Unsedated Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Tests and investigations
1

For anyone having this done .

I had one this morning without sedation .

I made the mistake of reading the bad stories about it on here and became nervous .

This is what happened .

All my details were taken and my blood pressure was taken along with my heart rate. The nurse asked if I wanted sedation I said no but was told if I changed my mind at any time it would be given.

I waited for my turn and was taken into the endoscopy room ,I was greeted by more friendly nurses and introduced to the endoscopist ,again I was asked if I wanted sedation .

I laid on the bed and the back of my throat was sprayed with the anesthetic spray it tastes very bad ! It is like bitter bananas .My throat was instantly numb ,they then inserted a mouthpiece and put the scope in .I was asked to swallow and gagged very slighlty as the scope went down ,I felt nothing at all apart from the feeling of having a lump in my throat ,they then said they were going to take 2 biopsies they put something else down the scope tube I had a sensation of something moving around my stomach and then the scope was gently withdrawn .

Despite what people have said I only gagged very slightly when the scope went in and not at all during the procedure .

I could breathe perfectly with the scope in .

The whole thing took about 3 or 4 minutes from having my throat sprayed to leaving the room it was so quick .

My fear was actually being sick while they were doing it ,I did not gag enough to be sick when the scope went in.

There was no pain at all .

I asked if they had ever pinned anyone down to do this procedure ,they laughed and said no ,I then asked what is the longest time it had taken and the endoscopsist said 10 minutes but that was very rare so whoever said it took 30 minutes was massaging the truth a little .

I really would like people to read this and relax a little if they are anxious about having it done ,my experience was great no pain no gagging or anything that I have seen reported by others .

I would personally say its over so quickly its not worth having sedation for.

I came home had something to eat ,nipped to Tesco and then mowed the lawn thats how good I felt afterwards .

I have had sedation for a colonoscopy and it took a good 24 hours to recover from the effects ,if you are having this done it is the thought of what might happen that scares you and its not helped by people putting all the bad things for everyone to read .

2

Thank you for this Elisa,

I'd like to use this (slightly edited in a booklet I've been asked to prepare for patinets facing procedures for the first time.

3

Please do Barretts ,I just felt I had to share my really good experience of this procedure ,especially after reading some peoples posts which I feel do not help others who are nervous of having this done .

Before I had a colonoscopy a while back I read some of the stories on here and became very anxious ,in truth it was a pain free process .

4

Same here! More or less. Had it done a couple of days ago. It lasted a bit longer, maybe nearer ten minutes, perhaps because there was still food in my stomach despite about seven hours having passed since eating. I did have a bit more sensation, feeling something moving around down there, and two biopses were taken but it was really ok overall. People shouldn't be scared!

5

Glad you had a good experience as well ,the more people that share good experiences the better .

6

I had an endoscopy done a couple of years ago and was also dreading it after reading some of the comments on here.  One woman went as far as to say that she felt "violated"!  I am an extremely anxious person as it is but I decided that I wouldn't have any sedation and even though I was offered it I refused.  I agree with everything that elisa said as it was like that for me.  I also agree about the spray tasting like bitter bananas (and some people say it has a nice taste).  As the camera went in I concentrated on swallowing and it went down easily. For a couple of weeks beforehand I had been practising putting my fingers down my throat to get used to the feeling of it going down but it was a waste of time because it's nothing like that because of the sedation.   The procedure took a few minutes and I could see what was going on on the screen and was told everything that was happening, including the two biopsies that didn't hurt.  I had a slight gag as it came out and that was it, over.  The doctor told me that I had been very calm and that he wished he had done a video so that he could show the more nervous patients how it's done (if only he knew!!).  I have had a printed report and thankfully everything was fine except that the sphincter muscle that holds the food pipe shut wasn't closing properly.   A quick cup of tea later and I was off to Devon for a long weekend, the only thing to remind me was a slightly sore throat for the rest of the day.  It's not half as bad as you think it will be.

7

When I said "it was a waste of time because it's nothing like that because of the sedation" I just meant the throat spray.  

8

Just wanted to say thanks, this is very reassuring to read as I've heard lots of stories about how awful it is going to be!