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I thought I'd share a good story for once. Especially surprising for me since my medical experiences seem to usually be less than stellar.
I have been having increasingly worse heartburn over the last 4 years. It peeked right before Christmas when I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible, burning sensation in my chest and in the back of my throat. No amount of water, milk or other liquid, or tums or other antacids would dull the pain. I ended up staying up for about 3 hours before the sensation finally passed and I got back to sleep. This was after having eaten dinner early in the evening (4+ hours before going to bed) and taking my daily acid reflux medication (Omeprazole) as I usually do.
I decided to see a dr. about it. I found a gastroenterologist and made an appointment and he recommended an upper endoscopy to observe the damage to my esophagus and to determine if I have a hiatal hernia (where part of the stomach bulges past the diaphragm and into the esophagus -- I think.) I made the appointment for the endoscopy and did not regret it as I have since had 3 more similar "episodes" in the middle of the night and have determined that I am regurgitating and then aspirating on stomach acid, and it's going into my lungs, explaining why water/antacids don't help when it happens.
Anyway, so my endoscopy was on Monday. I was nervous for it, mainly because, as I said, my prior medical experiences have been less than stellar. This was a new hospital, however, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. They did great.
They called me back to the ward and got my prepped for the IV (the procedure is done under mild sedation.) The nurse who was handling my IV took a lot of time finding the right spot to put it. She wanted to put it in my right hand; she put the rubber band around my right arm, hand my pump a fist, slapped my hand, got the vein plumped up pretty well, but then thought that it was too crooked for a good IV. She didn't want to try it there and fail so we repeated the process on my left hand. She thought the vein there looked good and slid the IV right in, first try, no muss no fuss. She needed to draw several vials of blood for bloodwork (since I haven't had any done in a while) and talked to my the whole time about her husband and her dog so I was distracted.
I had to wait a while, which honestly was probably the worst. I was still nervous and also bored just sitting in the GI lab ward. Finally they took me to the procedure room. There was no anesthesiologist necessary since the procedure is done under "conscious sedation." They said I would be awake enough to respond to them if they talked to me but I wouldn't remember anything. They had me roll onto my left side and propped me up with some pillows behind my back. Then they gave me the sedation thru the IV line. It took about 3 minutes to kick in.
I do remember a little bit of the procedure but it's pretty hazy. I remember the doctor coming in and putting a thing in my mouth to keep my mouth open during the procedure. I remember him asking me something (I forget what) and me trying to respond but not being able to with the thing in my mouth. So I took it out, except by the time I got it out, I had forgotten the question and what I was going to answer, lol.
They said that was good and that meant the anesthesia was working. After that I remember belching a lot, I assume when they stuck the scope into my stomach, and the doctor telling me to breathe through my nose (they had me hooked up to oxygen.) It took me a moment to remember how and I think I panicked for about a second before figuring out how to breathe through my nose. I think I gagged a little too but I don't remember it much or have a bad memory about it.
The next thing after that I remember is waking up in recovery about 30 minutes later. I woke up because they were taking my blood pressure and the armband squeezing my arm woke me up. I dozed for maybe 15 minutes after that before forcing myself to stay awake since I wanted to see my husband and go home. They gave me some water and brought my husband back. I laid there for another 10 or so minutes and then hubs helped me sit up and get dressed. Then he went around and got the car while the nurse helped me into a wheelchair and outside.
We had lunch immediately; I had to fast since the previous night and it was around 1:30pm when we got out of the hospital so I was hungry. I was very tired but otherwise felt fine. No sore throat, no bloating, no upset stomach. We brought lunch home (curry chicken) -- I ate the whole thing, then passed out on the couch for about 2 hours. I was still groggy when I woke up that evening but stayed awake until about midnight when we went to bed and then I felt fine the next day. The only other side effect is that I've been burping a lot since the procedure since they pumped my stomach full of air to blow it up.
So hooray for successful and happy medical stories! Hopefully someone who is worried or just curious about an upper endoscopy will see this and have some questions answered.
Oh, and they found out I have some minor damage to my esophogus due to acid reflux, plus a pretty large hiatal hernia, plus I have gastroparesis (partial paralysis of the stomach -- I don't digest food as fast as most people. I had the endoscopy around 11:30am and they could still see undigested food from my last meal at 8:30pm the night before in my stomach.) So I am on medication for the gastroparesis now and have a follow-up appointment with the doc in 3 weeks to discuss treatments (possibly surgery) for the acid reflux.
