wow, , Mike, and many other people here....

[Guest guest]

The information you are giving, posting, is phenomenal. I thank you for all of it. I am especially sorry that Mike has been struggling with this A. since he was 13. Now, I call that really unfair. How crummy! Jeesh. Bad! My, my. You must have a very strong character. I applaud you for it. Between marinading food and eating earlier in the evening, and sipping water here and there, and having a Hershey's kiss to help pills go down, and blotting saliva up during the day, and the weird and very loud belching of pockets of air I've got in my lower e., I guess I'm pretty normal. But, I am discouraged, too. I was reading, tonight, about several posts concerning dilations, and I am coming away with this information with a strong visual that the dilations only

widen the esophagus so that more food can just kind of sit there longer. It's a sad and unpleasant thought. Oh, I'm not really feeling so bad for myself. I've eaten everything good this world has to offer, and then some weird stuff, too. I'm just sad that I am so slow to catch on. I guess, months and months ago, when I was reading about Achalasia, on-line and in publications, I thought the surgery would be strong preemptive strike. But now I think what I see is that each of us is different in how this thing progresses. We have ideas of what causes this disease. I am most interested in the trauma to the esophagus and/or the throat or chest because, ages ago, when I was married to my first husband, he used to pommel me in the upper chest (he was a former Golden Gloves boxer and he

liked to hit me---I left him before we were married a whole year). So, I have had trauma to my upper chest. But, it is the differences amongst us that I am watching out for. Everything I read here is helpful. I guess I am feeling a bit sad tonight. I'll come out of it tomorrow morning. I've got lots of good work to do, writing and marketing my stuff, and talking to fellow writers. And it seems very normal, to me, that I feel sad over this Achalasian thing. I'll feel better soon, at least emotionally. And, if all else fails, I still insist that I can swill down some great ice cream and I can always brush my teeth with hot buttered lobster. wishing all of you the very best of swallows, Deborah