I do want to say that I don't believe all the problems I had with the endoscopies & the meds that are used to sedate you are normal, I think I'm an unusual case in that respect. Don't be nervous about the endoscopies most people don't have all the problems that I did!
January 26, 1999
Sunday night I was eating a Chicken Fajita from McDonalds, I got a peice of chicken caught in my throat and it was a little difficult to get out but I was finally able to get it out, but afterwards my throat still hurt. I went in to see my Dr Monday morning but she isn't in this week, so I went down to the ER (really didn't know where else to go). After 2 sets of xrays and drinking something called Barium (mainly to see if I had torn my esphougus) I was told I had a bruised esphogus and to only eat soft foods and liquids for the next few days.
Tonight I tried eating a sandwich I figured the bread is soft should be ok, guess it wasn't soft enough, it hurt going down. I also tried pancakes this morning it hurt also but not as much as the sandwich. Guess I'll stick to soup and shakes for the next couple of days.
July 28, 1999
Remember how I bruised my esphogus back in January? I've been having problems swallowing ever since and when I had my dr appointment about 2 weeks or so ago, my dr reffered me to the gastroentology dept to see if they could figure out what was wrong with my throat. Well my appointment wasn't until September 1st, but when I talked to my dr monday, (i wanted her thoughts about going on a liquid diet for about a week to give my throat a rest) and I told her that my appointment wasn't until September & she wasn't happy with that, she told me to call and see if I could get an earlier appointment.
I did call but the lady said that they were booked solid, she was taking appointments for September 16th at that time. She did take my name & number down and said that if they get a cancellation she would call me. She called me this morning! I have an appointment for 1pm today!! :> I really didn't expect them to call at all.
July 28, 1999 later that day
Here is what all went on with my appointment today: This appointment was actually for both my anemia & my throat problem, I didn't know that and couldn't figure out why he was asking me questions about how heavy my periods are and stuff. I stopped him after awhile and asked him what exactly this had to do with my swallowing problem that was when he told me that my dr reffered me to that department for both.
I found out one thing today the anemia I have is Iron Deficiany Anemia, he looked that up on the computer and looked at some other things then he went out of the room for a couple of minutes and he had left the computer screen on so I looked at it, didn't make a lot of sense but the numbers from the bloodtests that I had a couple of weeks ago were higher in all 3 columns then they were the last 2 times I have had blood drawn. I wish I had written the information down. He asked me why I had a pelvic ultrasound and I told him that my dr thought I had endometriosis because of my back problem but she said I didn't (he was at that page when he asked) He also asked about the results of the Barium Swallow that I had done and I told them they never really said just told me that I had a bruised esphogus, he looked that up and said that it came back normal. He looked quite a bit up and seemed pretty throrough.
He said that from my symptoms Anemia & the Swallowing problem that it sounded like something called Plummers Syndrome/Dieasese (don't remember which word he said) Anyone ever heard of this before??? (Note: after the endoscopy he said that I didn't have it) I go back August 5th at 8:30 a.m. for an endoscopy.
August 5, 1999
OK here is what happened today at the hospital: I was taken into the room about 9:30 and was going back into recovery at around 11:30.
When they took me into the room they had me gargle lidocain to numb my throat, that was when I felt like I couldn't breath the nurse talked to me and said that your breathing ok it's just like when you get novacaine at the dentist (I've never had that before either) so she told me even though everything feels huge, but it's not so you'll be ok, she then let me gargle some water which helped a little to get the taste out, then they gave me demoral and something else to relax me in the IV (i don't think it was enough though) then they put this thing around my neck and in my mouth that the scope was supposed to go through, as soon as they started putting the scope in I started struggling and really felt like I couldn't breath the nurse kept talking to me telling me that I was ok, I think I tried to pull the scope out a couple of times, I remember putting my hand up and touching the scope but she took my hand and held it. I don't remember the entire procedure but I do remember struggling for what felt like most of it.
