Home safe & sound!!!

Well, I did it ~ I survived my gastroscopy! Though I can't say that the procedure was at all fun, my nurse was very nice and funny, which was a nice combo today!

When I arrived at the hospital, I went to Admitting, got my lovely new piece of hospital jewelry (my hospital bracelet) and then headed down to the daybed unit. I then was checked in there and got called down to a cubicle/partition area and Eileen, my nurse, put me into a gown ~ right over my clothes, I didn't even take off my shoes! and then checked my blood pressure, pulse and something else that I didn't understand from the monitor. She then wrapped my arm in a lovely warm blanket to help her find a vein, cause I wasn't allowed any fluids in the previous 5 hours and then asked a million and one questions about my medical history. She then stuck in my IV line where I would be getting my sedatives, the funny thing about it was that it was just this short little line, I didn't have the IV pole or any IV fluid bags.

I was then called down to the procedure room and so was moved to a stretcher/bed and wheeled into the room where my GI specialist, Dr Yoshida met me and also a GI doctor from Thailand who was assisting him today with my procedure. They then rechecked my vital signs, got me to sign a consent form for going under sedation and then applied the sedative to the back of my throat. This was NOT fun at all. I had to hold my breath while they sprayed this liquid at the back of my throat and then had to swallow to get the medication down my throat and it tasted DISGUSTING!! They did that twice, then injected sedatives into my IV line. Then the doctor gave me a mouth guard to protect the scope instrument and to help keep my mouth and throat open.

(while this is not me, this is pretty much exactly what it looked like except there were 4 doctor/nurses in the room and the nurse was holding my head steady)
(this photo was taken from a Google image search)
This whole time I was lying on my left side. Then he went to insert the scope and that is when the "FUN" started. Though they kept telling me to stay calm and breathe, my gag reflex was working overtime and the whole time they were doing the procedure (the whole 3 minutes!) I was gagging and coughing and feeling so bad that I was being difficult for the doctors but not really able to stop. Yes, it was uncomfortable but I didn't think I would have that much of a problem. The nurse that was in the room was great and at one point, she told the doctor to hurry up! She also got the lovely job of cleaning up whatever I managed to cough up - I felt bad about that! When that was done, Dr Yoshida told me that I would have the results of the biopsy in 10-14 days and then they wheeled me back to recovery.

When I was brought back, they wheeled me again into a cubicle area and got me settled into bed, tucked me up in a blanket and again put on the monitors for my vital signs which were constantly being checked by a machine at my bedside. Eileen checked in to see if I had any side effects from the procedure or the sedation and then I just had to rest and wait for it to mostly wear off. I slept for about 30 minutes and otherwise just was lying there dozing in and out. At about 3:45pm, 45 minutes after being taken in for my procedure, they said I would be ready to go at about 4:15pm and then at 4:15pm Eileen came in, took out my IV, sat me up & made me drink some water and gave me my discharge papers with what I need to look out for. And then I was good to go! Mom & I walked out to the car and headed home, but not before paying $10.50 in parking for the less than 3 hours we were there!

I did notice when I was in the bathroom that I have broken some minor blood vessels around my eyes and down my left cheek, I am thinking this is probably from the gagging and coughing when they were doing the scope. I hope that it clears up fast or tomorrow I will be wearing makeup to work to cover it up!!

I am off to lie down and get some rest and hopefully wear off some of this sedation! I am also enjoying my chocolate milkshake, the first thing I have had all day since having Jell-O for breakfast at 7am this morning!!