's horror dilatation

[Guest guest]

Well i went for my gastrscopy and dilatation yesterday and since i am alergic to

Midazolam i was given Phentynnol instead. As regards the gastroscopy everything

went fine and showed little damage caused by acid erosion. Since i was given the

Phentynnol i was fully aware of what went on and heard everything that was said

between the staff. You can imagine my horror when they infalted the dilatation

baloon by first 2 bar and then upped it to 4 barr pressure. This pressure was

kept for 5 minutes and was very painfull despite the painkilling drug and just

when the time of 5 minutes was up BANG, the baloon exploded in my throat

flooding my mouth, throat and went down into my lungs. This totally shocked the

consultant who was performing the procedure and also 3 nurses who were nearby.

Panics all round as the baloon was withdrawn and labelled up with a report of

what happened and sent off to someone whom i do not know. The dilatation was

declared successfull

and i was taken to the recovery room to rest for 10 minutes before i was

allowed some fluid to try to swallow. That was ok to start with (further

explanation later) and had a word with the doctor who did the procedure and had

an appology for what happened but was warned that the scar tissue in the

stricture was very tough and it did contribute to the baloon bursting. I was

given what they call an SOS number to call should i feel i need further

dilatation (which they told me would almost certainly happen in the near

future).n They said the chances of my needing further dilatation was almost a

certainty and that i must not delay in contacting them should the stricture

tighten again as they can get me onto any of the consultants lists in the

department. So i left the hospital and travelled home. On the way i took a few

sips of water from a bottle that i carried in my bag and horror of horrors i had

trouble swallowing the water as it would only gurggle as

it slowly passed through the strictue with what i might add pain. After

arriving home and remember i was nil by mouth since midnight the previous night

i felt hungry so i mashed a little bannana until it was very mushy and again

horror of horrors it went stuck. This morning i am hungry again and dread trying

to swallow some food although some tea went down very slowly first thing.

My worry is now that i seem to be on the road to one of possably many

dilatations and the risks of perforation are getting greater (i was lucky

yesterday tha the baloon exploding did not rupture my throat), what happens now?

If i only have the minimum amount of oesophagus stump left after the ectomy what

can they do? This is the dilema that i now face. As you can imagine i am a

little upset about the whole thing now and i am going to wait a few days until

any swelling from the dilatation subsides and see if the swallowing difficulty

is still there and if so then i shall have to think about phoning that SOS

number that the endoscopy department gave me yesterday and book a further

dilatation. The consultant did say yesterday that the risk of rupture of the

stricture is medium to high and will get higher the more dilatations that i have

and warns me that with each dilatation they now have to prepare me for for

admittance for surgery. Any advice would be

welcome as i am a little worried about where i can go from here to treat the

sticture everytime that i have a dilatation.

 

from the UK