When food goes down the wrong pipe, how does it get to the stomach?

[midnightdeirdre]

Last night I was eating dinner of medium pasta shells and meatballs. One of the pasta shells got stuck in my throat; not in my windpipe, but somewhere in my neck. I could feel it, and if I gagged it would've gone up my throat into my mouth. I didn't want to do that so I kept drinking water until it went down. (Didn't take too long, which is good.)

 

But it was an (understandbly) unpleasant feeling. I was afraid to gag it up for fear of choking or vomiting. But if it happens again, should I just do what I did (keeping sipping water)? What if that doesn't work? As the forum title reads, how does it even get to the stomach if food is stuck in the wrong pipe (but evetually goes down)?

 

Has anyone had to go the ER as a result of something like this? (Or had to be hymleched?)

 

Thanks!

[Smile12]

We actually only have ONE PIPE. That whole, "it goes down the wrong pipe" thing is not accurate at all. People just say that when it doesn't go down their pipe properly.

[engraved2008]

Yes..i almost died one day with a piece of meat,but someone that knew how to perform CPR saved me....be careful with talking and eat without chewing.

[abitbroken]

When you feel something goes down the wrong pipe, really the food just touched the opening or the safety door of the wrong pipe. it didn't actually go down there. It won't get stuck halfway in your lungs. it just may block the opening or not even the opening to it, but a spot in the throat where nothing can go down either pipe - food or air.

[Seraphim]

The epiglottis opens when we breath and closes to let the food to by pass the entrance to the lungs.( so to speak) It is the simple version. Sometimes people get stuff caught in the opening. That is when they use the heimlich. Mostly when we get the gag feeling is because we grazed the opening.

[Deciduous]

Hi Autumnrose

 

As you know, there's two pipes in the throat, the food pipe to your stomach and a wind pipe to your lungs. Yours did go down the right food pipe to your stomach, it just got stuck. If it had gone down your wind pipe, you would have stopped breathing and choked to death. Ouch!

 

Sometimes, even though you have chewed enough, the throat muscles goes into spasms. Clenching and unclenching, but not really shifting, which is great fun as you can imagine. It's mainly an anxiety thing with me. Don't know why it happens. Not to be disgusting I usually force it up because it won't go down, and I start to panic which makes it worse. Any-way sounds like you sorted yours out by softening it with water. Maybe it simply wasn't chewed enough.

 

Any-way, this is what I had. Cricopharyngeal spasm. link removed Not sure if yours is the same.

 

Deci

[Seraphim]

link removed

 

This also moves the food down through your digestive system.

[luminousone]

There is only one pipe that food is supposed to go down, and that is the esophagus. And the other poster is correct in that we have a flap that covers our airpipe (the trachea) while we are swallowing.

 

If food gets stuck in the esophagus, then you will either need to let yourself gag it up (you can use a napkin) or swallow it down. Using water to wash it down was a good idea for you.

 

It sounds as if it got caught in the flap before it closed properly, and your body's natural protection (the gag response) went into action.

 

If you had inhaled your food, it would have gotten into your trachea and then into your lung. Some people do not have a strong gag response, due to brain injury or stroke. The body may not prevent food from going down into their lungs. Often people that have that problem may have frequent pneumonia in the left lower lung lobe, due to the way our lungs are anatomically positioned in relation to the trachea and esophagus.

 

But all of us choke on food from time to time. Just be careful when eating, and hope that all your friends and family know the heimlich!

[midnightdeirdre]

Thank you, this was comforting. Sometimes I practice the heimlich on myself just in case no one is around.

[midnightdeirdre]

Yes..i almost died one day with a piece of meat,but someone that knew how to perform CPR saved me....be careful with talking and eat without chewing.

 

Don't you mean the heimlich? (When they got it out of your throat, they had to perform CPR because you couldn't breathe on your own?) I'm glad you ended up okay.

[midnightdeirdre]

Hi Autumnrose

 

As you know, there's two pipes in the throat, the food pipe to your stomach and a wind pipe to your lungs. Yours did go down the right food pipe to your stomach, it just got stuck. If it had gone down your wind pipe, you would have stopped breathing and choked to death. Ouch!

