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Severe anxiety before an ERCP (endoscopic treatment for gall stones.)

NAS65994

Hi, any one have the same anxiety whenever a medical procedure comes up? I have to have sedation but I am terrified of the pure panic I feel when something is done to me. Does anyone have the same problem and does anything help. I’ve printed the autism hospital passports which I thought was a brilliant idea. Has anyone gone through an ERCP? How did you cope?

  • Thanks for answering. I know the test isn’t easy to go through.It is harder when you tell staff that you have autism and they don’t see entirely sure how it is relevant. I explained my untameable anxiety and they said that they get a lot of really nervous patients. I also have sleep apnoea and so they have to be careful with the sedation.

    I will look into this power of attorney as I agree, it’s really hard to stand up for yourself when your in a state of fear.I find that I go very quiet and then become very agitated at the height of a panic attack. I save my tablets, diazepam and quieltipine but even then the internal agitation is still bad.

    I only found out that all my anxiety problems were due to Autism in November 2019. When I told my parents, it turns out that they knew I was always different to my siblings. I grew up through the 70’s to 80’s when many people looked at mental conditions as something to be, let’s say, disregarded. I feel sad about that. If I had known I could have learned to self sooth myself as a life skill.

    On the other hand I have found that my belief in God and the comfort of prayer has been a saving grace. I poor out my heart to him and I study the Bible which has helped me keep a positive focus. 

    I am sorry to hear about your Colitis. That sounds very painful. I have just traveled and was rushed to a hospital in Portugal. After that experience I have a new and profound respect for our NHS. When compared, we have a very high standard of care.

    Take care, thanks for sharing.

  • Yes - I have ulcerative colitis, a classic stress-aggravated disease,    I have to undergo regular colonoscopies to try to catch any cancers early enough to be able to treat them.    The cancer risk increase dramatically as time goes on and I'm 20 years down the road.     I get very, very stressed about the whole thing which actually makes me to become seriously ill in the run up to the procedure.     I've also had some very bad experiences in hospitals too.    

    As I'm technically a vulnerable person, I'm giving my wife a medical power of attorney so she will deal with all the medical people for me because I realise I'm easy to manipulate by professionals.