Changing Roles

As many of my readers know, I am a medical practitioner and have been for over 30 years.

I work in primary care, but I worked in emergency medicine for around 25 years.

It is my daily routine to administer care to patients. It is what I have done for a long time, over 1/2 of my lifetime. (that makes me feel old, lol)

At some point, almost all medical providers find themselves in the patient's role.

Today was my turn.

I had an upper endoscopy today.

The procedure involves advancing a fiber optic scope with camera into the mouth and down the esophogus, (your food tube) and advance it to the stomach and into the first part of the small intestines, the duodonum.

This technique quickly identifies any problems such as ulcers, erosions or sore spots and inflammation of the structures.

My procedure also included dilating or stretching of the esophogus.

Some of us are lucky to have esophageal strictures, or narrowing of the esophagus, that occurrs in some adults.

The strictures can make swallowing difficult because of the narrowing tube and can lead to choking episodes.

Of course, I did not feel any of this thanks to a medication called propofol. This is a rapid-onset but short-acting sedation medication.

(If propofol sounds familiar to you, it was the drug that was misused and led to the untimely death of Michael Jackson.)

The entire procedure takes less than 10 minutes. Then you are good to go and generally have no restrictions, with the exception of driving or dangerous activities for the rest of the day.

Overall, my experience was good. I have known the gastroenterologist for several years, and I trust him.
He is the specialist that I refer my own patients to.

I was instructed to arrive at 9:20 am but of course, I was not taken into the procedure until almost noon. That is just the way it goes sometimes.

I'd like to think that changing roles from time to time will make me a better provider, especially when I refer a patient for a procdure that I have had done myself.

Contrasting the two roles, I will stick to the provider. I prefer to have control of the situation.