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At 12:19 PM 2/27/1999 -0800, Pixilated wrote:
>        Judging from the responses it seems pain and tightness in the chest
>are very common.  As for me, I tend to believe that it was aspiration of
>fluids AND esophageal spasm.  I remember at the time that my esophagus was
>hurting and I could feel that it was spasming.

Actually it's "ingesting" fluids; "aspirating" would be to inhale into the
bronchial tube and lungs.

Again, because so many have written asking about two things =96 chest pains
and the queasy foggy-headed feeling =96 I thought, since the two may be
related, at least for some of us, I'd write this to the list for those who
are interested.

Here is my doc's explanation of the two (as near as I can remember it), and
I have a lot of confidence in him. He's an internist, but when I started
having problems and phoned him, he told me over the phone he thought it
sounded like celiac and made me an appointment with a GI doc in Seattle.

First the queasy feeling. I have had what I believed were episodes of low
blood sugar or insulin reaction, where I felt too crappy to do anything,
for several years and just worked around them. It often took a week or
more. After discovering the gluten problems it seemed to be getting worse I
asked him about this, and he told me that many celiacs were prone to an
over-production of acid after ingesting certain foods, either gluten
accidents, alcohol, or fatty foods. And this can cause either the queasy
low sugar feeling and the chest pain, not necessarily at the same time.

The chest pain is because of two reasons: 1. a gluten accident causes gas
and the pressure forces the acid back up the esophagus causing heart-burn
if there's a little, or, if there's a lot of acid, the sphincter at the
bottom of the esophagus spasms and cramps and causes pain, much like a
cardiac event, especially after lying down at night so the acid can run
downhill into the esophagus. Then if you ingest either fatty foods or
alcohol, both fat and alcohol relax the sphincter at the bottom of the
esophagus, this allows acid to pour in, especially after you lie down in
bed, and then the sphincter spasms, cramps, and it hurts like a cramped
muscle, often feeling like a cardiac event.

He told me to take, not just one, but two or more Zantac 75 pills for this,
then repeat again after an hour or two if the pain hasn't completely
subsided. It's important to end the pain because the acid will do a lot of
harm to the esophagus over an extended period of time if this keeps
happening. I take two pills, then a Tums for somewhat  immediate relief.
Often I need to take the other two later.

The queasy feeling comes from the same foods, and with me may last for a
week to three if not attended. It's like something kicks my acid meter out
of whack. My previous treatment was to keep something in my stomach all the
time, a half or even a quarter sandwich at a time -- I even had to get up
several times at night and eat a quarter. He gave me a prescription for
some Prevacid (15 mg). When such a queasy feeling comes now, I take one
pill every 24 hours: it seems to reset my acid meter back into sync within
two or three days. I looked up the side effects and it seems to have almost
none, and can be taken every day permanently, apparently permanently. If
I'm off-base with some of this, and you're qualified, please let me know. I
don't want to spread false stuff (a technical term we use in academia :)
-vance