Depends on the length of the procedure, what you are going in for and the size of the camera...I don't remember a mouthguard, but am glad to hear it was nice and easy for you.
I had a upper endoscopy yesterday afternoon, I was scared, but chose not to have the sedation, as I'm a bit of a control freak,plus I have work and family so need to drive,which you can't after and for24 hours. So I opted for the throat spray. It was ok, the staff helped a lot, they were amazing and funny. The tube went down, yes I gagged a bit, it's to be expected, but I concentrated really hard on my breathing, and focused on something, silly but I imagined my tortoise walking around the garden, they took a couple of biopsys, she said it wouldn't hurt, just feel strange, she was right, then had another look around, and then said all done, I felt the tube come up, a bit of wretching and a few belches, and it was out, the nurse wiped my eyes and mouth after, as my eyes had run and there was a bit of saliva, the doctor said I had a hiatal hernia and gastritis, said I was a great lady and did marvellously (always nice to gets bit of a pat on the head lol) , then I sat up, went into the side room, by that time the throat spray had worn off. Waited for my paper work and went off home.
So yes it isn't the most comfy procedure, but if you can do it without try, as the recovery is much faster.
Hi, had an edoscopy
Hi had an endoscopy this afternoon, opted for throat spray, no sedation. Gagged a bit at first but once tube was down that stopped. Nurse spoke to me through whole thing which helped me relax. The whole thing lasted about 5minutes, was uncomfortable but not painful, was very relieved when it was over. Glad I didn't have sedation as allowed to leave shortly afterwards.
Hello all, I had an endoscopy about 8 years ago and I remember gagging then nothing I woke up in recovery. So you can imagine my horror when I went for one a few weeks back. They informed me they no longer use much in the way of sedation and that it would take the edge of that's all. Well in a trotter and immediately felt scared. They sprayed my throat and I felt immediate panic as you can no longer feel your throat and it feels like its closing and you're going to die its awful feeling. I lay down and they put the sedation in I felt mildly drowsy but I said to them I'm still not sedated enough. They said lay down and they put the big green thing in my mouth. Now I gag doing my teeth so as soon as they put the green guide in my mouth I was gagging like mad. They started with the camera and I was gagging like mad so I started to panic and I grabbed the camera and started to pull it out. I felt my throat hurting. People where telling me to let go of it and stop pulling it. I couldn’t I felt like I was being murdered. I just had to get it out.
It came out and i was breathing so fast but said to my self you need this done you have to have it done so I said try again. They started again and as soon as i started to gag I again grabbed hold of it. Everyone was shouting to let go of it but I pulled and pulled till it came out. I then had a massive panic attack. I couldn’t control my breathing I was hyper ventilating they flipped me on to my back and a lady was right in my face telling me to breath like her but I couldn’t it was awful. I had oxygen but still couldn’t regulate my breathing. I started crying uncontrollably as well which didn’t help.
I was moved to recovery and left on my own I felt so alone and scared I kept crying but was ignored.
The back story to this experience. I was sent a letter from the department and noted it in my diary. A few days letter another one came, send in error I called up by no one answered the phone so I kept calling and calling but no one answered so I just turned up as it said on the letter. I had my sedation lines put in then to be told I shouldn’t be here and why did I come it was the second letter my appointment. I explained I had called several times but no one ever picked up to take my call. I was sat in the waiting area listening to them all call me names for not ringing up. It was so disrespectful I could hear everything they said which was fit her in at the end.
So as I was fitted in at the end I believe they didn’t sedate me properly as they wanted me in and out of the room and the recovery room quick so they could go home. I was terrified when I went in as I had heard them all talking about me before hand.
I am now awaiting the procedure un GA which I am not looking forward to at all as I don’t feel GA is needed tbh just more sedation. I have Oramorph which is prescribed to me for my back pain – could I dose up on this before the procedure and try sedation again? I had the first one years ago in a private hospital and remember spending hours in recovery to so I do think the NHS hospitals don’t have the staff or funds to allow you to be properly sedated and there for give you the bear minimum. 3mg is nothing I’m a big woman too.
The thought of having another endoscopy scares the life out of me
So sorry to hear this Cath. If it's not an indiscreet question, have you by any chance turned 60 (65 in some areas) since your last endoscopy eight years ago?
The vast majority of under-60s, as well as some older people, have no reason whatever to fear gastroscopy under sedation, as they will come out of the procedure (as you did first time round) with absolutely no memory of it. I'd like to stress that. "Horror stories" like yours (and mine!) can scare the life out of people facing gastroscopy. To anyone out there who's been scared by this story - you have absolutely nothing to fear if you're not a pensioner, or indeed if you're one of the many people who don't have a very strong gag reflex and can tolerate the procedure just with throat spray.
