I'm four days post-op today and felt up to riding a stationary recumbent bike in our gym for a few miles - felt fine afterward - lots of gurgling of the bowels but in a good way. When I got back home, I took a few sips of room-temp Propel to re-hydrate - tasted great and went down fine. I decided (rather foolishly in hindsight) to have a few sips of a Protein shake (a COLD protein shake) to get some protein in my system.

Within a few seconds after drinking it, it felt like someone was trying to rip my breastbone out of my chest! The pain dropped me to my hands and knees. My girlfriend (who's an ER nurse) immediately recognized this as an esophageal spasm and encouraged me to breathe - taking in a few warm, deep breathes as well as making myself belch (I don't know if belching actually helped or not but it did feel good), the pain subsides after a several seconds.

Today's Lesson Learned: be very cautious of drinking fluids which differ greatly in temperature from that of your body! If you're body temp is elevated (e.g. from working out, being out in the sun), avoid drinking cold, refrigerated drinks! Similarly, if your body temp is low, be careful of drinking hot or warm liquids as investigation shows that Hot drinks in a cold body can have the same effect.

I had that same problem for about a week. Now I am using ice for my Protein drinks. Hopefully yours gets better soon!

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Esophageal spasm! That's what I've been having. Thanks for the info!