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My sweet lord...

Posted , 10 users are following.

RHGB
RHGB

Am I bricking it. I'm feeling doubly sorry for myself today, I've had to swap one medication for another, because of side effects and this one is bedding in and it always makes me feel grotty and it has its own side effects.

But the reason I'm panicking is, I have had my appt. letter come through for my endoscopy come through for a month's time. I had one before when I was in hospital, but that was under GA. This time I will be conscious. For those wondering what it is, it a fibfre optic tube down your throat with a camera on the end and sometimes tiny cutters that can remove tissue for biopsy.

I have a gag reflex and it isn't going to like this at all. I have oesophageal varices, which is what this is for. So I decided to start looking at what it is like, there is actually a forum on patient info for it. Here's some little snippets of posts.

"Ok, you are definitely having an endoscopy now. Thats it, you are in. You are having it done , you will survive and this will help.Dont bother asking them any questions. The questions you want to ask, they will avoid and distract you. Everything happens very quickly.

All of a sudden your throat feels like its constricted, exactly like you have a golf ball stuck in your throat. DONT PANIC. You can breath. Your throat is numb and your brain has stopped receiving signals tricking your body into thinking you cant breathe. Breathe. Its normal.

On a bed, lying down on your side. Forefinger in a pulse reader.

Ok , here we go . Its just a little wire with a tiny camera on the end. Going to have a good look. No. Its not a tiny wire with a camera on the end. It should be a tiny wire with a camera on the end. Its 2013, we're into nano technology and space exploration. Its a pipe. So stop thinking kettle flex and start thinking hose pipe.

How you deal with these 10 minutes is up to you. I was convulsing and choking for most of the time but kept brave. The nurse kept telling me to breath but since I had a pipe down my thoat I found it a little difficult."

--------------------------

"I had a Gastroscopy today and have to agree with extreme it was horrendous!!!!!!!iThey also told me the camera was no thicker than a pen, A pen my a** it was just like a hosepipe as described earlier! I gagged and choked that much! my eyes were crying!I was belching like nobodies business!it really was horrible!"

--------------------------------

"I can only describe the experience as feeling as if the sedation had switched off my higher centres, which might have induced cooperation, leaving the limbic system (kill, kill, kill!) in the driving seat. I felt like a terrified animal. It took six people to hold me down and I'd have cheerfully gouged out the nurse's eyes if she hadn't been kneeling on one of my arms. I remained not only wide awake but completely "wired" for the next 20 hours. I'm still having flashbacks now, two months later."

1 like, 30 replies

30 Replies

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  • Paper_fairy
    Paper_fairy RHGB

    Posted

    Hi. I still have memories of been intubated when my body packed up from an od several years ago. Can you take a high dose of diazepam, which may help? Just a suggestion. Feel for you and really hope it's not as bad as before. Blessings to you..
  • Sober_As
    Sober_As RHGB

    Posted

     My husband had a tube thing put in last week... it went up his nose, then down his throat. He had to keep it in place for 24 hours... it was for acid reflux. There was a box attached ... I don't know if it was a somethingoscapy, or not.

    Surely your procedure, while conscious, will be more tolerable.

    What a carry on.  It is not easy, trying to keep well.

    Best of luck with it, anyway.

    Alonangel 🎇

    • tess33005
      tess33005 Sober_As

      Posted

      Hi, Alonangel. The tube you're describing which your husband had for twenty four hours is put there to measure the amount of acid reflux someone produces over the course of a day. The tube used for that is twenty times smaller than an endoscopy tube. At least. I'm not trying to frighten anyone, least of all RH but as a nurse I think everyone should realize that people react to certain procedures in different ways and that patients have a choice about how they would like the procedure carried out. Hope you're feeling better yourself, by the way. Love Tess.
    • Sober_As
      Sober_As tess33005

      Posted

      Thanks, Tess.  I'm ok.  I hope you are fine, too.  I've only had cameras investigating at the other end... in colon... diff time, in womb.  Never a dull'. I also had an MRI scan. There's not many parts of me right ! Oh well !!

      Alonangel 🎇

  • JackDM
    JackDM RHGB

    Posted

    I just recently had an endoscopy. I had an injection of midazolam before I had the procedure. It's easier if you don't fight it and actually cooperate by swallowing the camera. It's definitely not pleasant, but it's hardly torture.

    Take the midazolam if it's offered, it will make it a bit easier.

    • RHGB
      RHGB JackDM

      Posted

      'but it's hardly torture.'

      I do dislike assumptions. Maybe for you it was okay, but that doesn't mean that it will be okay for me.

      It wasn't until my mid thirties that I could swalow a pill, without having to cut it in half first. That might give you an idea of my gag reflex.

      If I go to the dentist, to say have a filling or similar type work, the dentist has to keep stopping and withdraw the tool, to allow me to gather myself. The dental nurse has to be very active with the suction pipe i.e. she cannot just stand there, she has to be moving it the whole time so that there is no build of fluid, and by that I mean a tiny amount, other wise I have to stop them, close my mouth and swallow before the gag reflex kicks in.

    • tess33005
      tess33005 JackDM

      Posted

      All I can say to that is that it certainly felt like torture to me. And I've had OGDs for years.

      When I decided that I couldn't face another one without a general anaesthetic, my GP wrote to the hospital and it was easily arranged.

