Scope complete

Mar 26, 2015

I went in yesterday for my scope. I figured I would post about it in case anyone in the future is wondering what the process is like.

You can't eat or drink starting the night before, which was no tough deal, especially considering I was one of the first appointments of the day. You change from the waist up and they give you a locker to put your things in, then they have you wait in the waiting room. 15 minutes in a woman came, went over some questions and information, and sent me back to waiting area. I think the wait time was about 30 mins from arrival total but to be honest I did get a little snooze in at the waiting area (my new puppy is keeping me up all kinds of late hours!).

They had me lay down on a bed while the doctor explained the procedure and checked if I had questions. They were waiting on something so we had a little chit chat, joked around, etc. I said I was looking forward to the rest due to puppy related lack of sleep. The nurse inserted an IV nearly painlessly, and then they sprayed some gross numbing stuff down my throat (Dr. quote: "It tastes like poison...but it's not!" ). Not too different from the numbing stuff they use in dental work, bitter and nasty but nothing too horrible. Once they injected the sedation drug into the IV I was pretty much out. I have a few vague, strange memories of coughing a bit (probably right after they inserted) and then them pointing out that I could watch on the screen, looking over and thinking my insides looked like a lava lamp.

Then I was passed out until a nice lady came and gave me a warm blanket in recovery. Bliss! They woke me up probably 30 minutes later, I wanted to keep sleeping but they said I had to go .

Before I left they gave me some instructions - wait 45 mins, try drinking a little water, if it went down smoothly I would be cleared to eat and drink normally. They told me some danger signs to look out for in which case I was to go to ER - blood in stool, etc. They phoned my partner and she came to pick me up, saying she had to come upstairs to fetch me. They let me in to get my stuff out of the locker and I was free to go. There were no seats in the waiting room and I was feeling just dandy so I walked downstairs and waited for her there so she wouldn't have to park. She was not impressed and told me next time I gotta follow the rules. Fair enough.

At first when I got home I felt fine, a little woozy but also kind of out of it in a pleasantly fuzzy way. By the time we got to the 45 minute mark and I had some water I felt pretty hungry. I waited about 2 hours total from when I left the hospital to go pick up some food - basic Japanese. On the walk home (~5 min walk) I felt a bit like I might pass out, my fiancee had to take my arm like an old lady to steady me, worse I was carrying our puppy so she was getting prepared to catch me if I "went down". Since I've got well over 100lbs on her that would have been a disaster! On top of that she was carrying lunch. We got home ok though and I think my blood sugar was just low. I had some chicken, rice, a couple tiny (quarter size) maki rolls and veggies. I felt way better afterwards, but tired. By mid-afternoon I went to bed and passed out hard until the evening. Felt great but ended up having a hard time getting back to sleep that night, which worked out fine for the puppy's schedule (up every 2 hours). 

I experienced a little throat soreness yesterday and some this morning, but nothing a warm beverage couldn't help. Overall it wasn't too bad of an experience and if anything on the plus side, I got to stay home and catch up on my sleep.

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