Saturday 20 June 2015

Those..Two Minutes of Endoscopy !! - Article by Akanksha Jain

12th June’15 – A crucial day with Endoscopy Experience in AIG Hospital!!

Friday morning, 9 o’clock I, my brother, father and one of my friends started towards AIG (Asian Institute of Gastroenterology), the renowned hospital of its kind in Hyderabad. I had not been feeling well for last 3 weeks having weakness and spitting out blood. I had already visited Vikram Hospital before and had gone through various treatment pedagogy as I thought it might be due to body heat and everyone is apparently aware about the summer season in Hyderabad but I didn’t even feel a bit better and hence decided to move to next destination i.e. AIG.

 As we entered into AIG, we could not believe our eyes around 1000+ people were waiting for their turn on the ground floor. You have to go to counter first in front of the main gate and register patient’s details and submit some 200 bucks and then you will need to wait for your turn for checkup until your name is announced. As mentioned earlier, hundreds of patients along with their relatives were there in a hall waiting for their turn and to find a vacant place even to stand was like finding a needle in a haystack. We struggled to seize a seat and after an hour wait, finally I could find a chair to sit. Firstly name was called out and we went for round 1 in one small cabin, where one doctor will come and ask your problems and do general checkup and then will suggest you some diagnosis on the basis of which root cause is established and further treatment is carried out. I put across all my problems and she suggested some blood tests, endoscopy and ultrasound.

 Firstly I went for blood test, diagnostician injected a needle into my left hand and took out 4 small cube bottles of blood. It was paining so hard that I was blank for a minute. When I came out and my father saw my hand, he was so sad to see that they have taken so much of my blood. I started feeling more weak as I didn’t drink a sip of water since last night (Endoscopy has this principle that you can’t have anything before 12 hours of Endoscopy).

 Time passed and now we were waiting for my turn in front of Endoscopy room. I was a little afraid having heard the experiences of Endoscopy from many people. Endoscopy process starts by inserting a flexible tube with a light and camera attached to it into intestine through mouth. I was being very nervous physically as well as mentally. Finally my name was announced and I needed to go to the Endoscopy room, doctor asked to come in and no family members were allowed inside the room. Hearing the last sentence of doctor, my heart started to beat faster as I was definitely expecting my father to be with me during Endoscopy process (How can a girl who never had any medicine without her father go through all these procedure alone). I went inside the room, one nurse came to me and started helping me to wear operation gown. I started being more perplexed again as no one was there with me. After 10 minutes, they called me into endoscopy chamber. As I entered the chamber, I found many big and complex endoscopy devices there which again decreased my morale. They asked me to lay and keep head left side down on a pillow and they placed one pot near to my mouth. Being more nervous, I could not resist asking to doctor ‘Is it going to very painful’, doctor smiled at me and replied softly – no it’s not. I started praying God to give me strength to tolerate the pain as a long pipe was to be inserted into my stomach through my mouth.

 There were 4 nurses around me, I was murmuring prayer every second, many thoughts were running through my mind like am I suffering from some dangerous disease, then the very next second my mind says – ‘no, you are alright, it is a normal operation, normal endoscopy’. Then the process started, doctor kept a plastic flask on my mouth which totally covered mouth area and there was a hole for the pipe. He switched on the device and pipe was going inside slowly. For 3-4 seconds, I was fine but when it started going inside my throat, I started shivering and lost my control as I was unable to breath, 3-4 nurses hold me tightly and doctor said – it’s nothing, be patient, nothing will happen, you are safe. Nurses were shouting – breath from nose, inhale air from nose, don’t move otherwise pipe can go anywhere inside stomach and damage it. I was losing my patience and unable to even inhale from nose. Those 2 minutes were like I was fighting with my life to become alive. I wanted to live that’s why I was struggling with my breaths and remembering my family and God – Please help me, I am unable to breath, what would happen if I don’t survive?

Those 2 minutes of Endoscopy made me realized the meaning of life again and left me with some questions.

How a patient who is on death bed and suffering from critical disease feel?
How a family prays continuously to god to save its family member?
How a patient and his family manage a lot of money for operations?
How one needs to face everything alone when he/she is ill.

This was my overall experience in AIG with endoscopy, at last doctors didn’t find out the root cause why it’s happening and my treatment is still going on. All we have to do is to be happy with our life because there is no guarantee of next second of life. Hence, take care of yourselves and be healthy.


Written By - Akanksha Jain
Edited By - Ankit Jain (Brother)