I am curious if you have had any relief from this or if the episodes are still happening?
By the way, I did find a lot of information under the heading Laryngospasm. It sure seems by all descriptions tha this is what it is. I am not sure if I can refer to the web site I looked at but it is under the Bastian Medical Media for Laryngospasm. I just found it under a google search.
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This has been happening to me too. It happened once when I was laughing and no one knew what was going on with me I was just hitting my chest in an effort to get some air. It just happened again. I just feel asleep and woke up gasping for air. I am afraid there will be a time I cant correct this. please help. I am afraid to go back to sleep
I just read that too. Let me know if you get anymore information.
I just had the same episode tonight. I also started out waking at night but over the years, since my 20's they have gotten worse. Tonight was the absolute worse. I was just sitting in my chair watching TV and it hit. I tried really hard to breath through this one, like the rest but it took too long so I yelled help for my husband. It took a coupe of yells but he ran down the stairs and wanted to call 911. I finally got through it, but this was the worse by far. My throat felt swollen and sounded raspy after I finally got it back. What is this devil?? I have never gotten so scared that I yelled for help. I almost let my husband call 911
This happened to me awhile ago and I didn't think anything of it. Happened again last night. I am not sleeping when it happens. I just swallow and it seems my windpipe doesn't close or something and my swallow goes down the "wrong hole". I could not breath. I remained calm (shockingly) and took very small breaths from my nose and tried to cough each time after a small breath. When I tried to breath through my mouth it was a strong and horrid wheeze and no air could get in. I walked down the stairs to my boyfriend the whole time this was happening so if I really choked he could at least see me and dial 911. I was so scared. It took like what seemed forever for my windpipe to clear. I feel like I don't want to swallow anymore. :(
Thank god, now I don't feel so all alone anymore. I hate when this happens and I have no answers either. I've had this for several years started at night progressed to anythime diring the day. I too feel the complete terror of a bad episode. Has anyone had an endoscopy?
You should get checked by a doctor of course. Better safe than sorry. I have to tell you though, I also choke on my saliva to the point where my airway is blocked for the longest minute. It's very scary. A doctor told me it was due to acid reflux. I needed to go on medication. For example nexium. They have other over the counter drugs now. You should still get it checked out. Good Luck/
I am so happey to know there are others who recognize this as a serious problem in society. I strongly feel, it should be addressed more thoroughly by the medical community. My own doctor seems to know very little about it.
I am in the same club. I have experienced several episodes of strangling during my sleep. Mine have been caused by unexpected post nasal drip onto the windpipe. Terrifying? Yes and all the other emotions going along with it. I basically learned from experience by breathing through my nose I could still manage a breathe in between the coughing and the panic feeling would lift. I also have episodes of strangling on saliva and or post nasal drip during the day. I have had 3 episodes of being unable to breathe through the nose or mouth, coughing violently, with the airway closed- totally cut off from inhaling air either way. The last one occurred yesterday and was the worst I have had over a 5 year period.
After coughing violently for what seemed like to me at the moment, 1 or 2 minutes with no change, I stood up and hit on my chest a few times, just enough times, I guess too force it on down, then I began to get a few gulps of air between the coughing. It still took a long time to clear the airway though. I have always been alone when they occurred and it has increased my anxiety and fear much more.
A friend said, why didn't you call 911 for help. I replied, "how was I going to tell someone what was wrong with me?"
I am on medication for allergies and GERD.
I read that drinking lots of water will help. Prior to this latest episode, I had not been intaking water like I should for the past several days, I felt somewhat dehydrated that day just before the last episode occurred. I am already working to prevent that in the future. I will do anything reasonable to try to prevent these horrible episodes.
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So glad that I happened onto this page! I have had this same problem for about 5 years now. It started for me with drinking liquids. So I noticed that I wouldn't get strangled as much if I drank through a straw because I could control the direction of the liquid better in my mouth. Then, it started happening with my saliva while I was awake. Sometimes, it is a mild choked cough, but usually it gets so bad that I almost vomit. Also, twice I have actually choked on food too. My niece who is a CNA had to give me the hymlic to get the food out of my throat. I have had a swallow study with Barium done a year ago. The Radiologist told me that only alittle liquid was actually going down my airway, that he wasn't concerned that I was aspirating enough to cause an infection in my lungs. But no doctor has been able to tell me why I suddenly started choking.
I also suffer from this chornic choking (on liquids/flem) disorder. I'm female, 45, healthy with some seasonal allergies. I've been suffering from this condition for at least 15 years, never really understood until recently. With the onset of allergies that cause congestion that gets stuck in the back of my throat, I've been experiencing the choking more often. I have scared the daylights out of my family and coworkers with these sudden choking episodes.
I did go to my family doctor who sent me to an ENT (ear, nose, throat specialist), had an ultrasound on my thyroid, and had my upper GI tract examined with a scope (to see if I had acid reflux etc).
The ultrasound on my thyroid showed everything was fine. So was the scope down my throat to check out my GI tract - all was fine there.
The ENT said my vocal chords and everything else in my throat looked fine. The ENT told me my symptoms are common (choking on liquids but not food), but that it is a "chronic choking condition". He assured me that I will not 'die' from this. I told him I didn't feel too reassured about that since I cannot breathe at all and have had people perform the heimlich on me so I can breathe. I'm still alive, so he must know what he is talking about.
The worse part for me is I have constant congestion (decongestants help only a little) that increases the frequencies of these choking espisodes. Yes it scared the *** out of me becuase I'm afraid I'm going to choke to death. It's hard not to panic during these episodes. I have to tell myself to relax, and if I bend over allowing my throat to be lower than my hips, it feels like gravity helps to open my throat, plus at the same time I have to concentrate on relaxing so my airway will open back up. A few times I have even gotten down on my hands and knees and put my forehead on the floor to get that feeling of 'gravity' helping to open my throat. I have asked my family and coworkers to do their best to please stay calm when this happens, becuase if they are panicking it causes me to start panicing and I have a hard time concentrating on relaxing.
I have read that when the body starts to feel a lack of oxygen (you get tingly feeling like you are going to pass out), your vocals chords/muscles will automatically relax and start letting air back in.
I hope this helps, and I'm sorry to hear that someone suffers from this very scary condition.
wow that sucks
Your post is very old, and I'm not sure you will see this, but I have the same problem. Just happened to me at work, which let me to google and brought me here! This is so very frightening! Seems to be happening to me more frequently than in the past, and the last couple of times I could not get my breath for what seemed like minutes but was probably only a couple of seconds. Horrible wheezing sounds as I tried to catch my breath. Good to know I'm not the only one who can't seem to swallow properly lol!