I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia almost 40 years ago. Mine gave symptoms that mimicked a heart attack. After 3 years on antacids I changed Dr’s. My new Dr. diagnosed me as swallowing air, anxiety would cause my saliva to become foamy and over salivate. He advised me to start carrying a rag and just wipe my mouth frequently instead of swallowing. Problem solved after years of suffering.
I’ve had three. They’re nothing. Don’t get yourself worked up (like I did) about the whole ‘twilight’ thing. They’ll give you something in your IV to ‘make you tired’ and then a half second later you wake back up in your room like nothing happened. Once I had a sore throat for about two days, but the other two times, they could have knocked me out and woke me back up a few seconds later and just told me they did it. It’s nothing.
When the nurses say that the fasting and/or having the IV placed is the worst part, they really aren’t kidding.
I had Versed for my colonoscopy, and though I’ve forgotten most of the procedure, I do remember bits and pieces. My dread was enduring feeling like I was gagging or wanting to vomit and remembering it afterwards just like I remembered portions of the colonoscopy. Maybe they knock you out a bit more for the endoscopy, though.
I had occasional bouts of gastric reflux that lasted for more than just a day or two, and once or twice corresponding muscle spasms in the gullet. My GP put me on a protein pump inhibitor (Lansoprazole), and though that seemed to do the trick, he also put me in for tests including an ultrasound scan (did you know they have a little heater to warm up the KY jelly?) to rule out campylobacter/ulcers, before finally putting me in for an endoscopy (not nice but not as bad as I’d feared*), which also ruled out all the really nasty possibilities, and indicated a hiatus hernia, too small to justify an operation. So far the Lansoprazole seems to be doing the trick, though every now and again I seem to need to take a double dose for a few days to settle things down again.
And I was given a copy of the report complete with pictures of my internal plumbing. I keep thinking it ought to make quite a conversation piece, but don’t quite dare to try.
*I went for the “conscious” option, rather than have a general anaesthetic - a squirt of local anaesthetic into the throat; I was surprised that I didn’t threaten to gag more often, and it was probably only about 10-15 minutes. If I’d had a general, I’d have had to ask someone to come with me and see me safely home. (There was one such companion there, who’d come with his daughter, and was anxious to explain to the nurses why she might be more difficult to rouse than most other patients - “You see, she’s got slight necrophilia!”)
I had an endoscopy with Bravo placement (they attach a small capsule to your esophagus, and it sends data to a little pager you carry around for two days). Other than soreness at the attachment site and a little throat pain, the procedure and recovery were easy. The nurse even gave me a shot of lidocaine before the IV to make that part easier- it did the trick.
If they don’t find any signs of reflux-related erosion, ask them about NERD. It’s a GERD subtype, more common in women and drug-resistant. That’s what they ended up diagnosing me with, and based on your descriptions here we followed the same symptom/attempted treatment progression.
Good luck!
Seconded.
I’ve had two. I had some soreness in the throat the second time but that was because I’d been developing a bit of a stricture in the esophagus, and he stretched that out while I was under.
The term for what they use for that is “bougie”. This is the French word for candle. I thought it was amusing that I had a candle down my throat (not seriously; it’s a kind of flexible weighted thingy).
Interestingly, the term they use for a sensation of tightness / lump in the throat is “globus pharyngis” and falls under the heading of mental issues in the DSM, even when it’s a genuine physical thing, and it’s strongly tied to GERD. I found that pretty annoying (in my case, he did see some tightening, it was NOT imaginary).
No strictures for me, but I had mine stretched as well. In fact, the reason I had three was because after the first one they told me my esophagus was so narrowed they couldn’t even get the scope down it so they had to borrow one from Children’s Hospital. After the second, they stretched about halfway to where they wanted. After the third they asked me to come back again to get a little further and I declined. I told them I’d make an appointment if it was a problem. I went from not being able to swallow pills (not ‘in my head’, they’d get caught in my throat) and food getting stuck about once or twice a week*, to being able to swallow just about any pill you gave me and since I had this done a few years ago, I’ve only had food get caught once.
*It’s so nice now that when a doctor writes a script I don’t have to say ‘how big is the pill?’ or “Can you write me a script for more pills but a smaller mg, I have trouble swallowing pills?” Similarly, it’s nice to not worry that every time I’m out with someone I might have to excuse myself to go puke. It was the only way to get food out once it was stuck. Excusing myself to the bathroom in the middle of dinner was odd enough. Coming back with bloodshot eyes and sweating prompted a lot of questions and discussions along with suggestions like ‘swallow some bread’ or ‘drink some water’ none of which actually worked or, of course ‘it’s in your head’. Anyways, I’m glad I had it done, I wish I hadn’t put it off (for 10 years). Nothing gets stuck now. Everything was getting caught before. Now I can have a super stringy/chewy/fatty piece of meat or whatever and it still just goes right down, no worries.
If I ever have this problem again, I won’t hesitate to go back for another EGD with dilation.
FTR, if anyone ever needs a recommendation in the Milwaukee area, my doc (and his PA) was great.
Well, that was a breeze. Thanks to everyone who reassured me that it was no big deal. Intellectually, I knew that it wasn’t, but I still needed to hear stories.
For comparison purposes, I’d say that having your teeth cleaned is more uncomfortable and takes longer. For this procedure, it was just naptime for a quarter of an hour, and I have no sore throat or other problems afterward.
And the diagnosis: reflux and a bit of a hiatal hernia. The doc gave me a generous amount of samples of a different drug to take, rather than omeprazole: Dexilant. We’ll see how that goes.
Dexilant is obscenely expensive. You might want to check with your insurance before you fall in love with it. When told the nurse and PA that they said ‘don’t worry, there’s a coupon’. I told them I already found it and even with that coupon (it’s on their website), I’d still be paying $470/90 days (or about $160 a month).
For comparison, I pay about $60 for three months of Protonix (2 times/day) and $23 for three months of omeprazole 40mg (OTC is 20mg).
Dexilant’s advantage is that it has an immediate-release component as well as a sustained release component, which was why my doc prescribed it.
Insurance is weird. My job’s insurance announced it was not covering any PPI, at all, starting in 2014. That was the year I switched to my husband’s policy, for unrelated reasons. His company, on the other hand, covers PPIs, including the OTC strength of omeprazole.