Upper Endoscopy Without Sedation

Well done Ryan.  I'm facing the same possibility of having to have a second endoscopy and your experience has given me confidence to try and go the non-sedation route for the very reasons you have mentioned.

There is no way I could do that. I have the world's worst gag reflex. I can't gargle without nearly puking. When I go to the dentist they have to spray my mouth to numb it and then use kid size films. The last time they got two but by the 3rd I was going to throw up.

I did have two scopes put up my nose to view my voice box and my sinuses. I refused to be numbed and did fine. I have severe anxiety and the one time they numbed my nose without telling me what they were doing I had a horrible panic attack and couldn't breathe.

Great recount. Here in the UK, we are encouraged to try without sedation or at least very little. With no sedation, I was in and out of procedure within 10mins. With just a little, I just was told to lie down for an hour after. Ours are within a hospital but a clinic in a department all to itself. They don't hurt, just a little weird. Sometimes there is a lot of gagging but as long as you are aware, it's fine. I've had 4! So just gets lots of throat numbing spray and you're go to go!

In the UK you have the choice of sedation or throat spray. I went for the throat spray - it's much quicker - they tell you what they find, because you can understand - and after a couple of hours it wears off and you can go about the rest of your day without brain fog! Go you for saying no to sedation! It's an unpleasent proceedure - but I actually think I would have found it worse not feeling 'in control'. Well done!!

Glad you had a good time. I will NEVER recommend doing this without sedation. It is the most awful feeling and th egagging is terrible. The whole time I could feel this object in my gut moving around and it really made me feel weird. Unless you can control your gag reflex.....get under sedation! 

I have had one live and one (with the other end at the same time) under sedation. Once you wake up you are checked and if all is well you walk out of there 30 min later unaware of any hassles.

Subsequently I have not had a Hiatus Hernia repaired with a Nissen Fundoplication. I am 10 days post op and feeling great, Off th eliquids only and on pureed foods for 5 days. Moving onto solids tomorrow.

I wish I had read this forum earlier. I just had an upper endoscopy today due to trouble swallowing for several years.  It was of course the suspected Schazki ring from scar tissue. 

I went in with my wife as a driver, fully convinced I was going to be sedated and have an unsure recovery time following the procedure, but the nurse who came in was really cool and was explaining how in different countries, no one uses sedation for the upper endoscopy. So I said "do I even have a choice?" and she said I did, so spur of the moment, I opted for no sedation. Part of the reason was because I didn't want to deal with the hazy half wake feeling afterwards, but also I was hungry from fasting and I wanted to just get out of there and eat something. 

So I went in and swallowed this really nasty lidocaine sludge.  It was disgusting and very thick. It definitely helped numb everything, but it didn't seem to do much for my gag reflex.  The scope itself was quite a bit thicker than I had imagined. I never really did much research going into it, but I imagined the scope being about the thickness of a TV coaxial cable.  However, this thing had the diameter of a nickel.  It was flexible, but very heavy duty. I had expected maybe a little tickle in my throat, but this was way more intense than I had imagined, even though I went confidently into it. Honestly, it was a very tough experience. I don't regret it per se, but it was not easy.  I have a killer gag reflex and I was burping and gagging and forcing up mucus the whole time. My gag reflex was making my eyes water and my sinuses fill up, so their suggestion to focus on breathing through my nose was out. I tried focusing on breathing the best I could, but everytime the scope moved, I gagged.  It felt like air was going into my stomach when I uncontrollably swallowed, so when I gagged, a lot of air would come up.  The procedure lasted about 4 minutes.  And luckily, as hellish as it was, it didn't really feel like more than 4 minutes.  They were able to scope me, insert balloon and stretch the Schazki ring, and also collect a biopsy. The nurses said I did great. I didn't feel like I did great though, although they said many people flail their arms and try to pull the scope out. 

After leaving, I was happy it was over and done with and I could go eat, but I left telling myself if I ever had to get that done again, I would choose sedation over that.  Then I came home and started reading things online, and soon realized that during sedation, many patients do freak out and doctors and nurses have to hold them down.  It's not necessarily a peaceful process just because there is sedation, the only difference is, you don't remember it.  After doing a little more reading, it reassured me that my choice to not be sedated was the right one.  And now I am considering that if I ever needed it to be done again, I would again choose no sedation.  However, it is not easy. It's more than a tickle in your throat.  It's pretty intense and I definitely would warn anyone that going into it with a good mindset about it is essential, but also don't expect it to be comfortable.  I have heard stories about doctors who had to stop the procedure everytime a gag happened and continue when it stopped. Luckily, my doctor kept going and reminded me the whole time I was doing great.  I was even looking forward to watching it on the screen, I saw my teeth, then the inside of my mouth and my tongue, and then when he pushed it in, I was immediately overcome with the sensation and I couldn't focus at all on the screen. It took every bit of my concentration and focus to keep calm and not gag, and even then, I gagged a lot.  Make sure also you have a pretty thick towel under your mouth because you will drool a ton.  It left a huge wet mark on my shoulder. Luckily I had brought another button down shirt I could throw over it. 

Well this was my experience.  I don't intend to necessarily encourage or discourage either one. Just know that no matter whether you choose sedatives or not, your body has a hard time deepthroating a huge plumbers snake, and if you are sedated, many times doctors and nurses have to hold you down and sometimes you are even harder to control because you aren't fully aware of what's going on. When you are awake and unsedated, it is very uncomfortable, but it is a good thing to know that you are aware of what's going on, and even though you're gagging like crazy, if you just lay there and take it, without completely freaking out, you're doing quite a bit better than the rest.  Hope this experience can give a little insight into anyone going in for one.