Stomach camera trouble!

Have you ever had a stomach camera test?

I had one for the first time ever during a health check on Monday.

First, a nurse took me to a small room and I sat in a chair like a dentist’s chair. The camera goes up your nose and down your throat, so the nurse uses medicine to numb your nose and throat or it will hurt. 

The nurse asked which nostril I wanted. I chose right. She sprayed anesthetic up both nostrils and then tried to insert a plastic tube up the right nostril. It didn’t hurt but it was very uncomfortable.

“Your nostril is narrow”, the nurse said.

She took the tube out of my nostril and tried to put it up the other side. It went in but she said it was sticking out a little. Then a syringe was connected to the tube to spray another liquid anesthetic to the back of my nose and down my throat.

“We have to wait for a few minutes for the anesthetic to take effect. If you have any problem, press this call button.”

As soon as she left the room, my throat became numb, and I started to feel nauseous. Immediately after that, I felt like I was going to throw up. And then everything started to go white and fuzzy. I pressed the button a few times and I saw a nurse walk past the door, but I couldn’t speak to get her attention.... everything faded to white....

........

The next thing I remember, there were two nurses and a doctor in the room, and I was connected to a blood pressure and pulse monitor. Also, one of the nurses was holding my legs up in the air to get the blood back to my brain and my chair was fully reclined.

The doctor was talking quickly in Japanese and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I slowly understood that I had lost consciousness. I started to feel better right away. Then the doctor and nurses discussed whether to do the stomach camera or not. I said I was fine, but the nurse said I was white as a ghost and my face was all sweaty.

After a few minutes I felt almost normal and said that I wanted to do the test. I didn’t want to come back on another day.

The stomach camera test was uncomfortable, but not as bad as when I passed out. I could watch the camera’s view on a monitor. It was interesting to see my insides on the screen.

The results of my test were good, no problems and the doctor said that I have a very nice stomach. She recommended another stomach camera test for me in 2 years, so I’m looking forward to that...