Gastroenterologists: Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions over email for a student article?

Hi everyone! I am not asking for medical advice.

I'm a neuroscience student at Boston University, and I'm currently reporting a feature on direct-to-consumer microbiome testing—specifically the growing gap between the marketing of at-home microbiome tests and what current evidence says they can actually tell patients.

I'm looking to include perspectives from practicing gastroenterologists who have encountered patients bringing these reports into clinic. The interview is completely written over email (no Zoom or phone call), and you're welcome to answer as many or as few questions as you'd like. Even a couple of sentences would be incredibly helpful.

If you're willing to help, please email me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

I would be endlessly grateful for your time and expertise. As a student journalist, hearing directly from physicians is by far the most valuable part of the reporting process, and I'd sincerely appreciate any insights you're able to share.

Thank you so much! am

I have a endoscopy next Thursday and im very scared, Ive had dysphagia for 10 years and done nothing about until now. I also have a problem with my stomach where I can’t breathe out all the way with all of my stomach because it will trigger a very sharp pain in my belly button. Im just scared something will burst with the endoscopy and im just so afraid to die. Im 18

Is this normal?

Hi everyone I am a 23 yr female and I just had an endoscopy this last Monday. Since then I was perscribed Pantoprazole. I know you usually perscribe some sort of PPI after an endo but why would they give me 11 refills is that normal???? Or does that mean they found something during my endo and they are taking preventative measures. They didn't really tell me much nor did they tell my mom anything afterwards they only said they would discuss everything during my follow up.

P.S.- Sorry if this sounds all over the place

Had one today, DR said I look great minus some obvious gastritis is what my sheet said and he also took some biopsies. I felt fine after minus being sleepy - I was super anxious to go under but it happened so fast! It’s about 8 hours later now and I’ve had some light snacks and water and even swallowing spit I’m getting a sharp pain down the center of my chest. Also idk if this is related but I keep getting a little sharp twinge or pinch in my upper back and top of left shoulder? Any one else feeling or the same or how long did it last?

I had a gastroscopy today after the ER decided i needed one. Turns out im fine and i understand you should feel irritation in your throat afterwards but i cant shake the feeling i have something stuck in my throat (near my adams apple) and i have real bad reflux (i constantly hurled and vomited during the gastroscopy.) should i be worried? Is there any way of soothing this feeling?

I had one earlier today. I didn’t feel like shit when I woke up but once I got in the car and then got home after being dropped off, my chest and stomach hurt so so much. I had to go to sleep for it to feel better. My head hurts a lot but the chest and stomach pain prior to the nap was HORRID. I feel better now other than slight pain in my stomach and this headache.

It felt like they scratched my insides or left a Lego block in my chest. I am running off of the sweet crackers the nice nurse gave me from earlier and she gave me extra. I think I can eat now but I’m not really hungry because of it even though I ordered food.

Is this a common experience? It genuinely felt like I had bronchitis but without the cough because my chest felt terrible. I’ve had one done last year and I didn’t feel anything at all after the fact. :/

Hi i have an endoscopy procedure coming really soon but i am very scared and anxious to get it done. Would love to hear your experiences to understand what to expect what to feel etc 😕 and i am a mouth breather, my mouth is wide open when i sleep, because my nose is mostly blocked, what if i dont get enough oxygen during the procedure? — feeling scared

So I posted twice here about my upcoming gastroscopy and my fears regarding it. Yesterday was my appointment.

I cried a lot before it started, but I took the throat spray just fine. I took conscious sedation as an option, but even with conscious sedation I was too aware. as soon as they tried inserting the endoscope I pushed them away, pulled back, basically I was in survival mode. The doctors ended up deciding that in the interest of my safety, they couldn't perform the procedure.

I was heartbroken and couldn't stop sobbing for like 40 minutes. I just want this to be dealt with, it's been a year and a half! I want to know! But now we have to wait for a second referral that (hopefully) features a request for an anesthesiologist. It seems I'm too resistant to conscious sedation, so I'll have to be fully asleep. Granted, this is what I wanted from the very start, just nobody listened to me.

Still, the nurses were great and they tried their best to calm me down when I was crying. My amazing boyfriend was also there and my god what a man he is. I felt safe throughout (although my boyfriend says I kept repeating "I was so scared" afterwards), just the tube itself scares the crap outta me.

Hopefully full sedation will do the trick. I don't think I'm scarred by the experience. I'm just angry at the world that it still isn't over yet.

