pain below the sturnum when swallowing

I am 14 days post DS.  When i swallow some things, I get a piercing pain right below my sternum, much like a spasm.   Is this common?  Has anyone else experienced this and should I be alarmed? 
 

That is pretty common.  What can cause it is different for everyone, though for me chicken, especially dry chicken causes that pain to surface almost every time I eat it; Which is why I don't eat it anymore.

I would suggest eating very small tiny bites and chew the food up until it has more or less disintegrated, then swallow.

As your stomach heals and you find out what you can and cannot tolerate you will experience less and less pain like this, just hang in there.

Justin

If I were only 14 days out, and I had "piercing" pain, I would call my surgeon. 

I don't recall having heard of this as a common problem.  And I think you are too new at this to take the chance to guess what it might be.

I had pain like that too, when I would eat too big a mouthful, or something too tough or not mushy enough. I attributed it to the little stomach not wanting to accomodate the larger/tougher food I had eaten. It has now stopped happening. If it gets worse or becomes continuous, definitely check with your surgeon.
Karen

I had similar pains when trying to drink something cold. It felt like whatever I drank was sitting there instead of going down. And it hurt like heck. I experienced this in the hospital too and my doctor sent me home with a prescription for Levisin. It helped reduce those spasms so beverages would go down.

I'm just over a month out now and I don't take the Levisin anymore, but I still get terrible piercing spasms if I try to drink after eating. The dietitian told me not to drink for half an hour after eating, but I did it anyway and voila! Piercing pain in the same spot... followed shortly by vomiting. (Took me three times before I realized what was causing it. I'm not too bright that way.)

 Since it just happens when you swallow some things, I would look at what you're swallowing. You should still be taking tiny, tiny little bites, and chew-chew-chewing to mush before swallowing. It's easy to revert back to normal eating of too big of bites and swallowing without being chewed enough. Hopefully making sure you do those two things will take care of the problem. If you are doing that and still having the pains, then I would talk to your doctor. 

Yes you should be taking tiny bites and chewing, chewing, chewing but also taking Reglan to help your stomach empty and another medication to prevent spasms (a tablet that disolves under your tongue) .  I had troubles even taking a sip of water and the these meds cleared it right up, my surgeon had prescribed them and I just hadn't been taking them early on.  I only used them for a couple of weeks and then all was fine. 

Hope all of this helps,
D

Yep, same thing here. (3 weeks out).  It's like a stuck spasm. :)  Mushy food won't cause it now. Although, water the first week or so did it if I drank too fast.   I'm still finding that solid stuff causes it for me.  (Tried a really wet bit of meat loaf - ooops - instant spasm.)  

I can eat bacon no probs, and 2 nights ago, I tried a piece of moist chicken with no problem until I started to get full.  First sign of a spasm, I quit eating now for a few mins and see if it subsides. 

I tried canned ham last night,... did well with that.   Something I tried that worked was to stop eating and start sucking on freezie or popsicle.  Seems to slide things along for me.