I remember when I was a kid, doctors were so interactive and really took time to get to know you and talk to you, learn about what you’re going through and explain things. Now as an adult, it’s been nearly impossible to find a doctor who is willing to take any amount of time to sit down, explain things, show any sort of compassion or empathy at all.
I suffer from acid reflux, and in order to diagnose that, they basically put a tube down your throat, it’s called an endoscopy. You have to be fully sedated with anesthesia and take nearly an entire day off of work because the way the anesthesia affects you, you can’t drive and someone has to drive you. Well for many years now we’ve had this other procedure which is a tube, but they put it through your nose instead. There’s been lots of research papers about the use of it, it’s used in other countries as a procedure regularly. So I asked several gastroenterologists if they offer the procedure and every single one of them said no, and would not provide any additional information or insight as to why you have to be completely sedated and pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for expensive anesthesia. I am simply blown away. It makes no sense. A research tested method that has been written about for about a decade now in actual research studies by board certified medical physicians, and no one offers it. Literally no one, and they won’t even consider it.
I’ve also been through at least several primary care physicians because the ones I have seen are so short and don’t really take time to get to know you at all. They just pop in, ask you a handful of questions and leave, if your test results come back with anything abnormal, they say it’s nothing to worry about, they don’t want to take any extra time to help look into anything or diagnose you… like wtf?
It just seems like doctors these days are out to get you to spend as much money as possible and do the absolute bare minimum for you in return. And now we have direct primary care options where you can circumvent insurance entirely, pay your doctor thousands upon thousands of dollars a year for the same level of care that we had in the '90s. But now you have to pay out of pocket for that in addition to your insurance. Wtfffff
Just fyi, the sedation is usually not medically necessary. I have had it (as well as a colonoscopy) done without, just got a spray to numb the throat for a short while. It’s not pleasant, but I found it bearable and it’s much nicer to just walk out and drive home on your own. If necessary I could still have told/signaled that I want sedation after all during the procedure. Propofol works within less than a minute. In that case they would have called someone to pick me up.
That said, I do live in Germany, so money does not play as big a role as in the US when it comes to healthcare. And the doctors and their staff were exceedingly nice and caring.
Maybe, if you believe you can bear it, and if acid reflux does not make it painful, ask to do it without sedation next time.
I know the sedation is not medically necessary, lots of places outside the USA don’t do it at all. Japan, Europe, etc. There’s research studies that even show non sedated procedures are being used and have been favorably received. Every single doctor I’ve asked about them, they outright refuse to do it without sedation or anesthesia. Guess how much that costs? Thousands of dollars, with insurance. So I have to pay about $5,000 at least out of pocket a year for insurance, then I have to pay $3,500 for this procedure, and the last two that I’ve gotten, they haven’t shown anything. So naturally I’m like okay, can we do a less invasive one without sedation, like they do in other countries? Absolutely not. We won’t do that, and we don’t know anyone else who will ever do it. Like what the hell is this?
This is not medical advice, just some general comments regarding your post.
An upper endoscopy is rarely needed for evaluation for uncomplicated acid reflux. It alone is not even an appropriate indication for an upper endoscopy, except for a specific patient population and that’s to screen for a disorder related to acid reflux.
Unsedated endoscopies are uncomfortable for the patient and the physician. They suck. Many gastroenterologists will do it, but there’s at least some reason for why others won’t. Doctors in countries that do a lot of unsedated upper endoscopies do so because these patients have them much more often (screening for a much higher risk of gastric cancer in, say, Japan). But the way, whether you get anesthesia from an anesthesiologist or no anesthesia doesn’t affect how much insurance pays the endoscopist.
The tube you’re referring to sounds like pH monitoring with an impedance catheter. It stays in your nose for 24 hours, and generally isn’t more convenient than an upper endoscopy. It’s not required for diagnosis of simple acid reflux, and serves a completely different purpose than an endoscopy. It’s used mainly when the diagnosis is in question. Most gastroenterologists aren’t sufficiently trained to read these studies anyway. These patients are usually referred to high volume centers.
Sedation for upper endoscopy isn’t even necessarily the norm throughout different countries. It is in the US, but I had my first upper endoscopy in Japan, and they just numbed my throat.