I have 'lump in throat' symptoms similar to those described in some of these posts, but it doesn't seem serious enough yet to see a physician. That said, I do have a question. Let me explain my problem better first.

Yesterday while eating (macaroni and cheese, to be precise) I had a somewhat common sensation, that of swallowing a bit of food that hadn't been thoroughly enough chewed. I do this a lot, because I have a tendency to eat quickly to get it over with and do whatever else I feel like doing. Kind of stupid, I know, but it happens. I've done it for years without a problem.

This time, I took a drink to help wash it down, but instead of the feeling going away as it normally does, it stayed partially. It was as if I had a piece of food stuck roughly at the level of the epiglotis. I panicked a bit, and took another bite to try to push it down. After doing this and drinking a huge amount of water, I relaxed; the food clearly wasn't lodged in my trachea or blocking the esophagus. I could eat, breathe, and speak with little or no difficulty. I decided to ignore it in the hopes that it would go away.

It's been about 24 hours now. I've reviewed similar posts on this forum and many others, and it seems to be a common thing. I'm no longer panicking, but i'd still like to be rid of it.

Eating, drinking, and just swallowing helps. It feels as though the object (i'm assuming there really is something there, as I was eating when it started) is forced down my throat and stops bothering me as much, but if I try to swallow several times to push it into my stomach, I get a small pain low in the esophagus, in the chest, really, as well as in my back at the same elevation.

My question...Well, questions, are as follows: if it is in fact a piece of food stuck (somehow) in the esophagus, how can I get rid of it? I can't visualize what's going on here. How could some piece of food be stuck, yet able to move around, and not continue down with all my other food? Why doesn't it interfere with my eating?

I tried to induce vomiting last night, but couldn't really bring myself to do it. I'm not even sure if it would help. I've tried eating and drinking thick things...Which did nothing. If it's just food and not some kind of disorder, won't saliva eventually liquify it? That's my hope. I'm doing some traveling tomorrow and would rather not be on the road for 7 hours dealing with this. Any advice would be appreciated.