How do strictures start out?

I am five weeks out.  everything has been tickety-boo but last couple of days I've started having some discomfort while eating.  My volume of food is the same.  It's not very painful and it's gone in about 10 mins.  I have no issues drinking so far.  I don't throw up or anything.

Do strictures start out gradually (in other words if it is a stricture would symptoms gradually get worse?)  or do they happen pretty quickly?

i like this question. i hope u get some responces, id like to know this myself. i have been trying a variety of things and sometimes i get sick and feel as if im choking. i can take papya enzymes and drink some warm tea and it gradually goes away . but im scared of strictures.  i wonder , if everybody gets them at least once. thanks for asking this . u took the words out of my mouth ...

Lets hope we get some answers! 

 Mine was sort of gradual about 2 - 3 months after surgery. I could do slider foods (yogurt w/no lumps, pureed soups, some shakes), but things I had eaten say a week or two prior were difficult to pass. Some would get stuck, and I just end up bringing it back up because there wasn't anywhere for it to go.

When I had my dialation, the doctor said it was a pinhole. 

I'm all better now.

I've had two strictures dialated, and both started out with nausea and proceeded to vomitting. If you know you're having trouble getting food to pass through, go ahead and call your doctor. The procedure for opening them back up was fairly routine--an endoscopy with dialation. You are put in twilight state, and you won't remember the procedure itself. Good luck!

I wa**** all of a sudden with mine. I just couldn't keep food down. My pouch also felt swollen after eating.

When you have the pain, does it feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest?  I'm a week behind you, but was having a feeling like that and I was worrying that I was "developing" a stricture.  I talked with my Dr at my 1-month follow up and he explained that it was an esophageal spasm.  He said that it helps if you sit up straight and stretch your esophagus, but the best prevention is to drink something warm BEFORE you eat a meal.  I learned all this on Tuesday and started doing it Wednesday and I have had good luck with it.

I think the biggest thing for me was that I never felt nauseous with it, just really uncomfortable until it passed. 

Yeah, I think it sounds a bit like what you had.  I noticed when I had some tea that I didn't feel a problem.  Seems to have worked itself out now.  I realized I was having my meals in a chair that reclines a bit when you sit in it.  (I'm not nauseous either.)

Food has been going down just fine.

I found that keeping everything, including my beverages, warm helped in the first several months.  I ended up having "pouch" spasms that wouldn't stop until I was medicated.  That and warmth helped keep the muscles relaxed.  It was scary and painful.  Listen to your doctor or the nurses, they do know best.

Mine seemed very sudden. Was fine one day then throwing up  the next day.