Patient experiences - John Clarkson

Weak stomachs seem to run in our family, to coin a phrase! My father seemed to have "tummy upsets" regularly and I was always a fussy eater, suffering much indigestion from my teens onwards.

The situation was no doubt exacerbated by my discovery of beer and by the effects of stress and depression, which sometimes caused me to drink even more. I'm quite sure that these factors produced my chronic acid reflux problems over the years, culminating in a diagnosis of Barrett's Oesophagus 3-4 years ago following months of persistent heartburn (I am now 56).

When I heard that I was to have an endoscopy, I must admit to being pretty scared - I have suffered from claustrophobia in the past, e.g. in the Dentist's chair, and was seriously worried about having a panic attack. With this in mind, I felt that I should opt for the sedation during the procedure.

On the day of the endoscopy, I was very nervous but was put more at ease from the moment I arrived in the department at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, due to the friendliness of the Receptionist and the reassuring information from the nurse and doctor.

The great thing about the sedation is that one knows very little about the procedure - basically you are pretty well asleep until you wake up to a cup of tea in the recovery room afterwards! Obviously, you have to have someone with you to take you home and you can't drive or work for 24 hours but I can't say that this was a problem for me. I had a sore throat during that time, but otherwise was fine and able to eat and drink normally.

The follow-up clinic visit with the consultant, Dr Fitzgerald, was actually very interesting as well as informative, as I saw the photograph of the affected area at the base of my oesophagus - I really shouldn't have drunk so much beer!

I have been on twice daily esomeprazole since then, which has totally cured my heartburn problem, and have had two further endoscopies. Fortunately, no dysplasia cells have been found and I feel very confident and comfortable with my care and treatment.

Personally, I would recommend sedation for nervous patients - I shall still continue with this, as it removes the anxiety from the endoscopy procedure; I'm not even particularly worried about it any more.

I am enrolled in Dr Fitzgerald's research study to help in developing more understanding of Barrett's and am becoming involved with the new East Anglian branch of PROBE. One further consequence - the fantastic care I received influenced me to change career and I now work in the NHS myself!

January 2007

Patient experiences - John Clarkson

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