Well I did several months ago..my Doc said it was caused by this acid reflux..lately I have not had a problem.

I have had trouble swallowing in general, I haven't seen about it, but I notice that stress has a hand in it. When I am stressed, I lose my appetite and have a hard time swallowing. The food just doesn't want to go down. I think emphasema does also have a hand in it, as coughing does make you cough up not swallow, they are almost fighting each other.

Roe,
I was thinking the same thing as Grannie, is it acid reflux? Acid reflux and emphysema go hand in hand I've been told. I had problems swallowing last year and had an endoscope where they went down my throat w/a camera. I was put on the ppi Omerprazole and it helped a lot.
If not that might it be mucous? Hope you get some anwers. I'd keep asking the doctors! Best wishes.
Madonna

Awe yes I have I have had my esophagus stretched 2 times and sometimes I feel like I need it again. My Doc also said acid reflux and I think advair has something to do with the reflux (makes it worse) but that's just guessing. I was going to gastro doc and he did scope and I had severe yeast in my esophagus also(advair) I have to use it to breath though. U are not alone in this I think acid reflux is common with copd!

No trouble swallowing here....hope yours clears up for you...sorry I'm not much help :)

Until you can see your Doc, you may want to take some Pepto Bismol at night and after you eat chew some Gaviscon or Tums something like that ..it really helps me. Worth a try til you can get a professional answer.

It apparently is not unusual for those with severe COPD to also have problems with swallowing and even aspiration not related to GERD. From what I've read, because of our change in breathing patterns it also affects our swallow patterns. Might be an idea to have a swallow study done... another thing is that some of our meds also have side effects to also developing laryngospasms... makes it feel like food gets stuck on the way down, or swallowing issues.
Here was a good article on some of the side effects associated with the meds we take.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/1015/p1141.html

I have had the same problem -- my family doctor sent me to an ENT, who did agree I clearly had GERD, but, frankly, the Prevacid doesn't seem to have helped a lot. A number of years ago, I did the whole endoscopy, etc. thing, with agreement I have acid reflux. I think, but I don't know, that the problem is worse when I am having the most breathing difficulties.

Part of the problem is that many of the drugs we take for COPD have a side effect of relaxing the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES). This includes plain old albuterol. There are other drugs that do this, too, but I'm not certain which ones. So besides taking medications like PPIs, we need to also watch our diets, not eat late at night, raise the heads of our beds, etc. It all works together to help control the reflux.

After about 2.5 years on a strict GERD diet, I'm now learning what my tummy can tolerate. A lot of it is trial and error, but it's important to try and control the reflux. I used to have numerous granulomas in my lungs caused by the acid, but in my most recent CT scan, they were gone. That's progress!

Hugs, Sue