Hi
I just read your post and that was me. I suggest you go to another gastro doc. As soon as I told my doc I felt like I couldnt swallow and that it seems that food was stuck in my esphagus he scheduled me immediately for an edoscopy. He had to stretch out my esphogus to make it larger so food could go down. He found that the acid reflux had scarred my esphogus so that is why it felt tight when i ate. Also he found a hiatal hernia and that heliocpter bacteria/ gastritis that could eventually lead to ulcers and stomach cancer if not treated.
My suggestion is to at least get a doctor to do the endoscopy so they can see what is going on down there. I took pepcid, zantac, other OTC for years...that really helped, huh? Now I take Protonix (this is basically a stronger drug of the same thing but you cant get it OTC) and I go see my gastro doc every four months.