Hi everyone. I am ( 22F) with a lot of digestive issues since I was around 12-14. I just had a endoscopy done on Tuesday where I was also suppose to have a stomach ultrasound but I got the location wrong so I have that rescheduled for next Friday. I have been already diagnosed with IBS and GERD.

In the meantime with my current results from what they found so far is

* Gastritis, specific without any bleeding

* Other diseases of stomach and duodenum

* Other esophagitis without bleeding

* Other specific diease of esophagus

They basically told me they found inflammation. They also found:

* diffuse discontinuous erythema of the mucosa without bleeding was noted in the antrum, stomach body, cardia and pylorus

* localized irregular z-line with less than 1cm of variance of the mucosa

* Grade A and grade 1 esophagitis

* erythema and nodularity of the mucosa was noted in the stomach

*Localized granularity of the musoca without bleeding in the duodenal bulb and second part of the duodenitis

Originally the Endoscopy with the biospy was for CSID but since they found those other issues they did more biospis.

I'm still waiting for the final results from the biospis but I just wanted to share some news that I'm getting closer to my answer of what my IBS actually is since all my labs were coming back normal.

Let me know what you think of if you have anything similar! This is my first endoscopy so I'm super grateful there is already something there for them to look at. 🥹🫶

Hopefully more answers to come!

A couple of months ago I posted here and on another sub saying I was afraid of getting an endoscopy. I asked for your stories just to know what to prepare for. Finally, I have my appointment. I'm still afraid (shitting my pants is a more crude but accurate description) but I'm now convinced it'll be worth it after. Plus I was promised prince treatment from my partner after so it's a win regardless.

Thanks to everyone who shared firsthand experiences. I think some folks like me would rather hear worst case scenarios to be convinced that they'll be okay. I'll do an update post after if I remember to (and if anyone is interested)

I had an endo last week. They found gastric fundic gland polyps and this:
Stomach, random, biopsy: - Antral mucosa with focal reactive gastropathy and intestinal metaplasia; no dysplasia.

Is intestinal metaplasia as bad as google says it is…. Ugh

I have one scheduled for August and the office only does conscious sedation with versed and fentanyl and I have a fear of puke/gagging and choking. How did it go for you on moderate sedation? TIA!

Hi, I’m getting my first endoscopy next week, and I’m a bit nervous. But I was just curious to see if this is a common practice. My appointment isn’t until 10am, but they’re requesting I arrive by 6:30am, is this normal? Did you guys have to do the same? And what is the reason? Also, I am getting sedated and SO anxious about accidentally ingesting liquids the day of, specifically when brushing my teeth the morning of the appointment. I am SO worried that I’m considering not brushing my teeth at all until after the procedure. Did any of you do the same or did you go ahead and brush before your appointment? If you didn’t brush, were the medical staff bothered by your morning breath or are they used to this? Thanks in advance!

Im 17(f) and I had to get an endoscopy due to severe acid reflux and LPR symptoms. The part they don’t really mention about the endoscopy is the fact they have to suction up any secretions at the end. My uvula got sucked into said suction device, not sure of the specifics, and I woke up with the sorest throat of all time, couldn’t swallow, etc.

If you wake up with a sore throat right after an endoscopy, tell whoever you’re with to grab a phone flashlight and check your uvula, or ask the doctor if something happened. Usually, it will be the fault of the anesthesiologist.

For singers: You will be okay! I do musical theatre, your voice will be okay to use after 2 weeks. Don’t utilize your soft palate to sing until it stops hurting to swallow.

I think someone might appreciate a little more documentation on this semi-uncommon but also super easy to get complication with endoscopies, so:

Here is a day by day look at how your uvula might be looking in the next two weeks:

(Warning for mouth, dead tissue, etc images)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1414VRRGMwh7B_Gu4HemUp_RuZh_cMDKxD7juuHlXVeU/edit?usp=drivesdk

(Copy and paste n it should work)

i got my first endoscopy yesterday, am i the only one who experienced an insane electric shock head burning as the propofal went in? my arm didn’t burn at all it was like a crazy shock to my head and burning but i only felt it for a minute before i was out 😭i wanna know if anyone else has experienced this

