Mass found on CT scan, going for an endoscopy and scared

My fear of an endoscopy was unfounded. After I lay on the table I put a plastic circle around my mouth so teeth are not damaged. It hurt a little and she said “don’t worry, you’ll be sleeping soon” as soon as the circle was installed I went out like a light. I didn’t gag because I was under general anesthesia.
First thing I know I was in the recovery room due to the dizziness from the anesthesia. 10 minutes later I was ready to be taken home because they don’t let patients drive after the procedure . The doctor went down my esophagus and a wire.
No pain until 2 weeks after when I developed signs of internal light bleeding and I told my nurse that said “if you feel that way tomorrow let me know” of course it continued on day 2 but I didn’t tell the nurse.
Woke up on day 3 and it was still feeling not right.
They called EMS and I called my gastroenterologist and the woman said that “he wasn’t there right now so I will leave him a message.” When? 5:00 at night?
No I’m bleeding inside and I’m going to wait up to 5 hours waiting for him to call me. The nurse said that that was not acceptable and sent me to a different hospital and a different doctor.
He took me to the operating room and he did the same as mine did. Problem was my own Gastroenterologist was gone when I recovered.
This doctor in the other hospital said he found erosion in my left side of my stomach and a bleeding ulcer. Why did my first gastroenterologist didn’t tell me about the erosion and bleeding ulcer I’ll never know. I ended up spending 3 days in the hospital.
The one my own gastroenterologist did was outpatient 30 minutes and when I called him he wasn’t there. Good thing I went, I had a stomach ulcer and some erosion. No more symptoms.
So make sure they put you under. I didn’t want to feel pressure, gags, or anything. I woke up in recovery like it never happened. Piece of cake. I already had anxiety about the gagging and feeling pressure. I was surprised it was done without me awake.
Insist on general aesthetics. Don’t settle for a pill to help you. There’s one type that is only no sedation then a Valium that I will talk to them during the sedation method and that wasn’t what I wanted. Of course you need a decent health plan but he took her along with no problem.
The second surgery was the same thing. I didn’t go for anything except general anesthesia I didn’t even have to ask. Around here they all use general anesthesia. Good Luck
The fear of not knowing is valid but see if they can knock you out completely by an anesthesiologist.

Will add you to my prayer list KLS. Take a deep breath. You have so much to live for. The upper endoscopy is very easy to tolerate. They will start an IV and will keep you calm. You will nod off quickly and be out of it. You will wake up in recovery. No gag. Really no post op symptoms for me and I've had many. Mild sore throat if anything. Just tell you anesthesiologist that you are scared. They'll know what to do. Don't cancel it. You have to let them figure out what is going on.

The gastroenterologist will have an idea if it's cancer or not, but won't know for certain until the biopsy (if they take one) comes back.

For me, I just had food hang up at the gastro-esophageal junction where my mass was. Others present with different symptoms. Don't self diagnose and scare yourself. Find out what it is and what the options are. I hope it's not cancerous and can be treated quickly and fully with antacids or the like.

Knowledge helped me deal with the anxiety. Not knowing seems to be worse for me. As far as dealing with a terrible diagnosis, I went through the normal greiving process. Actually several greiving processes. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Some stages pass quickly, some hang around for a bit and sometimes you have a few at the same time. Take on day at a time and realize that so many people love you, support you, and depend on you.

Please keep us posted on how things go. We're on your side. Steve

I will be praying for you. My husband was going to get an upper gi because he couldn’t keep anything down for weeks. The morning of the upper GI he was acting very funny so I told him we were going to the Er. Turns out he had a stroke and heart attack. They admitted him. Called and put him on a kist at the big hospital 3 hours away. Because of the stroke they couldn’t sedate him. They did the upper gi the next morning and found he had a large mass, multiple lymph nodes swollen, gallbladder had spots, kidney had spots some on his lung and his while inside cavity was covered in blood, his stomach was covered with blood because his tumor was bleeding. The doc did biopsy a small part. The next day the life flighted him to Anchorage, Alaska. Up there they did a pet scan and it came back with many many spots. He has stage 4 Esophageal cancer ( adenocarcinoma (sp). All this happed Jan 12,2024. We are now at May 24 , and though everything was going good. But Im scared the whole year is gonna stink.

