Hurting In The Throat After Eating Chicken Bone. How Long Will It Take To Heal?

Posted on Sat, 19 Oct 2013

Question: Yes, thank you for your help. My name is XXXXXXX I've repeatedly scratched the inside of my esophagus over the past few years from swallowing either the wrong thing or swallowing too soon. It started a few years ago when I accidentally swallowed a chicken bone, which got stuck for two days, then finally went down. That messed up my throat for awhile, but it eventually healed. Two days ago I was eating some homemade chicken soup which had been thoroughly checked for bones. While I was swallowing one time I felt a prick on the right side of my esophagus, and then a dull pain was there for the rest of the day. I fear I may have opened up that previous injury, because it happened in the same place. Each time something goes down wrong, it feels like the object is still there after a few days. My question is am I just feeling a scratch or bruise instead of the foreign object, and if I am, how long should the tissue take to heal up? Is there any way to tell whether something is stuck or not without going to a doctor. I've been eating solid foods and drinking liquids and everything has gone down fine. I don't feel a physical object there anymore, but the right side of my throat feels sore and stiff and swollen. I aggravated it three days ago, and I've been worrying about it ever since. Could my stress be making me experience symptoms that aren't really there? I'm planning to go get an endoscopy done just to get piece of mind, because I've been experiencing discomfort off and on for about 2 years. Would you recommend that? I was also wondering whether an MRI would tell me what is going on. My situation is that I have no health insurance and only work a part-time job. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Answered by Dr. Amit Jain (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Yes please get an endoscopy examination

Detailed Answer:
Hello! Thanks for putting your query in XXXXXXX I am a Gastroenterologist (DM).

Hello! XXXXXXX Usually the food should not stuck in normal oesophagus repeatedly either there may be some mechanical narrowing or some motor dysfunction of the muscles of oesophagus. So I will advise you to get an endoscopic examination to see for any pathology in oesophagus.

Persistent feeling of something stuck may be actually a foreign body or it may be lesion caused by the foreign body which may have passed and damaged the oesophagus. it can be confirmed only after endoscopy

Healing of the lesion will depend on the type of injury caused by foreign body.

Stress may aggravate the symptoms no doubt, but something may be there also

Endoscopic examination will be better than MRI in this scenario, however if there is through and through injury that is perforation then definitely imaging like CT or MRI will be better to see for any further complication

So it is advisable to get an endoscopic examination as soon as possible

I hope I have answered your query and this will help you. If you have any further query I will be happy to answer that too. Remain in touch and get-well soon.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar