Pill stuck in my throat - when to seek medical attention?

My dad takes a Keppra horsepill and he has just called to tell me that it was stuck in his throat.  Right away, I told him to eat some rice or bread.  He said he had already tried that but it still felt like it was stuck in his throat.  Immediately, I went online and saw a couple of responses.  The first couple of responses said not to take any carbonated beverages but this thread of replies said it was ok and that it worked, for the most part.  What do i do?

Only thing I have to do is massage my throat and it goes down! You should try it sometime make sure you drink water or something first to help it go down

I took two tiny pills today without water. They were stuck deep in my throat for an hour. I tried drinking a bunch of water with no results. After reading the posts about coke I came up with a brilliant idea: Beer! I don't know if an IPA is more acidic than coke, but it really seems to be helping. I'm about 12ozs in and the pills feels half the size. Maybe the scientist can test it;)

This morning I had to go to the hospital to have a Nuclear Medicine Bile Absorption Test carried out. When the time came for me to take the 'nuclear' capsule, I wasn't given the beaker of water until after I had put the capsule into my mouth. Too late I discovered that the beaker only contained a very small amount of water. When I returned to the waiting room I felt that the capsule was stuck in my throat. The procedure involves waiting for an hour after swallowing the capsule and then another set of readings/images are taken. I went back to see the medical guy who was carrying the procedure out to explain and he suggested I have a couple of beakers of water. I really feel he should have allowed me a few sips of water before handing me the capsule in the first place, and he should have certainly given me a full beaker of water, the lack of which seems to have caused this problem. When I was called to have the second images/readings taken over an hour later, I was asked if taking the water had worked, but I explained that I still had the feeling the capsule was stuck in my throat. ''Strange that'' was his reply, and the procedure was carried out and I was sent on my way with the instruction not to eat for two hours. During those two hours the feeling of the stuck capsule in my throat has continued. The two hours passed and I can now eat and so have just taken an egg cup of Olive Oil, eaten some bread and I am now taking some warm soup and more bread as I write this....All of which seems to have helped reduce the sensation of a stuck capsule but not entirely, and so I am wondering If it is just that which I am experiancing...A 'Sensation' rather than an actual stuck capsule!? My concern is that if it is the capsule has stuck in my throat, then it wouldn't have done what it was supposed to have done for the procedure to have worked. My second concern is that the capsule is a 'nuclear' one and I am worried that the contents may harm my throat! I'm now onto trying some bread and cheese which will hopefully do the job...I'll let you know how things go.

You guys are a life saver! This happens to me a couple times a year, and just happened this morning. Like a lot of you I can still breathe, it's just hard to swallow and super uncomfortable! I drank about 1 oz. of olive oil and then flushed that down with hot salt water and BOOM! I felt a little "bump" and the pill went down, relief at last. Thanks for the tips everyone!

Did ur pill dissolve right away? I took a small pill. Super small. And its been stuck in my throat since yesterday.i need help its so uncomfortable and ive tried everything. .so i go to the ER or should it dissolve .LAST NIGHT I slept so uncomfortable i dont know if its cuz of the pill..any suggestions?

I take vitamins funny hair. 2 gigantic horse pills. First time even They stuck in my throat. It was awful. Causin me gag....thought I was gonna throw up. Ran across this. The bread worked with first bite! I was shocked... I was gagging and hurting so I thought I would try anything..... worked first thing. Thanx so much.

Thought I was dying n thought bout doin to er! Had one bite of toast n worked instantly!!!

Im 21 years old and had my tonsils removed a week ago, the swelling as expected is huge but i went to take a Tylenol and when i swallowed my throat lodged the pill up in the hole in the back of my throat that goes up into my nose. Here i sit, already tried netti pot, nasal spray and snoring loud which i can feel the muscles tighten around it making it painful and im currently eating bread that seems to be getting me no where. I'm afraid to go to sleep and choke on the pill....it's been 2 hours already. Please help. Currently don't have any oil to drink.

try touching your chin to your chest while eating a cracker then swallow,make sure you dont chew into little pieces or you can try to heat some hot tea or coffee and drink it and it should dissolve the pill,hope that helps you.

Does this give you heartburn? And do you warm the coke up first. Because I tried putting the gel pill that got stuck in my throat in some cold coke, and it didn't dissolve. But when I warmed up the coke, and then put thepill in the coke iit dissolved.

The best thing is oil, drink some olive oil, and wait for a minute, the pill will slip.

Bear in mind that your experiment may be invalid due to your cutting the pill.. Many are specifically designed either with a single protective layer or multiple layers that dissolve more slowly and release the contents over time.

By cutting the pill, you're short-circuiting that mechanism.

Of course, for things like aspirin which are consistent throughout, it shouldn't matter but not all pills are like that...

If you have taken an emergency course, you remember that the 1st thing you did while leaning CPR, is to tilt the head back to open the air passage. So I have to say that your recommendation is just the opposite of what you want to achieve. Also, when taking a pill, you should bend your head down, as this is the position that gives the esophagus a larger opening to swallow the pill. Also, moisten the pills first with saliva, or water before their journey down the "right pipe

Yesterday I took several pills at once and obviously not enough water. It got stuck in my food pipe. I tried to drink some water but the pain was incredible. I guess my esophagus was squeezing and trying to puch it down. I forced vomit and tried to drink some water. Waves of piercing pain were coming and going. It was quite scary. Eventually water helped, pills dissolved and went down. The hole think lasted over 35 minutes. I learned my lesson - drink a lot of water with your pills.