This was supposedly a concious sedation and someone described it as you are aware of what happened but you don't care, I no longer believe that because I was aware of what was going on and I think because of that I was struggling, I wonder if I ever have either one done again if they will put me asleep. I even remember the nurses discussing how much to give me I beleive it was 1 & 30 and then a few minutes later they said something like1 1/2 & 30 I think that was for the demoral.
Now for the results: I have what they called esphogitis (inflamed esphogus), i have a little bit of scarring from acid reflux (which I never knew I had) and there was a narrowing (stricture) in there which the scope stretched, the stricture is what caused the swallowing problems.
August 7, 1999
Just want to clarify a few things about my note Thursday about the hospital. Most of what I remember was before they gave me the second dose of the sedative, I really can't say how much time passed before the first dose and the second dose, but it felt like it was a long time and that I struggled through most of the procedure, Now that i've been able to think about it I really don't remember a lot after the second dose.
Everything was still vivid Thursday night when I wrote the first note that I really thought that it was during most of the procedure that I struggled through, I was thinking about it last nite at work and I realized that after the nurses discussing 1 1/2 & 30 that I didn't really remember a lot after that. But I do think that one of the times that I grabbed at the scope was after the second dose.
August 7, 1999
I went to my regular dr yesterday and was told that the Acid Reflux I have is a 4, this is on a scale of 4, which is bad, I used to never be bothered by it, but today I took one of my prescriptions that I was given by the dr that did my endoscopy and a little bit ago, I started getting that horriable taste in my mouth which was strangly preceded by my back hurting. Now had I not taken that prescription earlier I would have never gotten that awful taste in my mouth and not gotten the burning that I felt either. The prescription he gave me was Sucralfate. He also gave me Prevacid which I took when I started getting that awful taste in my mouth. I was supposed to take that earlier but I forgot to put it in my purse before I left the house and we had just gotten home when I started getting the taste in my mouth, but it seems that all afternoon I've been burping, is that part of Acid Reflux and is part of my back problem also a part of the problem? ::sigh::
August 7, 1999
Today Steve & I went out to eat because we didn't have anything in the apartment that was soft and I am on a soft diet for a couple of more days.
I ordered eggs & toast figured that would be the easiest thing for me to eat, because even eggs sometimes would get caught in my throat before. I'm eating and all of a sudden I look up at Steve and I say "what a concept, eating and not getting food caught in my throat" :) It was great, no problems at all! I didn't have to stop once because of the food being caught, I didn't even drink as much pop as I usually do, I only drank one glass, normally I have to get a refill when I go out to eat because of the food getting caught so much.
October 8, 1999
I had my endoscopy today. I told the nurses that I remembered quite a bit from the last endoscopy until the two nurses discussing how much more of the sedative to give me which was 1 1/2 & 30 and they thought that was pretty good to remember that.
I got into the room where they do the endsocpy the nurse had me gargle the lidocain which didn't bother me like last time since I was prepared for what it would make my mouth and throat feel like. The dr came in with 2 women and telling them about my case.
Apperently last time the stricture that I have was so bad that he couldn't get past it and they had to PLUNGE it down to get it past the stricture he said it was "wicked" I'm not sure I like the sounds of that. I was going to ask him what causes the stricture and I never did because of everything that happened.
During the endoscopy it seemed like everytime they would put the scope in my mouth I got real combative. Last thing I remember was getting combative again and the nurse holding my hands down and then I woke up in the recovery room and the clock across from my bed said it was 11. The nurse said something about having to knock me out. I woke up at 11 in recovery but i kept falling back to sleep finally at about11:55 the nurse came over to me and said that it was time for me to get up. She told me that Steve was outside in the waiting room waiting for me. She gave me some apple juice to drink.
