I had a helluva week this week.
Most of it was spent in preparation for my Upper GI Endoscopy I had done on Wednesday. I don’t like hospitals, anesthesia makes me nervous and I generally just don’t like being under the weather, especially when it’s a choice.
I kind of felt like I was waiting for the endoscopy to happen so I could continue to live my life normally. I kept thinking of meetings, events, etc. as things that happened before or after the procedure. I even almost didn’t go to an Oscar party because I was having the endoscopy … three days away. Sheesh.
But I have to remind myself that it’s the anxiety talking in those situations and that it’s OK to be afraid.
I decided to vlog about that, along with other things that happened this week. But I’ll focus on the procedure in this post so you can get the rest of the info in the video. 🙂
My mom came in the night before and the morning of we all woke up to tornado sirens. I knew we were supposed to get storms that day, but didn’t think anything about a tornado. What a way to wake up on an already anxiety-provoking day! The storms passed and it was just raining by the time we got on the road.
My procedure wasn’t until 11 a.m., and I was supposed to get there at 10. We arrived early, though, at around 9:30 a.m., and at around 9:45, they walked me back to get me ready. Bless the nurse who told me Grant could join me. I would have been a wreck without him.
So I got back there, changed into the gown and they hooked me up to some fluids. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since dinner the night before, so I was dehydrated and insanely hungry. Of course, the fluids went right through me and I had to pee really fast, which was complicated because they had to unhook me a couple of times.
I guess they were behind because they didn’t wheel me in until 12:15 p.m. Again, thank goodness Grant was there because he kept me distracted and I stayed relatively calm the whole time.
So they wheeled me into this room with a lot of machine/computer-type stuff with two screens at the top. I had to turn on my left side and they gave me a bite block to keep my mouth open. The anesthesiologist had introduced herself and then hooked me up to the medicine. I thought she’d do a countdown or something, but I was alarmed she’d hooked me up, so I asked her what it was. She told me and then my brain started tingling and I figured I should close my eyes and then that was it.
I woke up and Grant was beside me, a nurse came to check on me and made me sit up. All I wanted to do was lay back down and sleep, but I know she needed to get me out of there. It probably took me about 15 minutes to wake back up fully enough to know what was going on and be able to get myself to the bathroom and into the wheelchair. They wheeled me out to where my mom was waiting and then out to get our car.
I have to say that all of the nurses were amazing and incredibly nice and patient. One of the nurses is a big fan of Star Wars and when she found out Grant loves Star Wars, too, she came back with her cell phone and played all her different ring tones for us.
I also have to say having Grant there made the whole thing a million times less scary. He held my hand the whole time I was waiting, joked with me, got the nurses when I had to pee and was there when I woke up. He even helped me later because I didn’t remember the nurse had said to drink water before eating again.
It was great having my mom there, too, who knows that hospital like the back of her hand and was great emotional support, too. I wish she’d been able to go back there as well.
All in all, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I don’t want to do it again, of course, but at least I’d know what to expect.
The only thing they found right away was a narrowing of my esophagus near my stomach, so they did stretch it out. I don’t feel like they’ve done anything drastic, but it does feel like something’s definitely been down there.
If you have to have an endoscopy procedure done and you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!
Allison Leora 