Endoscopy Experience
I haven’t written anything on here for a while. This was entirely down to severe anxiety brought on from an impending endoscopy appointment. Or Gastroscopy if you prefer to call it that. As well as going straight on to another contract in Monaco.
I thought I’d share my endoscopy experience as there seems to be mixed reviews online which range from weirdly pleasant to nightmarish, shock inducing experiences that leave people never wanting to have one again. That’s if they even made it through the procedure without pulling the scope out.
I won’t bore you with the details of why I needed this as I’m sure you want to get to what you came for. But in short, my dentist told me that my teeth had started to dissolve from acid erosion, most likely from so called “silent reflux” whilst I was sleeping. After starting to also feel pain during waking hours, the doctor suggested an endoscopy. And so began four weeks of anxiety whilst waiting for the appointment.
The reason for me feeling particularly uncomfortable with this procedure was down to the not only having a terrible gag reflex which is enough to make dental appointments difficult, but also being somewhat emetophobic. Obviously then, I was always going to choose the sedation option to try and avoid gagging as much as possible.
The empty waiting room. One of the most rare and pleasant sights in a British hospital.
I arrived at the hospital about five minutes before the appointment and to my surprise, the waiting room was empty. This was great to see as I just wanted to get it done with but had been anticipating long waiting times. Within five minutes I was talking to a nurse, filling out consent forms and being asked the usual, mundane questions. I told them I wanted as much sedation as was possible as well as the throat spray. I also made sure to let them know how bad my reaction is to having things anywhere near the back of my throat in an effort to push them towards giving a maximum dose, as I had read horror stories of the sedation not really working at all for some people.
At some point during the questioning, she asked what I did for a job. When I told her I was a musician, she was delighted to tell me that she and her husband were too. And then about all the gigs they have been doing. This kind of conversation I normally find excruciatingly dull but in this case it worked in keeping my mind off of other things. Up until she tried to put the cannula in. I never look at what’s going on during blood tests as I’m a bit squeamish. But after feeling a lot pain and the process taking ages, I looked down to see blood pissing everywhere whilst she told me that “the other nurses don’t like the way I do these, I’m not very good at it.” This was definitely the worst part of the whole process.
Once the nurse left the room, another nurse came in wearing a badge that said “Trainee Endoscopist.” That didn’t fill me with confidence. Neither did it when he went through the possible negative outcomes such as tears to the stomach or oesophagus. Still these are all very rare. Once I signed the form to say I was ok with dying due to complications, we went straight into the procedure room.
The room is as you might expect. Not quite an operating theatre, but there was a lot of equipment around the bed along with some relaxing Christmas music playing in the background. I was asked to sit on the bed whilst they prepared the throat spray. I could see the scope on a tray in front of me and whilst it is quite big, it’s definitely not the hosepipe the internet had led me to believe.
The second worst part of the process was when the throat spray was administered. I retched quite badly. But only once. This was at least enough to finally convince the staff of how bad my gag reflex really is. It was fast working though and although it felt strange, was not uncomfortable. The taste wasn’t too bad either.
Pretty much straight after the throat spraying, I was asked to lie on my left side whilst they fit a mouth guard. This is also not at all uncomfortable. Neither were the oxygen tubes they place in your nostrils. Then they attached a heart rate monitor to my finger and started to administer the good stuff. Fortunately my botched cannula actually worked.
First up is some water to clean the line, followed by the painkiller Fentanyl. This just made me feel a bit lightheaded. Then they put in the sedative in stages. I guess they do this whilst watching the heart rate to see how much they still need to give for the desired effect. I started to feel a lot more relaxed and calm and it was actually very pleasant!
Having read too much of the internet prior to my appointment, it was at this time I expected to fall asleep and wake up in another room eating biscuits and drinking tea. Instead I saw the scope go into my mouth and started violently retching. Whilst obviously I would rather have been passed out by this point, the gagging and retching that would normally cause me to have an immediate panic attack didn’t have any effect on me at all. It felt like I was puking constantly and yet I didn’t care at all. I was definitely still awake as I clearly remember the heart rate monitor slip off my finger. I was more concerned with trying to put it back on than to care about any of the gagging. The endoscopist told me not to worry about it and so I just enjoyed the rest of the experience. Weird, I know.
The procedure went on for quite a while as some routine biopsies were taken. At some point whilst the tube was deep down, I stopped retching. I weirdly found this slightly disappointing at the time, as I thought I was doing really well in coping with it. Obviously the drugs were working as I wasn’t thinking straight. I do remember thinking that from what I had read about previously, as the scope is removed I’d be able to experience panic free retching for at least one final time. But that wasn’t to be as it came out easily.
Although I thought I was awake the whole time, I wanted to check. I asked the staff if I had been an idiot at any time, as I was sure I hadn’t been. They confirmed that was no trouble and that I had done well. Also they told me there was nothing sinister going on down there other than a mild hiatal hernia.
I felt totally fine and asked if I should just walk myself back to the recovery room. This was met with a firm no. I asked them if I sounded like I was on drugs. I was told I sounded like I had had a good night out. So best to let them wheel you out on the bed if you go for sedation then.
Clearly not as with it as I felt. Midazolam is a hell of a drug!
On arriving in recovery, I was told to stay on the bed for maybe 20 minutes before being moved to the biscuit table and offered a cup of tea. I was told I could leave the recovery unit after one hour in total and my dad drove me home.
Despite not going as I’d hoped, the whole ordeal wasn’t really an ordeal at all. And as you may have read elsewhere, it was totally not worth all the worrying I’d been doing for the previous month. If anything I’ve come out of the experience with less of a fear of vomiting, which is a nice bonus. If you are due one of these soon, there is nothing I can say here that will stop the anxiety. Especially if you’ve done too much googling already. But all you need to know is it’s not bad at all, even if you are awake for the whole thing. If I had to have another in the future, I certainly won’t be bothered about the procedure in the slightest.
If any of the above was helpful in anyway, feel free to repay me by visiting my Clickasnap page here! Look at as many of my photos as possible as I get a very, very small cut of the ad revenue per view that’s longer than 5 seconds. Some of them are ok and even quite relaxing. I guarantee they might take your mind away from the throat violating camera snake ;)