Then Steve came back and he went back with me to the changing area and I changed and we left. We met a friend of Steve's for lunch at a chinese restaurant and I just had some pork fried rice because I wasn't sure just how my throat would react. Steve brought me home and I went to bed and he went to work. Tongiht we went to The Ground Round and I had a Grilled Chicken sandwich and it went down without any problems at all :)
December 3, 1999
Well here's the 3rd installment of "Lora's adventures during Endoscopy" :)
We did all the pre procedure stuff and they gave me the sedative. I wasn't quite out yet and I opened my eyes a couple of times and you want to know something? There's nothing like being almost out and opening your eyes up and seeing the Doctor walking towards you with the scope in his hands. I saw that and I went from the edge of the bed that I was on to the other edge of the bed against the railing! For some reason it scared me or caught me off guard or something!
I get the feeling I was somewhat uncooperative this time. I didn't get combataive like last time but I remember that they kept telling me to put my head back down and stuff like that. I think at one time I remember them taking the thing out of my mouth that keeps it open because I was trying to talk and I was saying "i'm not out yet I'm not out yet!" Because they were trying to start the endoscopy already. He joked with me either before or after the endoscopy that because of how i'm "wild" during the endoscopies he never forgets me.
Before the endoscopy and before I was given the lidocain to gargle to numb my throat that I asked him if the stricture was as bad at the last endoscopy. He said no and I told him that I remembered him telling the ladies that it was wicked at which point he jokingly denied ever saying that and saying that the word wicked wasn't even in his vocabulary! LOL
Also when I got to the department to sign in I was waiting in line at the desk and one of the nurses was walking by the door where I was standing and she saw me and she said "your back again?" I smiled and said yep. Even theguy at the desk recognized me and said here's the form, you know what to do. :) It was just a very strange morning.
Once I was done with the endoscopy it was around 10:30 and they had me up and in the chair waiting for Steve by 11:15 (I wasn't out nearly as long this time like I was last time) Steve told me to have the nurses page him when I was ready to go. Not a problem except the stupid phones at the hospital are such where you can't dial out of the area code and steve's pager is in a different area code! The nurse tried paging Steve several times and left voice mail messages a couple of different times with the friend that steve was supposed to be visiting. I even tried paging steve a couple of times but the phone acted funny after the first 4 or 5 digits. Steve FINALLY showed up at about 2:15. The nurse and I had been discussing what we should do and I told here that I wanted to call a cab to take me to steve's parent's and she said let's wait until 3 and see what happens. I was getting very pissed off since I had no idea what the problem was and I was tired and I wanted to sleep! I kept dozing off in the chair, but could hear everything that was going on.
January 14, 2000
Here's installment number 4 of Lora's Adventure's. Even though this time it wasn't nearly as adventourous as the others :)
I got there and I'm waiting to be wheeled back into the room and the dr comes and talks to me which he does sometimes beforehand. He wanted to try something different this time. Instead of sedating me and having me get "wild" again he wanted to try to do it where my mouth was really numb and have me be awake for it. He was telling me that last time one second I was out and the next second I'm pulling on his tie and when he took the mouth piece out of my mouth I'm saying "i'm not out yet, I'm not out yet" I was kind of hesitant about it but I did agree to it. We got back to the room and they had me gargle the lidocain and then they tested my gag reflex to see if it was numbed up also but when they put the long q-tip in my throat I gagged. Then the nurse suggested some spray to spray my throat so she sprayed that a couple of times and my gag reflex was still not calmed down and the dr said that I have an impressive gag reflex he thinks it's as bad or worse then his. When they did it the second time I opened my mouth and closed my eyes thinking that maybe it was because I knew exactly when they were in my mouth but it didn't help.
So he talked to the other dr who was assisting him (I think my dr is a resident) and they decided to sedate me anyway and to go ahead and do part of what my dr wanted and that was to just use the dialators only and not even put the scope down since he does know what he's looking at.
I know they gave me 2.5 of the sedative and you know soemthing? I don't actually remember anything from the actual endscopy this time.
It was kind of funny a couple of the nurses recognized me and said "your back again" and everyone who I told that this was my 4th one said "you must be a pro at this by now, you probably even know what the next step is going to be"
February 12, 2000
I had another endosocpy on Friday, it went much better, I told the nurse that last time the other nurse had given me the nose oxygen and I asked her if I could have it this time and she said sure. I think it helped out a lot, this time I didn't get the numbing spray like last time but did gargle the lidocain obviously.
