TRANSCRIPT
Real Patients
They sent me to a gastroenterology doctor, and they referred me to him. He set me up with an upper scope and EGD.
So I came in that next morning, the Monday, and they did an endoscope.
They had to put the thing in my mouth and then spray down my throat because they had to numb it. And it felt like it numbed it instantly. So, that was pretty much, other than that, they sprayed it and they told me to count and I was out. So I don't even remember... I don't remember other than maybe five minutes after the fact.
You would assume like you would have some soreness, sore throat or something like that, but when I woke up from the procedure, I had no symptoms from the endoscope.
They diagnosed me with eosinophilic esophagitis, which is known as EoE.
So I was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis, which was the cause of my heartburn and trouble swallowing.
They showed me pictures after I woke back up from the endoscope saying, "Hey, here you have two little ulcers. This is what's causing your -- that burning, that what you feel like is a heart attack. This is what we believe is causing the pain."
Basically my esophagus closes off when I'm trying to swallow food.
But after I was diagnosed, that's when I actually looked it up and seeing like, oh okay, so these are the problems. It's kind of common. Especially with my age group and ethnicity.
Treatment there... they put me on some medicine. Which is really an acid reflux medicine to keep any reflux from going up into the esophagus, so it would allow that area to heal. They gave me something else; I can't remember what it was. But I know they gave me two different types of pills. And I was on that for about a month.
So, they gave me medication that helps expand my airway so that way it allows the food to go down freely without it closing off and closing off my throat.
I'm glad that they found out what it was. I'm glad that they can treat it. I hope it works and it doesn't get any worse. I know they can't cure it, but as long as I don't have any problems with it, I guess I don't really mind just being treated.