Why I needed to take the check
I felt something pain a little bit at the left side of my stomach and back in the middle of last August. This was not chronic, but the pain came sometimes once an hour and continued for a few minutes. As far as I can tell, the pain did not have any correlation with any actions like eating food or drinking water. I actually have felt similar symptom before, especially after drinking alcohol too much, and it was gone just one day. So I thought that the pain of this time was similar as before, because I had alcohol chronically for last a few months before that due to many events. However, I immediately stopped to drink alcohol just in case because it lasted a few days as was not expected, and tried to see if it improves. I felt great improvement soon and I thought that it worked out finally, but I concerned a little bit about that this time and I still continued to stop drinking for complete cure. However, the pain came again one week later after stop of the pain unfortunately, and I also felt strong pain as much as I could not stand it. So I decided to see a doctor in the following day before it became too late. What was lucky was that it was not chronic pain. I suspected that I might suffer from pancreatitis because of parts which hurt and the reason of drinking alcohol by checking symptom on the web. I was very afraid of that by thinking that I would never be able to drink again, and eating habit would be also limited. I saw a doctor in the following morning, and I took a blood test and x-ray check around my stomach. Precisely, those were only tests which could be done at the day because I saw a doctor without a reservation and a referral. The hospital which I visited was large, so test results became available in one hour fortunately. As it turned out, nothing wrong was found, as far as the doctor looked at results, and the doctor proposed a gastric camera check and ultrasound check in order to examine the cause of pain more precisely. I was stuck for a moment to consider whether I should take them or not because I had a prejudice that gastric camera check is painful, but I decide to make reservations for those tests just in case, while hoping that I could cancel them if the pain would be gone later. The hospital is large, so reservations were occupied until one month later, so my reservation became late September. Surprisingly, the pain was getting weaker gradually since that day, and it was gone completely after a few days later, so I once thought I was able to cancel reservations, but I changed my mind and again decided to take them just in case that I might develop initial diseases and could cure them thanks to early finding.
Procedures of the gastric camera test
Here were procedures in my case. My check time was morning at 9am, but I wondered if there is evening check time.
- Needed to finish dinner before 9pm one day before the check to clean stomach at the examination. Drinking water was allowed.
- One cup of water was allowed prior to 3 hours before the check. A little water was allowed only to wet my whistle.
- Drunk liquid drug before the check. I did not know what material this was, but a nurse told me that this was liquid for clear pictures.
- Took anesthesia sprayed around throat from mouth to avoid pain during the check as much as possible. This turned effective immediately, but the lasting time seems to be short because I felt so, and I asked the nurse if the anesthesia was enough once. She said that I don't have to worry about that, because I would have one more again later just before the check.
- I entered the examination room and laid down on a bed. It was just around 5 minutes later after the first the anesthesia. I got it again here as was explained. I asked sedative option for this test because it helped a lot, according to the instruction. I had sedative intravenously, and what was surprising was that I fell asleep soon after I got it. According to the nurse, most of people don't use this option.
- When I was woke up after around 15 minutes later, the check was over.
- I needed to take a rest for one hour on a bed in the hospital because I used sedative.
- I took one week for the doctor to look pictures again just in case.
What I felt honestly was that gastric camera check is easy if I can expect sedative, otherwise it's painful. That's because I remember slightly that I tried to move my body and and the nurse tried to hold my body during the check. I would imagine that it was painful unconsciously.
The Result
I saw a doctor one week later. It seems that a doctor who examines result is different from a doctor who actually execute the check. I was a little bit nervous while considering the worst case scenario like a cancer or something serious disease, but it turned out that nothing wrong was found by gastric camera check and ultrasound. The doctor told me that stomach is very clean and there is also no problem by ultrasound, and I would not have to take further check because the pain disappear now. I was relieved to hear that and happy very much. My one month struggling was over at that time.
By looking back last one month
When I felt I needed to see a doctor, I inevitably thought about the worst case scenario like serious disease and concerned what was going to happen in that case and what I should do. For instance, I wondered whether or not I need to quit a job, and if I need to take care of diseases for the rest of my life while limiting food and drink, etc. Nothing was positive thinking actually at that time. I was really negative at that time, to be honest. I guess that this kind of thinking generally comes to mind for those who think that they might suffer from something serious diseases before check result does not come yet. I have done a lot of things for last one month and many things have changed. Most of them have something to do with mental and physical improvement things.
- Consider what happiness is.
At first, I wondered why I was suffering from this even thought I was still early 30s and why I was unfortunate actually. So I tried to find books about happiness and found "The art of happiness". The book is about happiness which Darai Rama tell and how to deal with unhappiness mentally. A European psychiatrist interviewed Darai Rama and tried to combine western and eastern idea about Happiness, then summarized it in the book. I am going to post the detail later in a different post, but the book changed my mind about happiness, and what is the most important is that it makes me think anything positive and consider others in different point of view with great idea of "compassion". My mental state was weak at that time, therefore it was so impressive and came to my mind deeply. - Walking and jogging
Exercise was very good to make me feel good and made me feel I'm living. If I say so, many people would say that I was thinking too much and don't worry and I was not going to die. However, I felt that I might be going to die due to some diseases, so small happiness by doing walking was truly good for me.
