he did that. He noticed something white along my neck. He then said “I’m just curious, let’s go try out this panorex machine I have and see what that’s all about”. He sat there amazed to see how thick and bright the white lines were that were coming up from the bottom of my throat on both sides.
I was so excited (mixed with fear of course) when I left. My journey still had some ups and downs ahead though. An experienced ENT that does the surgery said my symptoms weren’t bad enough to operate (huh???) which sent me down a path of non-traditional medicine (out of pocket of course). But by November I was in good hands and then of course had my close-to-perfect (but not quite) two surgeries in 2019. Ever-so-glad that is all behind me.
As far as my “now” update - mostly same but maybe a smidge better. A smidge. One day at a time. One smidge at a time.
You’ve had quite a journey, not totally at the end yet but a long way from where you were! It’s good to look back & see how far you’ve come! Hope you don’t ever have a year like this again, but you will look back & find positives, trust me…stronger faith, new friends, more patience & compassion are what I’ve gained from ES, I hope that you will find things too.
That is 100% correct. If you watch nature every day and look for changes you won’t see them but if you see a fast-motion video of something in nature you will see dramatic changes. Same with difficult times and our faith.
Doing good here. Maintaining. Maybe a taaaaad bit better. But I still have the occasional weird swallow. It’s a two part process sometimes. A smooth swallow but then a click kind of like an after-shock inside my throat. But not every single swallow. I’m balancing between praying it goes away and and recognizing and accepting that I’m a trillion miles away from where I was a year ago. Praise the Lord.
Had a thought the other day - Eagle Syndrome is not life-threatening but it is QUALITY of life-threatening.
SO much better on the other side of surgery. Happy Thanksgiving to all the American eagles. God bless.
Glad that you’re doing so much better & I’m sure the swallows that aren’t right must be so frustrating, but good that you can see how far you’ve come! Thanks for the update & God bless
Yes, I agree with you on my end. I may never be totally pain free all the time, but so much better. Thankful for all of you this year, and the amazing improvements so far…You have been my friends and support when most around me were distant.
You many posts have been some of the most heartfelt and informative. They’ve made me laugh and cry and feel less crazy all at the same time. As I go into another surgery tomorrow … hyoid again … I am thankful for your posts and perspective. So Thank you !
Greetings, friends! Three days ago was the 1-year anniversary of my first surgery! Looking back, I see now what a sacred/special time that was. I was such a scared little eagle from all the weird symptoms that recovery brought my way. Thank the Lord, I’m not even close to where I was those days!
I got a little cold over the holidays. The sore throat was rough. I’m already so sensitive to swallowing trouble - that sore feeling is no fun. But after I healed - I had flawless swallows! It was as if the swollen glands moved everything around a little for me! I was so excited. As I’ve seen in the past, I did inch back just a tad after that. So I’m back to “great swallows most of the day but a few that rub/catch/click”. But I remain full of hope and life is good. I’m SO much better that I remain grateful that I had the surgeon that I did. Still wearing the silicon patch on the side I had done in May. Will probably stop wearing that soon.
Thank you for this wonderful update, SewMomma! I’m so glad you’re continuing to see improvement. You’re strong & so positive that I expect that little hitch in your swallow will eventually fade away completely. If not, it will be a periodic reminder of God’s faithfulness in bringing you so far from where you started.
Surgery is frightening and healing is a slooow worrisome process but you are now one year out and have the gift to be able to look back and see how far you’ve come.
Thank you for sharing your story. God bless you.
BG
