Hi! I'm Shelley from Illinois. I have not been diagnosed with ALS, but for the past 13 weeks have had problems swallowing. It's like I've forgotten how to swallow. It started with my cutting my food up smaller and taking smaller bites. Then I quit eating certain textures, mashed potatotes, and anything creamy was out. Yet I was still able to eat rice and pastas. Then one day out of the blue, I remember looking at a soda I was drinking and thinking "what if I can't drink liquids" and bam..at that very moment I could not get anything liquid down me. As time went on, I was not able to get ANY food down me either. I have had a barium swallow, a modified barium swallow, and an endoscopy and all came back clean. Tomorrow I'm having a CT scan of my neck and on Thursday another test set up by an ENT doctor. What's puzzling the doctors I see is that if my husband wakes me up in the middle of the night, out of a deep sleep, I am able to drink anything. He wakes me up 3 or 4 times thruout the night and I'm able to get 4 bottles of ensure and some gatoraid down me without any problem at all. But once my brain becomes aware of what's going on, it's like a trap door shuts down in the back of my throat and I can no longer get ANY liquid or food down. My doctor has mentioned a feeding tube if I lose much weight, because I'm very thin to begin with. I think he thinks it may be psychological but to be safe is running all these tests. All I know is that I'm hungry and thirsty all the time and my heart just breaks for those of you diagnosed with this disease. My question is, have any of you ever heard of anyone with ALS being able to drink like I do when awakened from a sleep but not at all during the day? I have not choked on any food, because if I do try to eat it, it's always the same, it won't go down, so I spit it out before even trying to swallow it. I also have excess saliva a lot and spit it into a cup. And at times I have thick phlegm that I can't get seem to hack up. My doctor said my reflex of my tongue was okay, as are all my other reflexes that he checked. Does anyone have any advice for me? Could this be psyschological? If these next 2 tests come back good, I guess I will be making an appt with a psychologist. Again, heart and prayers are going out for all of you who have been diagnosed with this disease and for those of you who have loved ones with it.