Page 4 of 5 FirstFirst ... 2345 LastLast
Results 31 to 40 of 42

Thread: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    95

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Glad it is all over and done with for you. Hopefully there will be nothing more to worry with besides the obvious gastritis.

    Having my endoscopy on Thursday coming up. It was my understanding that I will be totally knocked out to the point they will not release me unless I have a driver and someone that will spend the next 24 hours with me! After reading this and getting my procedure paperwork out it states "An anesthetic spray will anesthetize the throat and an intravenous sedative will either make you sleep or become very drowsy".....Very drowsy isn't good enough lol. Sure hope they don't leave me awake like they did you....not sure my mind can handle that after all of the sh** I have already been through with Doctors! Urgh!

    I do have that little fear ticking away in my brain "what if they find cancer" trying not to dwell on it and remember this is being done to make sure everything is okay after 5 years of stomach issues that were not treated in a timely manner.

    Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences! Good to know they aren't all bad!

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    903

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Hi Jessie
    hope you are feeling better now emotionally and your tummy is settling
    been pondering on this sedation disappointment .
    I know where I worked there was a protocol in the hospital trust that Medazolam could only be given intravenously if an anaesthetist was present . probably different trusts have different guidelines . people have different tolerances and as outpatients are unknown . Not making excuses at all here ..........just trying to figure out why some people have ok experience and others not .
    It is sedation ..........and could cause airway problems if too much given [hence anaesthetist to step in ] ..............so I guess docs are reluctant and maybe underconfident to give more than minimum dose sometimes .
    it may well depend on the area you live in and what hospital trust and of course the doctors experience .
    Best anyone having this done is to find out before exactly what is given and how they judge if the dose is right for you .

    take care all xxx

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    234

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Hi and thanks everyone. Snowgoose, I went privately on medical health insurance and to be honest have had some bad care in this hospital before. There was no anaesthetist present and the more i think about it the more i see that the doctor was pretty hurried and I dont think she was overly interested in the fact that i had concerns. You see, she did the canula herself and she didnt give me the sedative until i was in the operating theatre and on my side and with the throat spray and mouthpiece in. The thing is that she didnt give the sedative time to work, she administered it and literally shoved the camera straight down my throat . I was really shocked that she didnt even seem surprised that i wasnt asleep! Also what was strange was that I had also been told that the drug erases your memory, not true, i remember fully and also she spoke to me when the procedure was finished about the gastritis, so she obviously knew i was awake and fully coherent. No enquiry as to if i felt sleepy enough or anything. I am actually quite angry now, because i feel quite violated. I explained my fears and she didnt even give me an anti emetic, when i asked because she said it wasnt usually necessary. I am actually not really sure if she even gave me the sedative at all seeing as she tried to talk me out of it at the initial appointment. Although i got through it and its over, i now feel very untrusting of doctors and i definitely will not have another procedure like this again. Therefore if i need monometry or a follow up endoscopy, what will happen then? I think doctors should respect the fact we put ourselves totally in their hands and should work with us rather than take control away from us, especially when ptient is feeling anxious.

    If you are going for an endoscopy make sure you will get the adequate sedation beforehand, because I said i would not go through with it if i was not totally asleep. I didnt actually have a chance to stop it as they took total control, which is wrong. I should have been more assertive beforehand and not so meek. Also should have voiced my concern afterwards, thats why you should have someone with you to speak up for you. I really hope you get better care and I am sure you will, let us know how you get on.

    I know driving is risky, but I swear I was not even as drowsy as I am most mornings. I didnt even have a nap, not at the hospital, nor at home either. Thats why I drove because I was stone cold sober! I also agree I cant believe they cannot make the camera thinner, they must have thinner tubes for some procedure, what about cystoscopy where they pass a camera into the bladder? I am guessing this passage is much smaller and therefore smaller kit??