I think the dr had trouble getting past my stricture, he said that it was about as bad as it was when he did the endoscopy in August. I'm not sure if he ever got past it, because I have another endoscopy February 22nd. I didn't get wild like I normally do. I do remember one point where he asked me if I was uncomfortable and I shook my head yes. Other then that I don't remember anything from the endoscopy.
February 22, 2000
Tuesday I had my endoscopy, I walked into the unit and the guy that is usually there was there and I waved and when I got to the desk he said "your not coming in on this side are you?" he knows I've had several endoscopies recently, I think he was surprised to see me so quickly again. I said yes I have another one. The nurse who did my IV was the same one as the one that I had earlier this month.
My appointment was at 3pm and apperently all the dr's were behind and I didn't go back to the room until after 4. From what my doctor was saying to one of the other doctors it sounded like there was a meeting and several of the doctors were chewed out about something. I've decided that no more of the afternoon appointments way to late and I was starving by the time I got out of there and I had a little bit of a headache. I had a heck of a time trying to settle after I got home and tried to go to bed, I was restless which sometimes does happen after my endoscopies.
My doctor had put my file on the bed when he was over looking at the computer so I looked through it :) He saw me and didn't say a word, which is good considering it is my file and I have been curious about what was in it regarding my endoscopies. Each report had a couple of pictures of what my stricture looked like before and after, to be honest I couldn't tell much difference between the pictures but the one I had in August I could tell a difference, the after picture was much wider.
The nurse poured the lidocaine into the little cup and she put quite a bit into it and I stupidly tried to gargle it all and i got it all over myself in the process. The nurse cleaned me up a bit and even though she poured to much into the little cup again this time I only put a small amount into my mouth and gargled each time, worked much better. I asked for the nose oxygen tube also, since that seems to help me out. I don't think I was completely out for the endoscopy but I didn't get wild either which is what the goal is :) I could hear my dr and the dr that was assisting talking about what they saw on screen which I don't remember what they were saying but I do remember then talking.
I go back March 10th for another one, he decided that we need to do this more often instead of every 2 months like we were doing.
March 10, 2000
Not a lot to report, had the endoscopy and he didn't schedule one immediatly, told me to call him in a month to let him now how I was doing. :>
April 18, 2000
I was supposed to call my Dr a month after having my last one which would have made it Last Tuesday, but I kept putting it off because I knew I was going to have to have another one. I talked to my dr this morning and because he is going out of town on Vacation starting Friday he wants to do one on Thursday! I was not prepared for it to be so soon and I'm not looking forward to this and I don't know why :(
He said that he was thinking of injecting steroids into the stricture because that will make the inflamation go down (or something like that) I really wish I didn't have to haveanother one, this will be 8 since August and I'm dreading this one more then I have all the other ones for some reason :(
April 21, 2000
I had my endoscopy thursday, the dr injected steroids into the stricture to hopefully bring down the inflamation. I talked to my dr beforehand and asked him about him saying something about a surgeon a few months ago. I also told him that I had had visions of them cutting into my throat, he said no they wouldn't cut into the neck at all and would cut into my side. He also told me that even though the food gets caught at the top of the esphougus the stricture is at the bottom of it, he said that once we are through the stricture we are in your stomach.
Apperently what they will do is take a portion of my colon and then cut out the part of my esphogous that has the stricture and replace it with the peice of Colon. I guess using a part of the colon is common I was telling Steve's mom about that and she said that she has a part of colon as part of her ureter in one of her kidney's. I have an appointment to talk to him about possible surgery May 3. I didn't tell my mom about this yet because she worries to much, I'll wait until I actually know more and can explain to her better about what they will do.