However, I also realise it's upsetting to pour out one's heart about a thoroughly unpleasant experience only to have a dozen people write in snorting: "What are you talking about? There's nothing to it!"
I too had a very bad experience, albeit under rather different circumstances. I'd managed to swallow my very spiky denture, but because it had no metal parts it didn't show up on X-ray. Since I was 70 at the time, it was assumed I was a batty old dame who'd mislaid the denture somewhere and imagined she'd swallowed it. It was stuck in my throat for more than three weeks, during which time I was ejected from various hospitals as a time-waster, in spite of my obvious dehydration and weight loss.
In the end a friend accompanied me back to one of the hospitals that had thrown me out as I was by this time unable to talk without retching. After a lot of abuse, a woman doctor finally agreed to put me in for emergency gastroscopy "to prove once and for all that this is all in your head". Well, obviously it wasn't, so after a half-dose of sedation (all that's allowed for elderly people because of the risk of cardiac and respiratory depression) they put the tube down and saw it in my throat - well embedded by this time. I then had to be held down by six people while they pulled it out.
I quite understand your reaction. I'm a former nurse and fully understood what was going on and why it was being done. But in some people - particular the elderly - the sedative drug produces a paradoxical reaction, making the patient more agitated and aggressive rather than calmer. I felt as if my higher intellectual centres - which might have helped me to cooperate - had been knocked out, leaving the atavistic limbic system in the driving seat. As in "Kill, kill, kill!"
I have to say there's no way on earth I'd let anyone stick a tube - let alone forceps - down my throat again without a GA, so you're not alone! You weren't just being a big coward and don't listen to anyone who implies you were.
But once again - and I do know what I'm talking about - the vast majority of younger people, and some older ones, who have a gastroscopy under sedation really don't remember a thing about it.
Hi ya, no I am 34. I was in my 20's when I had my first one which was fine it was a colonoscopy and an endoscopy at the same time.
I am nervous about having it under GA tbh. I am going to see the doctor (moved to a new practise) and discuss it. I also have angina bullosa haemorrhagica which means that trauma to my mouth results in massive blood filled blisters which appear almost instantly. I was told by the specialist to tell anyone who is working in my mouth about it esp if it was an endoscopy or GA. So I took along the info on the disease and they just dismissed it completely which scared me even more. I have had a blister block my throat fore until I gagged and gagged and then spewed the blood out was awful. There is no cure either and it is because my inhalers for asthma have damaged my mucous membranes so it made me doubly scared of the procedure. In the recovery room the older generation took it in their stride tbh and where sat chatting while I was lay blubbering to myself with blisters in my throat.
All yuor bad experience was just because you panicked and didn't keep calm. I have had 2 gastroscopies and although not a pleasant experience, it only takes a few minutes and it is over. It is a horrid feeling having a numb throat but the nurse shows you that your breathing is fine. I do hope people wont be put off when reading about your experience, as it could prevent them from going and then be at risk of having something wrong! I personally think the spray is best as one is aware, and with GA some people feel out of control and also take ages to get over it. I too suffer with anxiety but I made sure I took deep breaths and concentrated on that rather than the gagging that happened all the way through the secind time. I think your experience is very rare
Yes indeed - very rare, as I pointed out in my own post. But no less upsetting for people like Cath who do suffer in this way. Sometimes telling someone with an over-active gag reflex not to panic is like telling a depressive to pull themselves together.
I'm very glad you had a good experience, as most people will.
I did panic I couldnt help it my gag reflex is so strong. It was just me other people might be ok. My other half has Achalasia and so has had lots of these plus 24 hour PH tests and a manometry and was totally fine with it.
It is a very invasive procedure tbh - someone in the waiting room passed out when they saw a needle where as I am fine with needles and can watch it go in my arm doesnt bother me at all. We are all different.
Totally agree, Cath. We're all different. I once had a full root canal done without benefit of local anaesthesia, as I have arthritic calcifications in my teeth which block the effect. It had to be done over a period of six weeks because the dentist could only work for about five minutes without me passing out. While I can't say it's something I'd go through again in a hurry, I'd still rather have a dozen of those than another gastroscopy!
I don't think you can compare depression to someone who panics due to a procedure, I have experienced panic attacks myself and I also have a friend with severe depression, who suffers a lot more than I do. I gagged all the way through it too but just wanted it to be over and knew it wouldn't go on for long
Well, good for you!
It's an odd thing, how some people cope very well, others don't. Even odder is how some people - me included - cope ok one time, but it all goes haywire the next. In my case, the only difference was the amount of throat spray I had, the second time my throat was completely numb, I couldn't swallow, and gagged badly.