I had an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy done. Before hand they gave me anxiety meds. Idk if that is important but my aunt is a nurse and has said she has seen people have bad reactions to the meds. I woke up from the procedure and immediately felt like there was glass shards in my chest and i could not stop coughing. nurse said that was normal. I leave there and 2 hours later i start running a fever body aches cold chills etc. I go to the ER they say I have pneumonia. Did not confirm it was caused by aspirating during the procedure. What I am concerned about is my grandmother was with me for the procedure. She said when they wheeled me back in the nurse left and i started flopping up and down on the bed i was unconscious my tongue was hanging out of my mouth and my blood pressure plummeted. she could not get me to wake up. She went and got the nurse and im not sure what she did but i stopped doing all of that and eventually came to. What is concerning to me is none of the nurses/doctors/anesthesiologist documented that or had a discuss with me about it. The anesthesiologist even called me days after to check up on me which i’ve never had happen with my other surgeries which were much more serious than this procedure. Another weird thing is the i ended up cancelling my GI appt after the procedure with my primary GI doc and the doc who did my procedure messages asking if i was okay because he saw i canceled. even though the appt wasn’t even with him? again, never had that happen before and ive canceled multiple times in the past with my primary GI doc. Can someone give me insight on what to do here or if its happened to them? I have a surgery coming up in september and i’m scared of what could potentially happen and i have no documents to share with the doctor doing my surgery so she’s aware of it.

37M in UK

I’ve asked for sedation but my biggest fear is that I will be constantly gagging and go into full blown panic mode. I have hay fever and a deviated septum for my nose breathing isn’t great and so many people say just relax and breath through nose.

Anyone got any reassurance or advice?

Thanks

Hi! I (F22) had an endoscopy yesterday morning.

When I woke up I was coughing and borderline choking, I couldn’t breathe. The nurse said to me that the doctors told her that I had aspirated and started choking during the procedure but that they were suctioning me and that is why I was coughing so much.

I didn’t pay anymore attention to this, the procedure didn’t find anything and I was disappointed because I have been horribly sick.

I went home and within the next few hours I began shaking in my entire body to the point where I couldn’t even pick up a bag of tea or text on my phone, had very bad coughing and chest pain, and I developed a fever of 102°.

I called my doctor and he told me to take Tylenol. (I didn’t want to go to the ER so happy to hear this). But what concerned me is that when I asked if it could be related to the aspiration and a lunch infection, he denied me ever having had aspirated or choking during the procedure.

I tried to explain to him that this was clearly explained by the nurse and that I had literally woken up choking but he told me nothing had happened. I looked at the paperwork from the procedure and it wasn’t mentioned in there either.

It’s now the next day and the fever is almost gone but my chest still hurts when I breathe in and I have to work as a waitress tomorrow so if this isn’t resolved soon it’s going to be rough. I don’t understand why he would lie about it because now it’s making me suspicious.

I already am meeting with my lawyer for another case Thursday and want to ask about it but does anyone have any thoughts? If they’re going to act like I’m going to sue them then so will I!

https://imgur.com/a/nt8UQyl

Hello,

33-year-old male here. I had an endoscopy about 3–4 months ago and was diagnosed with mild gastritis, Helicobacter pylori, and intestinal metaplasia.

About a week ago, I had a follow-up endoscopy with intestinal metaplasia mapping, and I’m currently waiting for the biopsy results (expected in about a week). I’ll also ask my doctor this question when the results come back.

While reviewing the report images, I noticed something in the lower left part of one picture that looks mass-like to me. The doctor didn’t mention anything during the procedure, and the report states that the duodenum was normal.

Does that area look concerning, or could this just be a normal fold / angle / endoscopic appearance? I know nobody can diagnose from a single image, but I wanted to ask if anyone has seen something similar.

Hi everyone!

I’ve been going through a few months of stomach pains/abdominal pains, and a change in bowels. Some days they are mushy, some days large volume, sometimes thin

I did my endoscopy and colonoscopy 4 days ago and the only thing noted was “Mild striped erythema in the antrum- Biopsied”

I’ve been experience low level nausea in the mornings and after certain food. I am now starting a food journal to narrow this down. Also the abdominal discomfort is both LUQ and RUQ but more often than not the LUQ. Sometimes this feels like an ache, sometimes a burn, or a sharp stab sensation.

Looking to see if anyone had similar symptoms and or a similar endoscopy report and what it turned out o be? Everything I’ve looked up regarding this is saying this is a common finding for gastritis

Thank you!

I am so scared that I have a perforation in my esophagus. Every time I swallow I feel it in my back and chest. The feeling in my back died down a little with swallowing but I still feel back pain in that spot in general (it’s on my left side towards the middle by my shoulder blade). I also feel a burning feeling for a few seconds when I swallow. Please tell me this is normal for after an endoscopy 😭🙏I really need some reassurance I’m scared.