Routine ALS clinic exam...or supposed to be anway!

My wife and I drove to Minneapolis yesterday for, what was intended, my 90 day exam/followup. I first went to Pulmonary for the FVC test. I went up 8%, from 60% in April to 68% now. She had me do the test 5 times, which was a little exhausting, but my percentages stayed just under 70 each time. The FVC test is the one that always makes me nervous, so I was feeling pretty good about my score. Next I saw my nutritionist. Weight stayed steady for the past 100 days and he was pleased with that. Then he asked me about choking. I was honest and said 2 times in the past 3 months...and both times I coughed up the food and no problems breathing. So he was pretty happy all around and told us we had 45 mins. until I saw another specialist, so we went to lunch. Now my diet is just above pureed, more of a mechanical soft diet. So I ordered a ground beef burrito and figured if the shell was too tough, I'd just eat the beef. The gal asked if I wanted tomatoes and I said...sure why not. WRONG....I should NOT have said go ahead with the tomatoes. We sat down to eat and all was going good until my last bite, which was a piece of tomato. I chewed it as best I could and figured it would 'slide down' my throat, after all, the other chunks did. NOT...it got caught, not choking caught, I could breath just fine. But caught just past my trachea. We made our way back to the clinic and the whole time I'm trying to swallow the damned thing. Now usually I generate enough saliva to float a boat...not then, my mouth was nearly dry. The little saliva I could generate wasn't enough to move the piece down. When we got there my wife told them what was up and they brought me back and hooked me to a heart monitor. Sure enough, 150 BPM... Now anytime I have issues while eating my heart rate, and everything else, sky rockets. So they took me to urgent care and hooked me to an EKG machine, blood pressure cuff, the works. My BP was somewhat elevated too, about 150/90. They got an ENT Dr. to shove a camera in my nose and he said, yup I see it. We'll try to use forceps but first we'll numb your throat real good. Well, he sprayed a ton of this awful tasting crap down my throat and I swallowed and gagged at the same time....the tomato slid down, no longer stuck. I tired to tell him but my speech is bad anyway and with that numbing stuff I couldn't get out the words. After a few minutes he took another look and said hey, I think it went down. All I felt was relief and was glad to get back to my clinic appointments. I was glad I didn't see the nutritionist again...but I'm sure he'll have a good laugh AND a stern warning of what NOT to eat. My ALS Dr wasn't concerned at all about my heart rate or BP...she said anytime someone thinks they might choke, things are going to elevate. And it's even more scarey for bulbar onset patients! AMEN Doc!!