Food gets stuck in throat easily/extremely painful esophageal pain /stringy saliva

[CD552]

Hey,
So I'm an 18 year old male and this is something I've been suffering from for several years. Basically, whenever I eat certain foods (namely chicken) it tends to get stuck in my throat, despite the fact that I chew it to a pulp (my friends and family have commented on how slow I eat). When it gets stuck, I feel my throat trying to push it down, but with each pulse the pain gets worse and worse. I know that if it doesn't go down within a few pulses, I'm screwed and I'm in for some serious pain. It feels like my throat is closing in on itself, the pain radiates all over my chest and back. Then I start protruding this weird stringy saliva excessively, so stringy in fact, that when I try to stop the current of saliva draining from my throat, it sticks to my hands, the towel or whatever I'm trying to stop it with.

The saliva isn't mucusy at all, it's crystal clear, and it takes forever for it to finally stop, and my saliva's consistency is fine otherwise. It feels like I'm drowning in my saliva, swallowing or taking a drink whilst I'm experiencing an attack causes extreme pain and gasping for air, or even panic.

I've had my throat examined several months back with a "Laryngoscopy" which was pretty uncomfortable, but it came back fine. They're well trained so I'd hope they would pick up on things like Schatzki rings, peptic strictures, webs etc. but nope, nothing.

This has led me to believe that there isn't anything wrong with my throat itself, but it's moreso like my throat goes into a spasm and overreacts when it detects than a minute bit of food is stuck. This may mean it's and esophageal spasm, but that wouldn't explain the saliva. Also, I'm fairly sure this isn't acid reflux (far more painful than that) or nasal drip down the back of my throat, the only time my nose runs is when it's cold, I knew someone with chronic sinusitis and his nose was literally running 365 days of the year, so I know it's not that.

To put it into perspective, earlier I ate a spoonful of beans and that caused and attack (first time that's happened and what made me come here, even though it's happened about a dozen times prior), I was in agony over beans. In fact, I can no longer swallow cod liver oil tablets as they're the perfect size to get to stuck in my throat, but the ENT specialist said it was fine. Maybe my throat closes up a little if I'm anxious, but I'm not, and strangely but thankfully it happens less in public than at home.

Any ideas?  

[specialmom]

I'm sure this makes you anxious. When I feel like I can't swallow something, it's very bothersome.  My son, who is now 16, has something called 'gag memory'.  He's got sensory integration disorder which is a neurological developmental delay.  Don't let that throw you off, ha. He's a solid A student in honors classes in high school, a Varsity athlete as a sophomore and in the school marching band.  Successful and you'd never know he had this neurological issue.  And in fact, people probably have it and aren't aware.  Most of his issues presented when he was young and we worked on them.  Choking and gagging on food were common and meat was a big one.  The issue with sensory integration disorder is the traditional problem with various textures but even more so with motor planning.  Motor planning is how your nervous system communicates with your muscles and you use a ton of muscle control and coordination believe it or not to chew. So, when little, my son would gag. A lot.  And on things like chicken and meat.  So, once he was chewing normally, he found that he still gagged and had a choking sensation when eating chicken or meat.  Because of 'gag memory'.  The food would enter his mouth, his brain would send a signal, bad.  Then the choking/gagging sensation.  We worked through it with an occupational therapist.  Things like cutting the meat into very small and tiny pieces helps.  Having a drink with it to wash it down helps. And there is a book named "food chaining' that helps with steps to overcome it.  

Any chance at all something like that is going on with you?

[CHIN_C]

Consider additional tests such as fluoroscopic barium swallow and/or modified barium swallow.