So, last friday I had a few hundred mcgs of Fentanyl (Among other things) dumped into my body and a camera shoved down my throat. While I was starting to go under, the doctor (late 30's female) said something about 'This next medication will relax your jaw and throat for better access' and my half-tranquilized ass replied 'I bet you say that to all the boys.' and one of the technicians had to excuse herself from the room because she was laughing so hard. Evidently my stomach produces like, way too much acid, and my esophagus and upper small intestine have some scarring as a result, which explains why I've had issues swallowing. The most common treatment for this is a proton pump inhibitor, which limits the stomachs ability to produce acid. I've been on a PPI before and really disliked the side effects, so when I go in for my next GI consult I'm going to ask what my non-pharmaceutical options are for acid control. My online research is really conflicting. Some people advocate a lot of pro-biotics and pro-biotic foods, some people advocate for avoiding them. I think I'm going to try a Very Low Carb diet for a while, see if that does anything. There's a lot of anecdata that reduced/low/no-carb diets have a lot of therapeutic effects for several gastrointestinal disorders, and can even reduce a diabetics dependence on insulin. Saturday is my first performance of the Missa Solemnis with the Ann Arbor Symphony. It's a challenging piece that continues to teach me more about my strengths and weaknesses as a singer/chorister. First joint rehearsal tonight, and then in a few weeks we take it on the road to perform with the Toledo Symphony.
My sister has a similar GI issue that results in her throat basically growing tighter and tighter until she can't breathe (stenosis), so she gets throat surgery every 2 years to open it back up again. 4-6 months to recover from throat surgery, a year of easy breathing, 6-12 months of gradually more restricted airway, and then surgery again. All because her stomach produces too much acid and can't keep it from entering the esophagus.
Sounds dreadful. Before they gave me any drugs I had to sign a consent form that included permission to let them open my airway if they found any stenosis, thankfully that wasn't needed. Still waiting to hear if they found anything in the biopsies they took, but the doctor was optimistic.
Did you have an endoscopy?! Also, would have lost my shit if I got that kind of a response, awesome.
How fun. I get to have that and a colonoscopy this Friday. Can't wait.
Eew. Best of luck. They dope you up enough that it's not uncomfortable. I don't remember a thing after the laughing technician. FWIW, I stopped eating at 9PM the night before my procedure, they stuck the camera in at about 8:30 AM. This was not enough time to completely clear my stomach of food, to the disappointment of the doc. I would suggest more than 12 hours of fasting before your procedure for best image quality.