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    903

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Hi Jessie

    the more I read about your experience .......the more horrified I am at your care .
    I implore you to see your Gp and have a talk about this .......and have this recorded in your notes . hopefully your Gp will make some enquiries on your behalf. I know with anxiety making a complaint is the last thing you may feel up for at the moment.
    I feel so sad this has happened and has naturally made you mistrustful of hospitals .
    can I ask if this was done in an NHS hospital or a private one ?

    so hope you get some answers xx

  5. #35
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    100

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    hi jessie
    youd be surprised about the size of the flexible cystoscopes. they aint as thin as you would expect them to be considering where they have to put them!!! but generally you dont feel them like the camera down the throat! you just feel a slight sting at the entrance. ive had 3 of these and will be having a rigid cystoscope this friday (another problem altogether but ive never had any bad experiences with any of my waterworks examinations/tests) anyway they tend to be about the thickness of a mcdonalds drinking straw. GI endoscopes are just slighter thicker than a pen as instruments and materials can be passed through them. with flexible cystoscopes its basically just a camera and if any biopsies or instruments are need to be passed through then they would a rigid larger version under general anaes.

  6. #36
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    234

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Hmmm, I was due to have cystoscopy but bottled out of that too! Had urodynamics and that left me very uncomfortable as I had a painful, inflamed bladder condition. It seems bladder conditions often go hand in hand with stomach problems. I wonder if all these things could be truly anxiety driven??

    Snowgoose, I had it done privately. I really wonder sometimes if private care is worse than the NHS to be honest. I mean everyone is very pleasant and you dont have to wait around too long etc appointments are quicker, but the general level of care isnt always so good, also hygeine levels can be poor too. I will mention my experience to my GP, as I had told him my fears about sndoscopy and had said I couldnt have this test done. He had told me he would send me to a kind gastro! To be fair, she was very nice, but I dont think she had much time for the anxiety. She didnt look like someone that had experienced one anxious day in her entire life!

    I felt very uncomfortable with the way you get pushed into having a gastoscopy from the beginning. I now know that doctors are told by NICE that if they are going to prescribe ppis long term they have to do a gastroscopy to rule out certain things. Having voiced my concerns about the gastroscopy, I find it incredible that I couldnt have been offered other tests first, such as H pylori breath test, barium x ray, ultrasounds, even MRI, to rule out cancer and such like. Yes in time I may still have had to have the gastroscopy, but maybe not. Especially if my problems are anxiety driven, maybe a barium x ray that ruled out cancer would have settled my mind and eased my symptoms. I felt I was forced into having this test so the doctors could tick their box and cover their backs. No thought has been given to my fragile staste of mind and considering the terrible time i have had recently with my mother's death, right now I would have been better without the extra stress. What has happened to doctoring these days. Why are patients just a set of protocols now instead of individuals? It never used to be this way, being sent for tests to look for cancer for practically everything you show up with. I think doctors need to reinstaste some common sense and look at everyone as unique and not just follow the same course of action every time.

  7. #37
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    640

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Hi Jessie,

    So sorry to read your experience was so rotten...

    I'm not sure if you've read my post on your other thread about this.

    You would know if you'd had the sedation in my experience, there was no way I could have driven. I was walking a bit unsteadily and felt like I was floating for the rest of the day. It would have been as bad as driving drunk.

    I really wonder if you had it at all? I never expected to be asleep, but it was like one of those very deep dreams where you don't know if you're asleep or awake.

    If I was as upset as you obviously are, and have every right to be, I'd discuss it with my GP but I would think of contacting PALS (is that still the complaints process?) to make a complaint. Not everyone wants to or feels they can, of course, but I would, definitely.

    To be fair, when I had mine it was very businesslike, very quick, 'in and out' - BUT they did check a couple of times that the sedative had worked and I was alright, and then a couple of times during the very short procedure, and it sounds like you didn't have that at all...

    My doctor came out about ten or fifteen minutes after to tell me the results - the sedative is powerful but fairly short-acting to such an intense degree.