I have been having increasingly worse heartburn over the last 4 years. It peeked right before Christmas when I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible, burning sensation in my chest and in the back of my throat. No amount of water, milk or other liquid, or tums or other antacids would dull the pain. I ended up staying up for about 3 hours before the sensation finally passed and I got back to sleep. This was after having eaten dinner early in the evening (4+ hours before going to bed) and taking my daily acid reflux medication (Omeprazole) as I usually do.
I decided to see a dr. about it. I found a gastroenterologist and made an appointment and he recommended an upper endoscopy to observe the damage to my esophagus and to determine if I have a hiatal hernia (where part of the stomach bulges past the diaphragm and into the esophagus -- I think.) I made the appointment for the endoscopy and did not regret it as I have since had 3 more similar "episodes" in the middle of the night and have determined that I am regurgitating and then aspirating on stomach acid, and it's going into my lungs, explaining why water/antacids don't help when it happens.
Anyway, so my endoscopy was on Monday. I was nervous for it, mainly because, as I said, my prior medical experiences have been less than stellar. This was a new hospital, however, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. They did great.
They called me back to the ward and got my prepped for the IV (the procedure is done under mild sedation.) The nurse who was handling my IV took a lot of time finding the right spot to put it. She wanted to put it in my right hand; she put the rubber band around my right arm, hand my pump a fist, slapped my hand, got the vein plumped up pretty well, but then thought that it was too crooked for a good IV. She didn't want to try it there and fail so we repeated the process on my left hand. She thought the vein there looked good and slid the IV right in, first try, no muss no fuss. She needed to draw several vials of blood for bloodwork (since I haven't had any done in a while) and talked to my the whole time about her husband and her dog so I was distracted.
I had to wait a while, which honestly was probably the worst. I was still nervous and also bored just sitting in the GI lab ward. Finally they took me to the procedure room. There was no anesthesiologist necessary since the procedure is done under "conscious sedation." They said I would be awake enough to respond to them if they talked to me but I wouldn't remember anything. They had me roll onto my left side and propped me up with some pillows behind my back. Then they gave me the sedation thru the IV line. It took about 3 minutes to kick in.
I do remember a little bit of the procedure but it's pretty hazy. I remember the doctor coming in and putting a thing in my mouth to keep my mouth open during the procedure. I remember him asking me something (I forget what) and me trying to respond but not being able to with the thing in my mouth. So I took it out, except by the time I got it out, I had forgotten the question and what I was going to answer, lol.
They said that was good and that meant the anesthesia was working. After that I remember belching a lot, I assume when they stuck the scope into my stomach, and the doctor telling me to breathe through my nose (they had me hooked up to oxygen.) It took me a moment to remember how and I think I panicked for about a second before figuring out how to breathe through my nose. I think I gagged a little too but I don't remember it much or have a bad memory about it.The next thing after that I remember is waking up in recovery about 30 minutes later. I woke up because they were taking my blood pressure and the armband squeezing my arm woke me up. I dozed for maybe 15 minutes after that before forcing myself to stay awake since I wanted to see my husband and go home. They gave me some water and brought my husband back. I laid there for another 10 or so minutes and then hubs helped me sit up and get dressed. Then he went around and got the car while the nurse helped me into a wheelchair and outside.
We had lunch immediately; I had to fast since the previous night and it was around 1:30pm when we got out of the hospital so I was hungry. I was very tired but otherwise felt fine. No sore throat, no bloating, no upset stomach. We brought lunch home (curry chicken) -- I ate the whole thing, then passed out on the couch for about 2 hours. I was still groggy when I woke up that evening but stayed awake until about midnight when we went to bed and then I felt fine the next day. The only other side effect is that I've been burping a lot since the procedure since they pumped my stomach full of air to blow it up.
So hooray for successful and happy medical stories! Hopefully someone who is worried or just curious about an upper endoscopy will see this and have some questions answered.
Oh, and they found out I have some minor damage to my esophogus due to acid reflux, plus a pretty large hiatal hernia, plus I have gastroparesis (partial paralysis of the stomach -- I don't digest food as fast as most people. I had the endoscopy around 11:30am and they could still see undigested food from my last meal at 8:30pm the night before in my stomach.) So I am on medication for the gastroparesis now and have a follow-up appointment with the doc in 3 weeks to discuss treatments (possibly surgery) for the acid reflux.
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