Some reassurance for you all

[lifeofbrian]

I had an endoscopy a couple of years back. Now like all of you here I have extreme anxiety, I have so many phobias and fears that I have not been to a social place in about 13 years, not had a relationship in over 20, I have had literally a month long panic attack, I lost 25 lbs in weight and slept for at most 20 mins per day.
As you can imagine the thought of a camera being shoved into my throat scared me quite a lot. I remember sitting on a bed waiting for them to take me in, thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to me in there.
To cut to the chase, after the procedure finished I sat up and literally said out load, "was that it!".
The only thing annoying about it is like when you're at the dentist and you need to swallow, it's a bit awkward because you mouth is open, apart from that I never felt a thing and it was over very quickly.
Apparently there's a spray the numbs your throat, I asked for it but the nurse said that there was no point because by the time the spray works it will be over and I'm convinced she was right.
I have had a "tight" throat, reflux and swallowing problems for many years and there was no problem with this procedure at all. Of course you're all still going to panic, it's what we do, but this procedure is one of the easier ones we have to go through in our lives, so try to remember, it doesn't hurt, you can breathe as normal, and it's over very fast.

Good luck all.

[lifeofbrian]

Just had my second Endoscpoy yesterday and the swallowing of the camera was easy as the guy just rams it in anyway, the whole thing lasted maybe 45 seconds max, he shoved it down, yanked it round and pulled it out, he was not gentle. I had this at a private hospital before with no throat spray and that was very gentle compared to this one, the throat spray did nothing apart from making it almost impossible to swallow for an hour afterwards, every time I tried to swallow my saliva I thought my throat was going to never open again, all in all the worse 30 secs of my life followed by the worse choking of my life. My advise, get sedated or go private.

[Clydesdale Epona]

This makes me feel better about my barium test coming up, i'm really worried but i'd rather have it than an endoscopy x
i'm sorry to hear about your experience, i think its a matter of who you get