Usually when I have the endoscopy, Steve's mom goes with me and brings me home. She had a dr appointment at 1pm Thursday. She talked to someone on Wednesday and told them that I can pick her up but I have a dr appointment at 1pm. They said no problem it will be a light day and she can stay in the unit until you come and get her. So I stayed overnight at Steve's parent's and took the subway from there and Lynda came and got me after her appointment. So they had me out of bed and dressed at about 11:45 and they gave me a pillow and a warm blanket and I sat in one of the recliner's and dozed on and off until about 1, probably would have slept until Lynda got there but there was a little girl who wasn't happy after her endoscopy (I would guess she was about 3 or 4) and was crying, the nurse tried to give her a popsicle but she wasn't having anything to do with it. The lady that Lynda talked to the day before wasn't kidding about it being a light day, usually when I'm there all the beds are full and they are moving you out of the beds as quickly as possible so the next person can fill it, thursday the entire time I was there I don't think there were more then 4 people occopying beds at one time. Good thing wtih the little girl crying that would have been annoying to some people I think.
April 24, 2000
I was looking for information regarding the surgery that my dr was talking about, didn't find anything about that (I don't think I was looking for the right thing) and I came across a website that had pictures from an endoscopy that they did.
Apperently this person was eating dinner and the spaghetti and a meatball got caught and several hours later they went to the ER because it still had not gone down (believe me you can tell when food is caught and you can feel it finally go down when it's been caught for awhile!)
The pictures show the spaghetti on top, then it shows a meatball caught in a stricture and then the stricture which is narrow, then they show it after the dilation and it's wide again.Endoscopy Pictures Before you say EWW Gross it's doesn't look gross at all.
I also found information where they can do a surgery where they bring the upper part of the stomach up and wrap it around the bottom of the eshogous and it creates a valve so the acid from the stomach can't get into the esphogus.
I'm going to talk to my dr if it's possible to have that. I know we have to get the stricture taken care of and that this won't take care fo the stricture but it might be a possibility. From what I read that they have been doing this surgery for 40 years and about 5 years ago they started doing it laproscopically. Surgery Description
This is the first site that I have found that is this informative. Apperently the hospital that this website is for gives out a brochure with all this info in it. At the end of it, it even tells you what you should eat and when to introduce certain foods. Meat is one of the last foods to be added back into the diet. I'm not to surprised since meat is what gets caught the most when I eat. If I do have this surgery at least I will know generally what they do and if I have it I can send the URL to my mom to read so she won't worry so much. I get a feeling that if I do have this surgery, my mom will be flying out here.
May 4th, 2000
My dr wants to take the entire esophagus out becasue of the scarring that I have from the acid reflux could turn into cancer later on and we would have more problems. If they did that then they would put the intestine in that spot . I told him that I wasn't real comfortable with something that radical. He said he had talked to someone and they told him that taking the piece of colon and putting it in the esophagus where the stricture was is not all that good of a surgery. I'm still not sure about this. Steve's mom was telling me that I should ask for a second opinion from a staff person and not go with what my dr says because I think he is a resident or hasn't been a full fledged dr for very long. I still have to talk to a thoracic surgeon.
I was talking to a friend online who is a nurse and she told me that if I did have that surgery then I would need intsive therapy to learn how to swallow again. I'm not really sure that I should do.
June 30, 2000
After I had the next endoscopy on June 30th, I had to schedule an appointment with the surgeon.
July 7, 2000
I had my appointment with the surgeon today. One good thing, He felt that taking the entire esphogus out like my dr who does the endoscopies wants is a bit excessive. He thinks that if we do a nissan fundoplication and do a dialation of the stricture from the other side might work. BUT if that fails then he would take the entire esphougus out. He did say that sometimes you have to have a couple more dialations after the nissan fundoplication.
A Nissan Fundoplication is where they wrap the upper part of the stomach around the bottom of the esphogus creating a valve so the acid can't get to the esphogus and it will let the esphogus heal.
Before we do anything like that he wants 3 tests done: A barium swallow YUCK!!! (he was surprised that the one I had after I choked on the chicken strip came back normal) a motility study (to see how well I swallow) and a PH Probe, after he see's the results from those then he wants to see me again.
