endoscopy not what I expected

I am inclined to agree with you Pumpkin1510. I didn't even have the throat numbing and found it it. Yes it was uncomfortable but only for a short time. You just need to take deep slow breaths and avoid tending muscles. Try to dream about Holidays or similar.

Meant found it ok.

Yeah I am not sure if I will have the throats spray either still on the fence but I do wonder if sedation can make certain people have a harder time swallowing. I don't know as I have not had mine yet. Not relishing it but I have a 10am appointment so just trying to think that by 11am I should hopefully be all done.

yes, I'm aware it's scary but it's not my opinion on whether you should have it or not....you should and I wouldn't question that....and it is the most precise way to evaluate your insides....but it's my experience unfortunately and I was rather shocked.

some people are ok with it.  others are not as my doctor warned me.  just be prepared.   I was not very apprehensive beforehand but I wonder if this procedure is over recommended by doctors for minor gastric problems. there are other ways to do it which are more comfortable for the patient.  especially those with strong gag reflex or who are sensitive.

I am sorry if it doesn't help you.  I'm sure it doesn't much but it's important to raise awareness about the reality of the experience for such a procedure for quite a few people (see other threads for fairly graphic descriptions also).  that was my intention in posting this.   and also to question the value of it for what may be relatively mild gastric issues.  it should not be used to rule out or screen but rather to confirm what is already suspected by other tests.

I hope you will be in the uncomfortable but ok with it category and again apologies for raising anxiety but it really shocked me and that as I say is not an 'opinion' it is a real experience of this.  

good luck in any case and hopefully you can offer more comfort to others who are told they need to have one of these.  

I guess noone knows which category they will fall into until they have it and see their reaction.

if it's any comfort to you my doctor and nurse were really very sympathetic and when it got too much for me she stopped the procedure entirely....so the communication with the doctor is very important too.  they can help a lot with their bedside manner.

 

I am not sure, I mean you could have only minor symptoms but have a serious life threatening problem and my comment was only meant to say that if someone reads this and decides not to go ahead it could be a very big mistake. There are barium X- rays which could indicate a blockage or mass and stool and blood samples for h pylori but I don't think they are as accurate as a stomach biopsy. I think it's unfortunate that you had so much trouble and hopefully you have a sound diagnosis now plus I am sure you are not the only one who struggled - fingers crossed I willl find it easier but I think people read forums for all different reasons and a horror story can start panic.

I take your point...it can be a very useful procedure for detailed images and perhaps mean the difference between cancer being caught in an early stage rather than a late incurable stage and my intention writing above as I said is not to deter people from having it but to only question in non-life threatening cases the genuine necessity of having it and to consider alternative testing for diagnosis and only proceed with further testing if treatment doesn't resolve the issue. as far as I know h pylori can be diagnosed via a blood test which I had after the scope this morning so it's not necessary only for that.  

My father died of cancer of the oesophagus 10 years ago and he had a gastroscopy which I remember him describing as uncomfortable....the thing is he'd already been diagnosed with the cancer via blood tests and xrays by that stage so I guess (I don't know) that the reason they did the gastroscopy was to get a better picture of the tumour, it's location etc.   In my case my symptoms have so far been diagnosed as reflux which is exactly what they feel like and diet and medication has made me feel better for sure.  my doctor, who is great and whose opinion I trust, ordered the endoscopy as I've been complaining for a while about recurring symptoms which were worse a few months ago to be honest but have got better (I'm taking proton pump inhibitors which have made me feel better and continue to take them) and I even wondered if I needed a gastroscopy but decided to go ahead anyway as I had the appointment and it was covered by my health insurance.

I have a lot of tension around the neck and shoulders due to neck injury and stress in general and the doctor mentioned something about spasm in my neck so that didn't help me I'm sure.  It was definitely not meant to be in my case!!

I feel bad making you more apprehensive though.  I hope Lily, the retired nurse, who responds below, can make you feel better about it all - she really has a great perspective on it all as you can read.

I genuinely wish the best for you on Friday.  I'm sure you will be ok. Seems majority are uncomfortable with it and minority struggle as you say so odds are good you're one of the majority

let us know how it goes......balance the picture a bit for others I hope. 

You have my sympathy. I have had quite a lot of endoscopies in the past, all with sedation and good experience with those. Once the sedation had been injected into the vein I didn't remember a thing about it until I woke up in another room.

However, this week I had yet another endoscopy with sedation. For all the good the sedation did I might have just as well had water put in.

It was a ghastly experience and I never want to go through that again. I wasnt sleepy at all. I heaved and retched and my throat hurt. I tried to grab hold of the thing and pull it out, but the nurse got hold of my hand. I couldnt even speak. After what seemed an eternity, it was taken out and I cried like a baby.

Before I left the unit a nurse said I expect you feel a bit sleepy now. Thinking about this after at home, I thought - I want to feel sleepy while it is being done, not after !!

In my notes given to me I was only given 1mg of Midazolam and when I googled it, the initial dose should be 2.5 mg.

I have put in a complaint.

Sorry to bend your ear. Do you know what sedative they gave you ?

