24 Hour Manometric Examination of the Esophagus - Test itself - not results

June 12, 2009

Hi Everyone. I thought I'd do this in 2 stages. First tell about the test (my

experience and of course we all know everyone is different) and later I'll post

the results. So yesterday around 11am they inserted a tube about the size of a

normal spaghetti noodle up my nose, down my throat and into my esophagus down to

where the stomach starts. They had to do this to measure the length of my

esophagus to know what length wire to put in. I don't know if anything else was

learned from this but my experience was gaging, coughing, eyes watering but not

nausea. After he removed this and I recovered from it (say 3-5 minutes) he

inserted a thinner tube with wires in it to the same location (just above the

stomach sphincter muscle). This wasn't as bad as the first thing but the worst

part was that it stayed in for 24 hours. It was taped to my face, ran around my

ear and under my blouse and hooked to a small computer type device. I had to

push buttons on this computer device for when I had various symptoms (i.e. heart

burn, reflux, coughing or when eating or when lying down). Of course I couldn't

turn my head to the left without triggering gage and coughing reflexes so

driving home was interesting to say the least. I coughed a lot but couldn't

manage to push the buttons without driving off the 520 bridge so I just made a

note on the sheet once I got home. I would encourage anyone that needs this

test to get someone to drive you. I would also suggest you have some very

smooth, easy to swallow items to eat at home. I couldn't manage even chicken

soup. So for lunch and dinner I had ice cream (no sticky stuff in there either

as it tugs on the tube as it goes down which feels very strange indeed), Ensure,

chocolate milk. Needless to say I mostly stayed quiet watching tv to avoid

turning my head and causing me undo problems. I did learn one thing that might

help someone - if swallowing saliva is hurting more than normal - blow your nose

- it probably has mucus in it which tugs. I couldn't believe how wiped out the

test made me as I napped and slept most of the night. I woke up around 4am with

a decent (not nice) level of pain in my throat and even though I was supposed to

not drink anything after midnight for the barium test (which was scheduled for

today) I drank anyway as it soothed the throat to keep it moist. I wouldn't

suggest you do another 'no food or drink after midnight' test the day after

getting this tube inserted. I was very happy indeed to get it pulled out. It

isn't really that painful but it isn't a lot of fun either. If you do get this

test I would suggest having a good book or a good movie and some soft food and

kick back and let people wait on you! They say they want you to have as normal

a day as possible and I just told them it was about as far from a 'normal' day

for me as you can get but I got through it. I'll post the results of the test

as I learn them.

Peggy Ellis (24 hour test survivor LOL, very tired lady)

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