He said that after the surgery I would be in the hospital for up to 5 days! (I think that shows just how major the surgery is, they don't keep you in for anything anymore!) and that it would take up to 2 months to fully recover afterwords.
July 15, 2000
I got the information packet in the mail today about what I need to do before the tests.
I'm not looking forward to them at all now. I have to stop taking my prevacid a week before the tests, my acid reflux is going to bother me something awful!
Also both the PH Probe and the Motility study they put a tiny tube down your nose and it goes into the ephogus! YUCK
The PH Probe is a 24 hour test and I will have that thing down my nose and in my esphogus for that long. From what I read in the packet part of the tube is visible outside the nose and they tape it down, oh joy that's going to be fun to explain to people what it is. I carry around a small recording device that I guess will show how often acid is present in my esphogus.
The motility test is just testing to see how well the muscles in the esophogus work. This is what the paper says: Measures the strenth and coordination of contractions in the espohogus, it also measures the functions of the valves in the esphogus.
August 8, 2000
Well I went to the hospital to have the tests that I was supposed to have. I got to the radiology department and the lady tells me that I'm was to have an ultrasound done on my neck, I tell her no that's wrong. So I went up to see my dr and he said I was to have a barium (UGI) done. So I went back down and I told them what I was supposed to have done and the lady tells me go around the corner and check in over there. The guy at the other desk looked me up and said yes I'm supposed to have a UGI. My dr's secretary said the same thing when she looked up the appointment in the computer. I don't know what that other lady was looking at. I do have a feeling she may have been looking at an old appointment. I did have an ultrasound done on my goiter, but that was at least 8 months ago.
Anyway I get the barium swallow done, wasn't nearly as bad as the one I had in January 99, didn't take as long either. I even saw my stricture when I was facing the screen and saw the barium slowly going through it.
I went up to the endoscopy department to have the Motility and PH Probe done. That one didn't go to well. They stuck the swab up the right side of my nose (to numb the nose for the tube) and it didn't go anywhere so she tried the left side and it went it and it was uncomfortable. Then she went to put the tube in and oh god that hurt. She tried to be gentle, finally she called someone else and said I have small nostrils here. So someone else came in and tried to put the tube in but each time they put the tu be in it hurt to much and I was in tears and I finally told them no more please I can't take this. It didn't hurt a lot but it hurt more then I could handle. I feel like I wimped out. But I don't think it's unusal they had a note on the wall that said for aborted motility studies to let the guy up at the front desk know so he could "unschedule" it.
The second lady that came in said that more then likely with the barium swallow that I had that my dr will be ok with not having these two tests done. They didn't even try the tube for the PH Probe because even though it's a smaller tube it's not much smaller then the one that they were using for the motility study. I can't imigiane having something like that down my throat for 24 hours likethe PH probe was supposed to be.
Surgery has been scheduled for September 11th, 2000 he told me I would probably be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days. I did have the surgery and it did what it was supposed to do, not having very many problems anymore with the acid reflux. I am having some problems swallowing still.
Because of the occasional swallowing problem I decided it was time to have another endoscopy done, I had it on September 3rd, 2001. Good thing to, the gastroentologist found a small ulcer near the stricture, he wants me to take my prilosec and I am going to be having another endoscopy in October to see if it's healed up and then he will open the stricture up more then he did a couple of weeks ago.
I had the endoscopy as scheduled in October. The results: The ulcer was all healed up and the best part NO MORE STRICTURE!!! It's totally healed up now. :) :)
It still took a couple of months before I could swallow and not get food even slightly caught, here is what I posted on April 25, 2002 on a message board I go to:
The other day I went up to Walmart & got a layaway out and decided to get a soft pretzel and a pop before I left. I was eating it and suddenly a peice that I barely chewed on slid down my throat and I almost panicked because before it would have gotten caught, but this time it slid down and it didn't get caught, I didn't have to take a sip of pop to make sure it had gone down nothing! At first it scared me but then it surprised the heck out of me on how well I swallow now!