As a former chef Louise Rogers adored food.
It was a passion which meant she looked forward to cooking every day.
But about four years ago the 24-year-old went to her doctors with severe pains only to leave feeling embarrassed after being told it was only heart burn.
Despite the embarrassment she ended up having to keep going back and forth to her GPs who told her it was nothing serious as she was far too young to have any major medical issues.
The 28-year-old business development manager from Lockwood Scar, said: “I’d always drunk a lot with my meals to help food go down so I don’t know when it properly started.
“I didn’t notice the food issues initially but it started with liquids of a night time.
“About two-and-a-half years ago my partner Julie starting waking me up in the night, water and small bits of food that were getting stuck in my oesophagus and going on to my lungs.
“So she kept having to wake me. then along with that if food was stuck I’d get severe burning in my chest.
“Due to being told it was acid reflux I tried my best to go onto a more alkaline diet.
“My partner didn’t drink fizzy drinks so I cut them out initially, this was when I really started to notice the difference. From there I really struggled, a couple of unpleasant choking episodes which were pretty scary.”
When she moved from Runcorn to Huddersfield last year she started going to a doctors in Lepton to get her prescription for reflux.
Medics referred her to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, (HRI), for an endoscopy in November.
Louise added: “This was extremely scary as I really didn’t know what it would find.
“The last 12 months it really has got worse. to the point where water wouldn’t even go down, every time I had to eat and drink it scared me so much.
“It would either gather in my oesophagus and all come back out and I would have to run to the toilet.”
Eventually she was told she suffered from a condition called Achalasia, an auto immune disease, for which there is no known cause and which affects around 6,000 people in the UK.
It is a disorder of the oesophagus where the muscles stop working properly to allow food to pass into the stomach.
It is mainly found in older women and it is rare for young women like Louise to develop the condition.
This month is achalasia awareness month and Louise hopes that by publicising her plight other sufferers may be helped.
Only 300 cases per year are diagnosed and HRI do on average just five operations for this per year.
Louise said: “I’m a very strong person but this very nearly broke me. Eating and drinking is something you do without even thinking about it. You swallow your food, your body does the rest.
“Mine didn’t. I would dread taking a drink of water. Going out was a nightmare having to work out the nearest toilet locations.
“I’d try and hide it quite well, walk off to the toilet like everything was OK, then my whole meal would come up. It completely drained me physically, mentally and emotionally.
“The only thing that got me through and kept just enough food down to carry on was fizzy drinks. I’d have to go through eight cans of Pepsi and four bottles of sparkling water per day.
“The majority of this would come back up, but the gas and pressure in the cans would sometimes be enough to force some food through.
But on 19 July she went in to HRI for an operation called a laparoscopic cardiomyotomy which changed her life.
Louise said: “The operation was a complete success and I can now eat a completely normal diet.
“I can’t explain the relief at that first cold glass of water. my first full meal was lasagne and of course there was plenty of tears. I have since put on half a stone in weight since the operation.
“I’m now on anti-reflux tablets for the foreseeable future as a result of it but I’m starting to manage this with my diet.
“The whole team at HRI has changed my life. I am forever grateful to them.
“They have given me the chance to be happy and enjoy life again and no matter what my future holds for me, I will never forget it.”