Dear Lily,  

Thanks for your kind reply.  Yes, I did read about your 'denture' experience on another thread today.....fortunately I guess I read it after I had the gastroscopy and not before.  Thanks for reassuring people that mostly it is ok.  As a nurse you are professional and know what you're talking about and yet as a 'patient' you can clearly empathize with me so it's a great reply to my post which I agree has a touch of horror to it but that's the reality of it for some people. The doctors and nurses are of course kind and well-intentioned and want to help and not be cruel.  I felt it was too invasive for me to tolerate but I am quite sensitve about being touched and I need a lot of time to relax and let go which is probably not the 'norm' for many but fact is, it is for some.  At the same time I don't apologize for how I felt and nor should others if they struggle with it.  As you know.

I am fine now apart from the sore throat.  Obviously I didn't get a diagnosis since we had to abort the procedure but I'm pretty sure it's just reflux and maybe H pylori...I'll have to wait for the results of the blood test.  I'm feeling much better than a few months ago anyway and as you advise diet, clothing, exercise, healthier lifestyle, stress reduction all go a long way towards improving things. I'm sure I will always be susceptible to the occasional relapse due to dietary indiscretion but gone are the days when I will bombard my system with fatty, spicy or junk foods  and heavy meals.  

Re feelings of violation I didn't feel badly treated or disrespected in any way just the procedure itself was quite invasive. The nurse and doctor were very sympathetic to my adverse reaction (could well be psychological and emotional too...especially it brought back memories of my poor dad and what he suffered) and couldn't have been kinder.  'Invasive' is more the word I would use....like I was being pried open.....but I'm resistant so maybe for me I'd need to be strongly sedated or knocked out completely if I thought I have to have this done seriously at any stage.

For now....I will put it behind me.  Thanks again for reassuring others for majority it's not more than uncomfortable.  My intention was not to frighten but not to hide the reality of it for some people either from a procedural point of view.  And I do still wonder and have read articles from medical journals to this affect if it is overused as diagnostic tool for GERD.  According to the American College of Physicians it is.  

Thanks for your kind wishes and I am feeling better...apart from the sore throat!

Just to clarify, Betty. I didn't swallow my denture as a result of the gastroscopy, it was the other way round. I swallowed it while eating dinner one night. No one believed me, as it had no metal parts so didn't show up on X-ray. I was thrown out of several hospitals as a time-waster over the next three weeks. When a friend finally took me back, in very poor condition, to one of the hospitals that had already thrown me out twice and insisted something be done, they grudgingly agreed to do a gastroscopy. They said this was to reassure me I hadn't swallowed anything and it was all in my imagination. Once they got as far as the entrance to my oesophagus and realised I'd been right all along, they flew into a bit of a panic!

I wasn't told about the throat spray being optional in advance. In fact I was just about to be given it when a nurse just happened to mention that it wasn't essential. I opted out straight away.

Well I suppose all's well that ends well. Why would they think anyone would make up such a thing? And why didn't anyone realise that lots of dentures are metal free so x-ray pointless? Mine certainly are.

Thanks for explaining

Betty, I worked as a staff nurse on Casualty at a central London hospital in 1969/70. We were told never to believe elderly people who came in claiming to have swallowed their dentures. The rationale was that all old people are forgetful, they would have got their dentures late in life, wouldn't get on very well with them, so would constantly take them out and leave them around the house.

One day, I was told to send away a 70-something man who said he'd swallowed his two-incisor upper denture which he'd had since his teens. I took issue with the doctor. I already had my own one-incisor upper denture by then (accident at school at age 12) and knew this was an entirely different case from an elderly person getting a full set for the first time in their 60s. When you have a denture - especially a front one - from an early age it becomes a part of your personality and you would never take it out, except for twice-daily cleaning. I said (prophetically as it turned out!) that if I said I'd swallowed mine in old age I'd be telling the truth. The young doctor said nah - by the time you get to age 70 you won't know what you're doing. Well, fast-forward 45 years and that's exactly what happened. At three different hospitals too - I'd visited two others as well as multiple visits to the one where they finally acted. I hope that poor man fared better than me.

Oh and this isn't just a British problem. My episode happened in Belgium. In a way I'm glad my somewhat traumatic endoscopy was performed by two young female medical students. Maybe they'll learn from the experience and stop propagating this potentially deadly one-size-fits-all thinking.

I trained as an infants teacher in the early fifties and our first assignment was to take a census of bust measurements of the entire college. This was to impress  upon us the importannce we should always attach to individual differences and, two for the price of one, the normal curve. ( No pun intended)

Sadly I inherited my father's teeth. I'd have been better off with mum's; she still had most at 93. Still, let's look on the bright side; I have had dentures for fifty years so maybe I'm safe!

i had to remove my denture and the throat spray wasnt optional, when i had my endoscopy a few monthes ago, i had mine first to rule out stomach/throat cancer, i had no issue with my test, was anxious did gag a few times and wretched on withdrawel, but in all honesty i would rather have this test again rather than the barium meal swallow that i had later, the start trying to swallow the powder was worse than the insertion of the endocope, but my humour with tears running down my face amused the staff and got me through, i myself have a very strong gag reflex even just brushing my teeth, i do think maybe reading up on something like this can make anxious people worse or assure them.

I agree. I had mine last Friday and to be honest I went to the appointment a little naive and possibly over confident. I thought it would be a complete breeze, it was difficult - my gag and wretching went into overdrive but it is a very short procedure and they managed to complete it. They found a tiny ulcer and took biopsies. Unfortunately I have to have a repeat test done in 6-8 weeks to check the ulcer is healing which I was disappointed about but it is still the fasted way to check what she going on.