I hope this didn’t scare you. It sounds like they caught yours early. The first few weeks should move quickly. Because once they detect cancer they want to start treating you. Lori, I will add you to my prayers. I wish you the best healing powers medicine can give you. If people will offer help please take it. It may be hard. You will be tired. Bless your heart and body to heal and may you be good. Love from Nicole G. Kenai Alaska

Thank you for asking. They postponed my procedure until July 9th. They feel they need to do the endoscopy in a full operating room so I can be intubated. I got to go with the flow, I guess.

@rsedlock1958, how did it go last Monday? How are you doing?

I have very small molar situation. ER CT scan, and there is some thickening in my esophagus. Last September, I completed radiation therapy for vocal cord cancer. Everything seems to be going well n that front. This could be fibrosis, but the CT report said a neoplasm could not be ruled out. I go for my endoscopy on Monday.

I’m scared, too.

I'm a couple months ahead of you . Have the procedure ASAP..You won't feel a thing. The quicker you know what's going on. The quicker you can move forward.

I just found your post. I’m scared too! Today is Sept 7th I think your endoscopy was Aug 29th. I hope it went well.
I’ve been having swallowing problems with food, vitamins and even water. I thought it had to do with Parkinson's Disease. I cared for my Mother for 7 years. The last 3 years she had swallowing problems leading to aspiration pneumonia….over, and over, and over! In the hospital 2 weeks out of the last 5 months of her life. Her doctor finally said she needed to consider a feeding tube. Moms said NO! She would rather have quality over quantity for whatever time she had left. She just wanted to know if she would still be able to have a glass of wine. No, Mom! She had 2 swallow studies while I was with her. The reason I’m telling this is because I know it so well, so I was comfortable, even though it would be bad at least I have some knowledge about Parkinson’s Disease. Any alternative……not so much! My neurologist said it isn’t Parkinson’s and referred me right away for a “scan” was all he said. I thought about it for a few days and then wondered if it isn’t Parkinson's what could it be. So I started researching! I learned a lot more than I wanted to know! Once I read “the first symptom of esophageal cancer is difficulty swallowing and by the time you have swallowing problems it’s frequently too late” Nice! Good to Know! I decided I was much happier with the thought of Parkinson’s Disease! Tomorrow is my scan, which I now know is just a barium swallow study. Now I’m not scared of the test itself I’m scared to death of the results! I’m 64, my only physical problem ever was a broken wrist at 57 while caring for Mom. I thought that was hell! I have a neurologist because I have mild to moderate cognitive decline and serious ADHD my whole life. Reading what you wrote mimics my feelings exactly! The intense fear! I took care of others, my husband passed a long time ago so I’m alone except for my 5.5lb Yorkie Faith. She would not be any help in case of a surgery! But she’s sweet! I worry about how I would deal with needing any kind of surgery! Who would take care of me?
I hope you will let everyone know how your appointment went and what the results were. I enjoyed reading everyone’s responses, very kind and informative! I didn’t mean to go on and on I guess I’m stressed! Thank You for listening! Charity Dianne

Good morning, I just read your post and I hope you went through with your endoscopy and all came out well.

UPDATE:

The oncologist that the er doctor referred me too, thinking I could possibly have lympha (remember I went back to the er on August 20th for fever, chills and sweats) called me on Monday and told me that he doesn’t think this is cancer, he thinks I need to see an infectious disease doctor, and he referred me to one. The send blood tests to Mayo for fungus’s, and they were negative. I have inflammation in my body, blood work says so, so something is going on, but at least the spot they seen on my esophagus is no longer there.

Was suppose to have my endoscopy done tomorrow, the hospital called and says I’m still showing positive for covid (one month later) and the hospital refuses to do the endoscopy because of covid policy (wait 28 days) and now they are booking into the middle of November!

So no endoscopy until November 11th to see if everything is okay in my esophagus, I’m so disappointed, I just wanted to get this over with so badly.

So I decided to look at My Chart, an online patient information, I can view my tests and anything else from there, I decided to click on my phone conversation write up with the oncologist and it says… referred patient to infectious disease and discussed chronic granulomatous disease….what? He never discussed this with me, I had to look it up to see what it even was! Why would this be in my chart when I’ve never even heard about it. If that’s what they are thinking this is, why wasn’t it discussed with me at all? I’m not sure what to think at this point.