Gastroscopy Experience

Without results we can only wild guess....

If you were discharged the same day then i doubt that its something serious.

Do not worry...just wait for the results.

Take care

I also had an Gastroscopy yesterday and decided not to have the sedation. I opted for the throat spray but didn't feel it did much, the Dr had said your throat will feel totally numb and you won't be able to feel yourself swallow. Well I could feel myself swallowing and it certainly wasn't numb. I have had Acute pancreatitis in the past and had decided I could cope with a little discomfort. Bad bad decision! The nurse and doctor had said you will experience slight gagging for a few seconds as the tube (it's not small) is passed down your throat. Wrong! It was barbaric, I wretched continually for the 3 - 4 minutes whilst the camera was down inside my throat and if I hadn't starved myself I would have thrown up. The nurse was telling me to relax and breathe, which was not possible and I had to fight against all my instinct to stop myself pulling the pipe out of my throat. I am sure the nurse was holding me down on the bed and the whole experience has left me shaken. Another guy was having the same procedure and had opted for sedation, I saw him in the recovery room laughing and joking with a nurse and saying did I gag at all, to which she replied "oh I expect so everyone does". He was off with the Faries whilst I sat there shaken, battered and disbelieving of the horrific experience. Later I was told that they hadn't found anything but because of my past history I needed a CT scan. Well the moral of this is don't put on a brave face and have the sedation it's a complete no brainer!

Oh dear, I hope your experiences don't frighten anyone waiting to have an endoscopy too much. I have had two, both without sedation and although I was extremely anxious before the first one and had practiced poking my fingers down my throat to try and stop the gag reflex it wasn't like that at all.   The throat spray was enough to stop any gagging and the important bit I think was making myself swallow when I was told to as I believe that is the key to having a comfortable endoscopy.  I breathed slowly and stayed calm and the procedure was over in about ten minutes.  I was so calm in fact that the doctor said he wished he had done a video to show his more nervous patients as I was a model patient.   The second one I had was slightly different in that it was a junior doctor who did it under instruction from a senior endoscopy nurse and a doctor, this time the procedure took around 30 minutes and the doctor stopped it as he could see I was getting uncomfortable.  Once again I just had the throat spray and concentrated on swallowing and staying calm, it was just the longer time having it done that I didn't like much.  Unfortunately, if you have any procedure done when all the junior doctors have left Uni and are in the hospitals you might end up with one of them doing it. Endoscopies affect different people in different ways so hopefully not everyone will have the horrendous experiences that others have had. 

I had 5 gastroscopies in my time. Except one they are all an experience I want to forget. Doctors tell us all sorts of porky.

I did want sedation, but they wouldn't give it to me because I am on my own.

I think our experience greatly depends on the size of scope they use. They like larger diameters because that lets them see better. But us patients do much better with thinner scopes, of course.