Terry's medical mystery
THE mysterious pain in Terry Bowman's chest had doctors stumped for months until a simple discovery during a scan.
A metallic object can be seen lodged in the lower third of the Woondooma St man's oesophagus and is most likely responsible for Mr Bowman's agonising pain.
Mr Bowman, 68, said he believes the object may be a ring he swallowed in 1975 or 1976 during an ill-fated fishing trip.
"It was rough weather and my ring was a little loose on my finger," he said.
"I was tying my boat up and decided to take it off and put it under my tongue for safe keeping."
It was not until Mr Bowman arrived back home and his wife asked him about the ring that he realised he had swallowed it.
Mr Bowman said when the ring did not "reappear", he eventually forgot it was inside him.
"I was in the doghouse for quite some time," he said.
It was not until Mr Bowman suffered some lung problems and some nasty bouts of pneumonia recently that the pain in his chest started.
The pensioner believes the dress ring, which features diamonds and another precious stone, had moved due to all his coughing and started to cause problems.
Mr Bowman said the location of the ring had stumped doctors.
"They can't work out why it didn't go straight through," he said.
But the location of the ring has a darker side.
As well as the constant pain, the ring also means the pensioner has to puree all of his food before eating and it starts to hurt his vocal cords if he speaks for too long.
Mr Bowman said he believed doctors were waiting for specialist endoscopic equipment to remove the ring.
