1)  For CJD patient and other neurological disease where erratic nerve signal trigger throat muscle cramping leading to suffocation.
 
2)  For others should throat muscle ever encountered some form of muscle cramping.
 
 
In the beginning of my wife’s CJD illness, it was mentioned that suffocation is the main cause of CJD death.  I have incorrectly thought that the suffocation was due to eating when the food enter the lung.  Because my wife is fed through the stomach via a G-tube, I felt safe and nothing to worry.
 
On 3/15/2023, my wife started making these gurgling sound with difficulty to swallow saliva leading saliva seeping out of her mouth.  The Hospice doctor prescribed Atropine to reduce saliva, but did not address the real issue, cause of the gurgling sound.  Each time that the gurgling sound happen, I started to noticed that her throat muscle was getting very stiff (see photo below), or like a muscle cramp.  I would then give a gentle 3-finger massage to help relieve the cramp.  I notify the Hospice nurse/doctor and they prescribed Baclofen to reduce muscle cramp.  What they did not know was that throat muscle cramp was not like your leg muscle.  Throat muscle cramp was life   threatening.
 
On 4/05/2023 evening the throat muscle cramp became very severe, and led to breathing difficulty.  On that evening, I was so scare because there was not much time to do anything.  I gave mouth-to-mouth breathing did not work well.  Baclofen given to the stomach was not working fast enough.  Then an idea to give her pickle brine juice pop into my mind.  From my hiking days, I have taken pickle brine juice to prevent  a full blown muscle cramp.  I use a small syringe and filled 3 ML of pickle juice and shot it into the back of her mouth (throat area).  Within a few seconds the throat muscle relax, and breathing was restored, crisis averted.  Another benefit, her throat was quiet for the rest of the night, allowing me to sleep without worry.
 
Since then, there has been another three episodes of difficult breathing at night, and each time the pickle brine juice worked its magic.  The science behind it is that when the juice hit the back of the throat it disrupt the muscle cramp nerve signal.  I can now say for certain that pickle juice is a remedy to alleviate this type of suffocation.
 
Why this happen only at night time is still a mysterious.  It is a good to be at night time because I am always home to deal with this issue.

Normal Throat and Feel Soft to the Touch:

Throat enlarged outward and felt stiff or hard to the touch, and
led to difficulty of swallow saliva and breathing

Please help get this info out, and we may be able save some lifes.