    Amongst all this please don't forget that the most important thing is that you've had it done. The other tests don't show everything an endoscopy does, that's why they have it! So, while it was really unpleasant (when it shouldn't have been) you now have had the best test to potect your health going forward

  8. #38
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    903

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    sorry Jessie
    from my previous post it appeared that I hadnt taken notice of you having this done privately . sorry x
    I was clumsy in my writing so guess what I was trying to say was private work can be done in an NHS hospital or a private one like the Nuffield /Bupa ones .
    In a large hospital there is support always somewhere if something goes wrong .
    an anaesthetic team /crash team .......lots of equipment etc.
    in a private hospital the support of Intensive care /anaesthetists is non existant unless surgery is being carried out .........in my experience anyway .
    so I wonder if your care has been compromised by this state of affairs .
    Eight days a week mentioned PALS .........good advice .
    and to be truthful anything else cropping up after initial consultation I would have done in NHS hospital .
    I do apologise if I have upset you in anyway .

  9. #39
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    234

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Oh gosh no! Snowgoose,you were my greatest support, you havent upset me at all. Please dont think that. You have been there for me before and after and please dont feel you have to appologise for the care I got in any way. As I said I went privately, thinking this would be better/quicker/more individual, whatever. Obviously not. I did tell both my GPs, 2 of them at different times, maybe they should have advised me better as to who to see and whether i should have gone NHS for better care. Also the gastro consultant knew my fears and even suggested writing to my GP to advise him I need counselling for depression/anxiety!

    I felt absolutely NO effect from the sedative eightdaysaweek. Not sleepy, not drowsy, not woozy. I got up myself and went to the toilet, got changed and was reading the paper by the time the nurse came in to check on me about 20 mins after getting back to my room. I didnt even have a doze! But the doctor knew I wasnt asleep as she told me when to make the appointment for and never came to see me when I was back in my room, which surprised the nurses! I made the apointment for 3 weeks time as I was told, so nothing wrong with my memory! I really dont think I had a proper dose of sedative and I dont think she wanted to bother with the complications that may arise. I just got the feeling she was going through the motions. The first needle she put in punctured my vein so she put a second in in my elbow. All I know is she didnt even wait to see if it affected me and if I was at all relaxed before starting the procedure. Almost as if she didnt expect the sedative to do much herself.

    Thanks everyone for all your help and support, it really has given me somewhere to vent. Thanks for all being there for me and snowgoose, a nurse like you is truly worth their weight in gold! Dont ever forget that. xxx

  10. #40
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    640

    Re: So endoscopy is inevitable, please help

    Jessie, that seems completely irresponsible, negligent and unprofessional of her - and that's just the 'not checking to see if you were relaxed and comfortable bit'. If she tricked you about the sedative (and it sounds like she may have) then that's very much worse than 'just' being dishonest.

    I would think about complaining, definitely. If you don't feel able to or up to it that's completely understandable, but if you could manage it it would help others who come after you with the same doctor, as well as perhaps reassure you that that is NOT the way these things are done, and hopefully give you the confidence to have other procedures in the future.

    As I said, the important thing is that you've now had it done

    Again, really sorry you had to go through that. It's unbelievable. Especially for an anxiety sufferer.

    Best wishes

Page 4 of 5 FirstFirst ... 2345 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. is weight gain inevitable with mirtazapine?
    By rubytuesday in forum Mirtazapine /Zispin
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 24-04-15, 08:21
  2. Is weight gain inevitable on Citalopram
    By scorpionwhispers in forum Citalopram / Celexa
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 02-06-10, 07:59
  3. had my last endoscopy
    By magpie girl in forum Endoscopy
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 23-01-10, 11:57
  4. pregnant and inevitable i will get swine flu!!
    By Sal x in forum Health Anxiety
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 17-07-09, 20:36
  5. endoscopy
    By joy in forum Endoscopy
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 09-08-08, 17:09

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •