Probably My Most Horrific Experience So Far
Posted on 2004-07-20
I had another appointment at the hospital yesterday - this time for the endoscopy that I mentioned in this entry back in May.
Now, although I've had an endoscopy carried out before I can honestly say that the one they carried out on me yesterday ranks pretty high on my 'most horrific experience ever' list.
Some of you might remember that I needed 11 injections when I had my wisdom teeth out because I seem to have built up a tolerance to certain chemicals..... well yesterday, although they sprayed the back of my throat to numb it and sedated me in order to feed the camera into my stomach, I actually woke up half way through. I kept retching and heaving and I'm pretty sure I puked over one of the poor nurses - 3 were actually holding me down when they realised I was waking up so that I didn't harm myself, because at the time the surgeon was taking a biopsy from my stomach lining and if I moved he could have perforated the lining itself which would have needed immediate surgery to fix - nice huh???
So there I was, wide awake with this huge tube down my throat, wearing a mouth guard so that I couldn't close my mouth and accidently bite on the tube, while at the same time 2 litres of air was pumping my stomach up like a balloon and the inside of my belly was being transmitted onto a t.v. screen right in front of me [I have the ugliest insides ever I can tell you!!!]. Needless to say I was totally freaking out. Some of you might also remember that I have a problem with my heart rate which I take medication for. Before the procedure my heart rate was 140 because I couldn't take any of my medication, [I had to fast for 12 hours], but during the procedure it jumped to a whopping 170 beats per minute. [A 'normal' heart rate for an adult is between 60-80 beats per minute when resting]. I could hear the nurses saying that I was 'at risk' which made me panic even more...... Like I said, the whole experience was horrific!!! Still it's all over and done with now.
The doctor gave me an upper endoscopy report before I came home which shows information collected during the procedure, and according to the report the diagnosis is 'Erythematous/Exudative Gastritis Involving The Antrum' not gallstones as they originally suspected. The report also showed that my hiatus hernia has got worse too, which they believe has been causing the constant vomiting over recent months.
I'm not entirely sure exactly what this means in laymans terms. I know 'normal' gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining though, and the doctor has taken biopsies from my stomach to see if there is an infection present - if so it'll need treating with an intensive course of antibiotics, probiotics and something else which I can't remember the name of.
Unfortunately I don't know where that leaves me or how they're going to treat me yet. I need to have some more blood tests and I'm still waiting to have the scan done so treatment wont begin until the results of those come back as well. In the meantime, although I have a diagnosis, I'm pretty much in the dark.
On the bad side I have another illness to add to my growing collection and no idea when treatment will begin, on the good side I don't have gallstones. Hoorah!!!