  • Sober_As
    Sober_As RHGB

    Posted

    Have you looked on Y**tube.  You can see lots of procedures, done under Local Anaesthetic, there.  I watched several Colonoscopy results, before I had one, a few years ago.  'Nuff said !
  • tess33005
    tess33005 RHGB

    Posted

    Hi. I have to have an endoscopy every year and I also cannot tolerate that dreadful gag reflex. It feels like torture for the ten thousand years it's down there.

    Sedation with midazolam is offered to anyone who wants it, but quite honestly it didn't make the experience any less awful.

    So I asked to have a general anaesthetic last year - it was either that or I wasn't going to let them do it, simple as that.

    My GP wrote a letter to the clinic and it was arranged with no difficulty. I was given a very quick-acting general anaesthetic, which wears off within an hour.

    I went home that day and had no ill effects.

    Endoscopy is a horrible procedure and it needn't be made worse by keeping the hapless patient awake.

    Ask your clinic NOW so they have enough time to  arrange it.

    Hope this helps.  Tess.

    • RHGB
      RHGB tess33005

      Posted

      I have seen the gastro who is going to perform it himself, a couple of weeks ago. I explained the situation to him, and he tried to reassure me about pain. I explained to him that pain was not an issue, I can tolerate pain, lots of it, gag reflex was going to be the problem.

      I mentioned that I'd had one in hospital, but under GA. He said that there was no chance of GA. When the nurse called to book the appointment, I asked about the procedure and was told I'd been marked down for sedation, but they didn't do GA.

      I'm a bit concerned that the sedation doesn't actually help the patient, they still feel the full gag reflex but are unable to do anything to stop the op because they can't move very well, due to the sedation. I.e. it makes it easier for the hospital staff if they immobilise patients.

      The killer for me was seeing the device used, I had the idea it was very small, thinner than a pencil. But looking at it, it looks much more like a hydraulic cable and that makes sense, if they have to have a number of control wires to manoeuvre the camera and remove tissue for biopsy.

      I will go to the hospital on Tuesday and ask to look at the device to weigh up how I am likely to react on the day. But I think it will be a lettter to my GP, and if that is a no go, I will cancel the OP this week, so that they can let someone else have the spot.

      I've never had an appointment letter that has said this before:

      Remember you can change your mind about having this procedure at any time.

      There really is no point me turning up on the day, and then right in front of them, saying, nope, it isn't going to happen. That would just be a waste of everybody's time.

    • tess33005
      tess33005 RHGB

      Posted

      You have been misinformed. I was a nurse and midwife for ten million years and I can assure you that the patient has a right to decide how the procedure should be done.

      I got my GP to write to the gastro-enterologist, saying that I simply couldn't tolerate the procedure without a GA. It was arranged very easily.

      It may be that the hospital to which you have referred 'doesn't do GAs' but you can ask to be seen at a different hospital - that, again, is your right.

      I suggest that you cancel next week's appointment, and in the meantime go and see your GP.

      I believe that if you see the actual endoscope you'll be more than ever determined not to be awake while someone shoves it down your unwilling throat.

      As for midazolam - well, I remember the endoscopy before last, when I told the surgeon that I was dependent on benzodiazepines, so the usual dose of midazolam would not work for me (after all, midazolam is only a very strong benzo) and he promised he'd give me more than the usual dose. On the day, they'd lost my notes (the NHS are very good at this) and in any case a different doctor turned up to do the endoscopy. In vain did I explain what I'd been promised. That was the last endoscopy I had whilst awake.

      So it's important to stress to your GP that s/he needs to refer you somewhere where GAs ARE administered for OGDs.

      And you're quite right about the effect of midazolam - it didn't make it easier for me and I speent the entire time trying to pull the endoscope out, much to the doctor's annoyance. I bet if they had one themselves they'd soon change their tune.

      Last resort - PALS, Every hospital has a PALS department who will argue your case for you.

  • Robin2015
    Robin2015 RHGB

    Posted

    tough ecperience and lack of human empathy does not help!! Robin
    • RHGB
      RHGB Robin2015

      Posted

      Isn't it just Robin. Karma is the word, what goes around comes around.

      I think I might start saying to certain people who post, that they are struggling to give up alcohol, the following.

      Get with the program, it was easy for me, so it will be easy for you. I didn't have any problems with it, so you won't either, it's a walk in the park.

      I just did some research, found out what I needed to do. Got my GP ot prescribe me some diazepam, in fact got him/her to do it twice. Got on to my director contact of a national ARC and said, can you make an appointment for me at the local ARC and let them know I want the medication right from the off and I don't really want counselling.

      Got that, all sorted, had my detox (cost £8.40) by myself at home, and then started chowing on down on my prescribed Campral. It's a doddle, Bob's your uncle, never looked back.

      I did it and it was easy, so everyone can do it and will find it easy. Just a bit of willpower, moral fibre and conviction, that's all that is needed.

      No wait, we are all different, and just because something was easy for me, doesn't mean that it would be easy for someone else. I don't think for one minute, what I found fairly easy, wil be the same for everyone else.

    • Robin2015
      Robin2015 RHGB

      Posted

      Long reply but I think you misunderstood..I was referring how tought it was for you and I actually had a gagging problem 4 years and could not swallow any pills...better now and fine and no problem..anylised it due to severe stress, heavy drinking at the time and muscular problems but now no drinking after 3 1/2 yr which you might remember in my previous replies....less stress and better help perhaps why it went away...Robin
    • RHGB
      RHGB Robin2015

      Posted

      No, I understood you and as a regular, I know you story. It wasn't aimed at you Robin, you're too polite to say anything bad.

      I just used your post as a springboard.

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