Endoscopy

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

I need some advice. Liam went to the GI yesterday and he wants to do an

endoscopy before he will treat his reflux. I am nervous about that. What

does it intail? he will be 5 on Monday.

[Guest guest]

Max has had many of these. It's really not a big deal, but it does

involve general anesthesia.

Liam will have to fast for several hours before it can be done. I

think the " norm " is for 6 hours. Then, as a same day procedure, you

would take him to the day hospital where he would be hooked up to an

IV in prep for general anesthesia. When the time comes for the

endo., he would be taken into the procedure room, put to sleep and

then a very small camera on a very thin tube is inserted down his

esophagus. The GI doc can then take pictures and even do a biopsy

while he is asleep. The whole thing takes maybe 20 minutes???

Well, the last one Max had was a bit longer because he had so many

ulcers and irritation. They wanted to look around more. After it

is over, he is brought back to you where he is awakened. You have

to wait a certain amount of time for him to wake up and then eat

before you can go home.

Sometimes Max has complained of a sore throat afterwards, but not

much else. He has not even been really tired from the anesthesia.

The really cool part is that our GI gives us copies of the pics he

takes. I think it is so fascinating to look at them and study the

effects of reflux and ulcers, etc., then to know that they can treat

him and make him better.

To be honest, of all the tests that Max has done, this is the

easiest. He gets to sleep through it and there is no pain.

Everything else involves drinking yucky stuff, waiting forever, and

having him lie still for sometimes hours. I'm not trying to

minimalize your anxiety because I understand it all too well, but

please know that you can relax about this test. It is very

informative and tells so much about what is going on inside.

Jodi Z