Achalasia
After doing some digging on the Internet I believe that I've found the name of the disorder that I've been dealing with prior to the Heller Myotomy and after the surgery. Apparently it's called achalasia which is an esophageal mobility disorder. In other words it's the deterioration of the muscular ability to move food down from the esophagus to the stomach when you swallow food and the lower esophageal sphincter fails to relax properly when you are swallowing. Prior to having the Heller Myotomy it was virtually frightening when I would be trying to get food to go down. Nothing would move down unless if I really forced enough pressure to get the food to move. In doing so poses a great risk of choking to death. My other method would be to induce vomiting. Trust me a diet broccoli and cheese potato coke is not something that I would enjoy drinking. However, this is what I had to go through every time. Some occurrences weren't so bad as others, but still was a pain to go through. Also every few days I would end up with a bout of heartburn. My teeth and lungs would just ache from it but it would go away after a few minutes. Also going though this would deprive me of my sleep. I would be coughing trying to keep whatever is in my esophagus down. If that didn't do anything it would be either coming through my nose or I would be throwing it up. Not to mention that it's an embarrassment for me to laugh hard because anything that was in my esophagus would be coming out through my nose.
Since the Heller Myotomy I'm still faced with having difficulties swallowing food. Fortunately it's not as severe as it was prior to the surgery. I can get food down but it takes me a good three attempts to get enough pressure to get the food to move down to my stomach. However, it does make me more prone to getting heart burn. I need to be propped up a little when laying down or sleeping to keep any stomach acid from getting into my esophagus. I still have issues with coughing while I'm sleeping but it's not as bad as it was. Though I still find that I have fluid in my esophagus that I do have to cough up if I can't get it to go down. Increased occurrences of belching is something that has come up as a result of the surgery. It's happened a few times while I've been doing work at a customer's site. Unfortunately there's not really too much that can be done about it. It happens when it happens and when I don't expect it to happens. Situations where I end up either laughing or coughing are still problematic. Again not much can be done about that.
So now I believe I officially know what I have. As for treatment, there's not really that much that can be done. Once a year I'll need to go for an endoscopy to make sure that there's no severe damage to my esophagus due to heart burn. Other than that I'll just make the best of it until something can be done about it.
Since the Heller Myotomy I'm still faced with having difficulties swallowing food. Fortunately it's not as severe as it was prior to the surgery. I can get food down but it takes me a good three attempts to get enough pressure to get the food to move down to my stomach. However, it does make me more prone to getting heart burn. I need to be propped up a little when laying down or sleeping to keep any stomach acid from getting into my esophagus. I still have issues with coughing while I'm sleeping but it's not as bad as it was. Though I still find that I have fluid in my esophagus that I do have to cough up if I can't get it to go down. Increased occurrences of belching is something that has come up as a result of the surgery. It's happened a few times while I've been doing work at a customer's site. Unfortunately there's not really too much that can be done about it. It happens when it happens and when I don't expect it to happens. Situations where I end up either laughing or coughing are still problematic. Again not much can be done about that.
So now I believe I officially know what I have. As for treatment, there's not really that much that can be done. Once a year I'll need to go for an endoscopy to make sure that there's no severe damage to my esophagus due to heart burn. Other than that I'll just make the best of it until something can be done about it.