Look at me! I’m a balloon!

This has got nothing to do with Dynamics NAV so if you're looking for news on ERP systems, leave now. If you are squeamish about medical procedures then you should also leave. Hi Dad – just you and me reading this now.

I am gluten intolerant. That means if I eat anything with Gluten in it I feel crook. Today I went for a Esophagogastroduodenoscopy to see if I have coeliac disease (the disease sounds bad but basically it means you can't eat gluten without it making you crook and you have damage to the bits of your gut that help you absorb nutrients.) There is no cure other than to stop drinking beer, eating pizza, burgers, toast, pasta, etc. So, not too bad, right?

Anyway, back to the procedure. I was given the choice of a local anaesthetic spray (that numbs the throat) or the spray and a sedative. I was told that if I had just the local I would be able to watch the procedure on a video monitor. I was also told that the guy before me just had the local and he was able to keep himself calm, control his breathing and he got through it fine. I was also told that the sedative would make me feel drowsy and unable to do pretty much anything for the rest of the day. I was attracted to the idea of watching the procedure on the video monitor (my wife says this is the geek in me winning out of the sensible part of me.) Now if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position to be asked if you want a sedative before someone shoves a piece of hose down your throat and pumps your stomach up like a balloon, the correct answer is "Hell yes!"

As for the video: the doctor stood in front of my screen so I didn't see a thing! But the procedure was so unpleasant that there could have been a small family of pixies living in my stomach and I wouldn't have cared. There were several people watching the procedure (I am guessing they were students) and none of them would make eye-contact afterward. This was probably due to the strange retching-gagging-belching noise I was making and the look of fear on my face. I think they were thinking "Dear God! What did we just do to that man?"

So the purpose of this blog posting is that if anyone is searching Google with the question: "Should I take the sedative before having an EGD, OGD, upper GI endoscopy (UGIE), or gastroscopy" then they can read this and know that no matter how appealing seeing their insides on a video screen seems, you should take the drugs!