I have heard that some people have had the procedure using an NG (Naso-Gastric) endoscope, which is much thinner. I can't help thinking it would be less of a problem than the 'normal' one. Maybe there is a good reason why not; can anyone enlighten me?
A lot of people make the assumption that the test is the same for all, but different factors and conditions weigh in on how the test affects us as individuals. To some it is more painful, to others it is a breeze. Some people are good at swallowing large things...cough, others are not used to it.
Some people have had the old cameras with the thicker tubes, others have had the small camera with the substanitally thinner tubes. Some have gone to hospitals that have dreadful reputations for the procedure, while others go to well recommended hospitals.
People need to be more understandiung and less judgemental, not everyone has the same experience, not everyone has the same medical reason for having this procedure, which by itself can be painful.
Some people see this forum as an opportunity to put people's minds at ease and they shoot down anyone who has had a bad experience with the procedure.
We are all different, the procedure varies between hospitals, the staff vary, people's medical conditions vary, the sedatives and equipment vary and the circumstances of the procedure vary, so people need to take into account all the factors, before dismissing someone else's good or bad experience.
I'm booked in for an endoscopy on Tuesday in Ysbyty Gwynedd North Wales. I didn't think anything about it until I "googled it"
I'm long term anxiety sufferer been on diazepam, stelazine, dosulepin, mood drugs forever.
I'm 44 but when I was 18 I got spiked and had a really bad experience that made me feel as though I was swallowing red hot razor blades,
I know this spray will freak me out completely but I've had sedation at the scu dentist and was fully awake.
I'm phoning on Monday to cancel it. I'm so freaked out now by everything I've read I couldn't care what's going on. I read an mri could possibly detect it I'll beg my psychiatrist to refer me for one and if need be pay myself for it. Omfg I'm petrified.
I can't even take 30/40 mg of diazepam 30 minutes before as I've been told my stomach needs to be completely dry?????? Help please
Furthermore
My brother told me it's nothing to worry about and that its just a bit awkward as you swallow the camera.
I had the forms to sign today and rare side affects included tearing etc, well I know it's 2-5 cases in 1000 but people do win the lottery and planes do crash...
I know the internet is a bad place for info but the majority here are saying violated and even the word rape was used to describe how it felt.
If the spray numbs the throat it will freak me out 100% I can't even handle my throat feeling a bit tight without running for my medication 😖
Ceriwyn, I think you're panicking unnecessarily. This isn't the only gastroscopy forum on this site and most of the others are full of accounts from people who were even more terrified than you, yet sailed through the procedure with no problems at all. Have a look at some of the others.
It is true that an MRI is at least as good as a gastroscopy for picking up on problems, but it's horribly expensive. This is particularly true in the UK, where you'd have to start from scratch and pay for private consultations all the way, even before you get to the scan.
It's unclear from your post whether you're going to have the test under sedation or just throat spray. I'm not a UK resident, but it's my understanding that they only use one or the other these days in the UK. Mine was done in a country where they use a combination of both.
And PLEASE don't take diazepam just before the test if you're due to have sedation. It's a benzo, and the sedation they'll give you (probably midazolam) is another benzo. If you tell them you've taken diazepam they won't give you the sedation. If you don't tell them and they do give you the sedation, the consequences could be very serious.
Does your doctor know you're on all this medication, btw? It's really important to be honest about things like this if you're facing sedation - or any other procedure for that matter - as there could be drug interactions that they need to know about.
There's no need to worry about the spray at all. I had both spray and sedation - though the latter didn't work in my case - and I can't say the spray bothered me at all. It's just a nasty bitter taste that makes you cough a couple of times, then they put the tube down immediately, so you don't have time to worry about your throat being numb.
Are you able to contact your psychiatrist or another member of your mental health team between now and Tuesday? Talking to someone about this might reassure you.
I hope all goes well on Tuesday. I'm sure it will. Only a very tiny percentage of people have problems with gastroscopy.
No - it's only a very tiny minority who are using the words "violated" and "raped". Honestly, you're getting things out of proportion. I think you're reading up on the posts that are likely to scare you and glossing over all the reassuring ones. Listen to your brother instead.
And, as a former nurse, I'm amazed at the 2-5 per thousand risk rate. I'd be very surprised if it was that high. Don't forget that in these litigious days, doctors have to cover themselves against all eventualities - even the most remote.
And the spray really doesn't make your throat feel tight. I didn't even have the feeling that I couldn't swallow. I actually think I'd have been much better just with the spray, as it was the inadequate sedation that sent me a bit crazy and made me struggle.