Month: December 2016

Hey everyone a couple days ago I had my endoscopy and man was that a trip!  The procedure itself is only 10 or 15 min, but the drugs they gave me really threw me for a loop.  But before I get into that, let me first start with what an endoscopy is.

An endoscopy is a procedure where an endoscope (basically a camera) is put down your throat and used to view the esophagus, stomach and part of the intestines.  Your anatomy pops up on a TV screen in beautiful living color for your doc to see.  This allows the doc to take samples of anything he may suspect is off as well as samples to test if you have any bacteria in your stomach that shouldn’t be there.  I am thankfully, for all intents and purposes fine, but they did biopsy a few places but I won’t know those results for about a week or so.

Meanwhile, back to the happy drugs.  As a nurse I make a terribly anxious patient and maybe to some a bit difficult.  Difficult because I know to ask all the questions which people don’t expect a layman to ask such as what drugs are you going to give me to sleep or can you put that IV in my right hand instead of my right arm?  Everyone in same day medical was extremely nice and most of the nurses I knew by face or had worked with at one time or another so despite my being anxious I knew that no one was going to let anything happen to me.

My procedure nurse was fantastic and knowledgeable about what he was doing and everything went fine until they hooked me up to the monitor.  So I was more than a bit anxious on the inside because my blood pressure and heart rate were no joke sky high.  The little Asian anesthesiologist told me “this no good, give you medicine to relax,” which she did.  Then came the bit block and now I was started to not so much get claustrophobic but I just felt like it was all too much and despite having gargled and swallowed some meds to make the back of my throat numb I was still gagging on this bite block.  So the tech gave me a min, but by the time I bit down on the block and he strapped it around my head I was out like a light.  The last thing I heard was “enjoy your sleep.”  Now some people say this is the best sleep they have ever had, but truthfully I didn’t feel out long enough to even know it.

I will tell you this I woke up on the stretcher being rolled out of the procedure room and back into recovery.  Same day medical wants to be like the Wizard of Oz where “people come and go so quickly.”  Recovery literally felt like a blink of an eye.  I went into my cubby room and was trying to ask for Vaseline for my lips because I knew I couldn’t eat or drink anything for 2 hours after because of the throat numbing meds.  And the nurse who I knew was so quick and although I like her she honestly just wanted to get the blood pressure cuff on me and get me out.  I had to tell her I couldn’t eat or drink anything because I had viscous lidocaine to numb my throat.  Totally in la la land the room was spinning, but I was happy as a clam and my mom had to help me get dressed or I would have fallen right on the floor.  All in all it wasn’t a terrible experience but do I every want to do that again absolutely not.

So if you are reading this and are thinking about going through this process or are in this process now and haven’t had the endoscopy yet enjoy that happy high you will certainly get from the after effects of the drugs and happy reading 😉

Throughout this process things seem to meeting a few bumps in the road, some things seem to be getting done backwards like my appointment with the pulmonologist.  It seems inevitable that although I explain why I need the appointment it somehow manages to get screwed up.  On that note we all know insurances are about making nothing easy;  referral for this, referral for that.  My insurance card on the other hand has referral suggested if not pay a higher amount.  Well I have gotten tired of fighting with the woman at my primary doctors office who tells me there are no referrals for this insurance so I just pay the higher amount.  Yes I am giving up because some things are just not worth my breath anymore.

In any case I called this pulmonologist probably a month ago or so to make an appointment—a woman who very short with me on the phone answered and started arguing with me about what needed to be done first and where I needed to have the pulmonary function test done and this that and another thing.  Finally she made me an appointment I show up only to get possibly a new girl tell me she’s never seen my insurance before and I should have had a PFT (pulmonary function test) first.

Although pleasant, the newer girl referred to the more seasoned staff member who told me that yes normally they did the PFT first and you see the doctor second to avoid having to come back again but since I was here there was no reason I could not see the doc and that based upon my insurance it was not necessary to have a referral just recommended.

Every doctors office I have been in on this ride has done a patient history.  I have been asked the do I snore or have sleep apnea so much I am ready to wear a sign stating “Yes I snore–How should I know if I have sleep apnea it’s called “sleep” apnea for a reason!” Aside from being tired of hearing that question the doc didn’t tell me anything I already didn’t expect to here, and he was nice enough to tell me I didn’t have to come back a third time to get the PFT results.

For those of you out there that don’t know what pulmonary function tests are you basically sit in a machine and breathe/blow into a mouth piece that measures how well your lungs work.  Based upon this they can tell a whole heck of a lot including if you have Asthma.  I will let you all know how that goes when it happens.  Happy reading 🙂