Featured Image Credit: Jam Press
Topics: World News, Food And Drink, Health
Anish Vij
Why live in a pineapple under the sea when you can float around in a dude's stomach?
A man who complained for days about not being able to swallow any food or drink had a sea creature pulled out of his throat by a doctor, as you do.
The 55-year-old was taken to the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore where health experts underwent a number of tests to get to the bottom of the issue.
The unnamed patient explained that he ate octopus as part of his meal, which caused him to vomit immediately after.
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He was later admitted to hospital for a tomography scan for his oesophagus, or gullet, a muscular tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.
After the scan revealed a hyperdense mass in the man’s oesophagus, the 55-year-old was then ordered to have an oesophagogastroduodenoscopy.
Yes, that is a real word.
EGD for short, it's a simple procedure to examine the lining of the esophagus, stomach, and first part of the small intestine.
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Although attempts to remove the creature were unsuccessful the first time round, doctors were eventually able to extract it.
The medical team explained: “The ‘push technique’ is the primary method recommended with high success rates, however applying excessive force can cause oesophageal perforation.”
The man was discharged from the hospital two days later.
Now, from one man's swallowing struggles to another, Liam Findley recently opened up about his rare condition.
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In 2017, he ‘suddenly’ started to experience difficulty swallowing while eating, and although it began with just food, the condition worsened to the point that even drinking water became difficult.
He told LADbible: “It came along unexpectedly in 2017. I normally ate - I enjoyed eating - but then suddenly, my food pipe became like a blocked drain.
“It came on suddenly, but it got worse gradually. I could swallow normally with some difficulty at first, but then thicker things - like chips or bread - I couldn’t have anymore and then eventually it was everything down to water.
“I kind of had to resort to living off smoothies and high-fat soup, and when I would have that and water as well only so much would go down, so I ended up losing lots of weight and became quite weak.”
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In Liam’s case, doctors decided to operate and in 2019 he underwent an operation called Heller's Myotomy in which the muscle at the entrance to the stomach is cut allowing food and drink to pass through.
However, even after undergoing the surgery Liam still struggles to eat as normal.
He said. “I can pretty much eat whatever I want as long as I have plenty of water to wash it down.
"But I avoid thicker foods, because I also get spasms in my stomach. It's like a crushing pain in my stomach, where my nerves are kind of confused and it's just really really painful, it’s like being winded.
"That happens when I have thicker things that might get stuck in my food pipe, so I still avoid some food.”