Doctors etc.

[Guest guest]

Hi new members. etc...

Welcome new members... one of you said something about only some slowness... I've forgotten, from a barium swallow or something. Made me think that there is still something that needs to be investigated, may not be achalasia, but kind of like only being a little bit pregnant. Not really possible is it.

Deborah, glad to hear from you.

New members with vague diagnosis. I think the only thing we all agree on is to find a REALLY GOOD esophagus specialist. So many of us have stories about goofing around with different gi's, taking the same tests over and over and never getting a real diagnosis or wasting a lot of time money and especially emotional distress. Excuse me.... I saw this in an email joke, and excuse me men, But as the joke went, "Put on your BIG GIRL Panties and DEAL WITH IT." This is not a criticism to people just now starting down the path of doctors, I just loved the face that went with it. Kind of a " Brown" expression on her face.

Meaning, if you don't have resolution from medication for GERD, which is so very common, then you need to move to the top of the chain of the doctors and see only the doctors with the MOST experience with esophagus disorders. There are quite a few disorders and achalasia is only one, but it seems like the others, besides basic GERD are rare. You have to insist on seeing these doctors and push your way right to the top.

There is special skill required to administer the tests well and to read them well, especially a manometry. So in the "deal with it" part to get satisfactory answers you probably need to go to a MAJOR teaching medical center and see the heads of the departments. Seems like until you get there, unless you get lucky, you are just taking the same tests from the same well-intended but inexperienced people. You probably wouldn't get treatment from them anyway so you might as well bite the bullet and get to the facility where you would have treatment.

Someone mentioned having a dialation, but didn't have a diagnosis for strictures or achalasia... that scared me because without a diagnosis, what in the world were they dialating?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

This is my FAVORITE website for medical information. Type in achalasia, or then the doctors' names to see if they are well-known. Crossmatch their articles with the major teaching medical centers' websites and by the time you have gone through the doctors' and their specialities you will have probably only a choice of a few doctors that are reasonably close to you. I have to say, almost all of us have been treated by doctors that are published here. They may publish about their surgical procedures, not necessarily achalasia but the same names keep appearing and are almost always heads of very major departments in major hospitals. Having said that, don't be overly impressed with their titles and publications and still grill them as you see fit. As in any industry there are controversial issues and disagreements, but at least these people know enough to debate the issues with expertise.

Good luck with your searches for an accurate diagnosis.

Sandy in So Cal....