 

 

Well, I'm sure one of my parents would've saved me from choking to death. But thanks for the rest of your insight.

[thejigsup]

You can aspirate on food or liquid going into your windpipe fairly easily. It happens. When it does, you would know it, though. You are safe.

[Deciduous]

One of the pasta shells got stuck in my throat; not in my windpipe, but somewhere in my neck. Has anyone had to go the ER as a result of something like this? (Or had to be hymleched?)

 

Ooops. I think we are getting confused. Autumn's saying the windpipe wasn't involved at all. This wasn't choking and the airways weren't blocked. The windpipe was bypassed successfully.

 

Food made it into the correct tube, but instead of the tube lightly contracting to push the food down, it went into spasm. It's called a Cricopharyngeal spasm and bloomin awful too.

 

You wouldn't need to be heimliched for this. Heimlich is a technique to force air suddenly out of the lungs to clear the windpipe of food or debris. This wouldn't really work for a cricopharynageal spasm as the problem is with a different pipe. (LOL, Autumn - How to do practice heimlich on yourself? Gonna have to teach me that

 

As stupid as it sounds I did have to go ER (well the Walk-In centre in England) I was given a supository muscle relaxant (diazepam) I've never felt so daft in my life, but I'd worked myself up into such a panic that everything had been getting stuck for four hours. I've always had throat spasms but never that bad.

 

But as I said, in your case, perhaps the food was just a bit too lumpy to pass smoothly down.

 

Cricopharyngeal Spasm

 

There are two valves in the esophagus or swallowing tube. They are normally lightly contracted and they relax when you swallow, so that food can pass through them going to the stomach. They then squeeze closed again to prevent regurgitation of the stomach contents. If the normal contraction becomes a spasm (like a charlie horse of the calf muscle) these symptoms start. Stress often makes these spasms much worse. Many people have experienced neck tightness when stressed and this is similar. Even if not caused by stress, stress will make the spasm much worse. Relaxation in many forms (from alcohol to meditation) may improve the symptoms.

[luminousone]

It sounds like this is an isolated incidence, but if it seems to be happening often then you should be sure to talk with your doctor about it.

 

If your doctor had concerns, then an xray "swallow study" will be ordered for you. A Speech-Language Pathologist will oversee it along with the radiologist and staff. They will then evaluate whether your muscles and swallow mechanisms are working properly.

 

They will often do this with varying textures of food - some people swallow better with different textures over others.

 

Here is a video of a swallow study. Mostly it is an xray video, but they also show inside the throat with a camera during swallowing... so you will be able to see the flap cover your airways when swallowing.

 

Here is a video of a swallow study, and it shows how the food goes down.

 

 

 

Anyway, this sounds like an isolated incident. And yes, the Heimlich will only work if food is aspirated into your windpipes.

 

And as far as doing Heimlich on yourself - I have been told that you could use a chair in a pinch - you do what you have to do if no-one else is around...

[midnightdeirdre]

(LOL, Autumn - How to do practice heimlich on yourself? Gonna have to teach me that

 

Just type it in a search engine (I found it on google). You just do the same thing to yourself what you'd do to another person.

[Ariel85]

Does anyone else remember the guy who swallowed a pea shoot and it took root and started growing in his lung? Makes you think twice about when your Mom told you as a kid not to swallow watermelon seeds...

 

link removed

[MakeItCount]

Does anyone else remember the guy who swallowed a pea shoot and it took root and started growing in his lung? Makes you think twice about when your Mom told you as a kid not to swallow watermelon seeds...

 

link removed

 

my grandma had me scared crapless with that for like a year!! hahaha.

 

there's nothing to panic about here. Minor screw up. When you swallow, the trachea (wind pipe) moves up to the epiglottis (Flap), thus preventing food from going down the windpipe and directing to the esophagus (goes to your stomach). Sometimes peristalsis (think squeezing toothpaste out) screws up for various reasons. Happens to me once in a while too.

 

lol@cpr.