"Felt like I had no choice in sedation"

I was to have an endoscopy and the thought of it made my anxiety go through the roof, so because I suffer from anxiety & depression, my GP assured me my endoscopy would be with sedation. I was fast tracked for the endoscopy due to the potential of some type of throat cancer, a long with me needing an endoscopy in my stomach too. When I arrived at the endoscopy unit my anxiety levels had increased and it was visual to the nurse who assured me I would be fine. I entered the room and they filled the procedure form in.

It was at this point that the doctor was saying I didn’t need sedation, and began to say how I’d need to wait to come round if I had the sedation and that I’d need to stay a little while for it to wear off, and that I’d need to have a cannula fitted too. It was as if they were trying to put me off having sedation, but I exclaimed that I was down for it. They said the procedure didn’t really need to be done under sedation, and said I’d be fine without it, but said if I really needed to be sedated they would be there to do it. I just felt pressured into letting them do it without sedation as I was anxious enough already, and it was the worst mistake I’d made in many many years!

I was choking on the camera, but I was being held down by another doctor who had hold of my hands, so I couldn’t resist. I had saliva all over my hair and face, and I couldn’t breath properly, so with my asthma I really struggled. I had tears running down my face but they continued to do the procedure when I was struggling. I tried to let them know I couldn’t continue, but unable to speak, all they kept saying was that I was doing well, when clearly I was struggling. I came away from it with redness to my face, and eyebrows especially, where I must have burst blood vessels as I was wretching. My face looked a mess with redness all around my eyes, nose and cheeks.

To make matters worse, when I looked at my form for the procedure, they had ticked sedation when clearly I didn’t have it. This experience has put me off going to any more appointments. I’m in fear of the potential of having any future procedures. I’ve not been out in public since due to the look of my face and the dark redness from me wretching. I wouldn’t recommend this procedure to anyone without sedation. It felt as though they don’t care how you’re feeling once the camera begins to go down your throat. Having just the spray does absolutely nothing to help with the procedure.

Felt like they didn’t care about my feelings and the endoscopy centre this refers to, is the one at the Nottingham city hospital. They have absolutely no compassion towards patients and I felt like I was treated like an animal. And then to put on the form saying I had sedation is even worse. I was just glad to get out of there. The offer of a coffee and a biscuit afterwards didn’t cut it,I just wanted to get out of there and get home.

Three days after the procedure and my face is still red and purple in places where I wretched so much! I’ve struggled to sleep the last few nights simply because it’s just being replayed on my mind and with my current mood low because of the depression I’m more concerned about what other people will think about my looks and how I’ve managed to have so much redness to the face, it’s so apparent! We’ve had some lovely weather but it looks like I’ve had a pair of goggles on too tight, and have bruising and red marks all over my face, when in actual fact, it’s a medical procedure that’s caused it!