Manometry

How awful is this exam  I am supposed to have it done (and 24 hr. test) and am SCARED!  Please, advise....Thanks

Gigi33914

I have some tips/ tricks for this test. Bare with me as they are kind o strange.

Once they get the tube in you want to do 10 good 1 swallows, no second swallows while it's going down, the sip of water that is.
1) After you swallow the water pin your tongue to the front top of your mouth. I thought of this because when I swallow I noticed my tongue would move backwards.
2) If that won't do it try to stick the tip of your tongue out enough to grab the tip with your teeth and hold it until the swallow is over.
These have both worked for me, but the 2nd was the best one for me. When you swallow for this test they watch the whole cycle of the swallow and it can take several seconds, an eternaty when you are doing the test. If you even do a very small 2nd swallow before the 1st is finished that one won't count and you have to do it again. It's hard not to this small swallow and that's why after about 3 of these I came up with these tricks. I have had 6 or 7 of these now and the last 4 were 10 swallows with saline and 10 with a flavored gel kind of like jello.
It might be helpful to practice this before hand and try to do a small swallow to see if one will help you. The sooner you can get the required number of swallows the sooner they take that tube out.

about the tube. It is not as large as an NG tube you may have seen, in fact I would say it's about 1/3 the size. Yeah I have had a few of the NG tubes, absolutely hate them. The nurse will be very helpful with how to get this down the easiest, trust her/him. They usually have you tilt your head down and take sips of water while swallowing the tube, it does work. The more relaxed you can be the better it will go.
With the PH wire probe it is much smaller than the Manometry tube and has been very easy for me to get down. Again trust your nurse and relax as best you can.
A few issues have had with the 24 hour probe is that if your throat gets the least bit dry it will cause the wire to pull on your nose, so take a sip or 2 of something pretty regular. You will know how often you need to within an hour or so. When eating with this sticky foods will pull on it when you swallow. So you may want to choose your foods with this in mind. Peanut butter bad, burgers ok, and soup type foods very easy. But be sure to give them a true day in your life eating wise and sleeping etc. This gives them the best picture of what is going on.

Take care,
Bill

Ps. I know it isn't easy to go out in public with a small tube coming out your nose and taped to your face, but if children who need feeding tubes can do it you can too. I didn't go anywhere my 1st time, but I didn't feel like hanging around the house all day with the others at home and just went on my way without worrying what people think.

Bill why did you have to do so many manometry studies? Did you have to have one for each wrap?

Thanks. I read a study from somewhere that it can be done with sedation, which is what they do with children. Anyone have any info on that? No way can I get a tube down my throat - it was tried 50 years ago, thee people held me down and it could not be done.....I appreciate any suggestion. thanks. G.

With the probe that they used on me, they measured the swallowing strength at 30+ different depths in the esophagus. I had two of the tests because the first one was too easy......with the numbing solution it wasn't too bad and went down on the first try.
I had a pretty bad hiatal hernia and a relatively big part of my stomach was up in my chest cavity. When the technician inserted the probe, it went down and hit the curve of the upper part and doubled back on itself. That resulted in a false reading because it wasn't as deep as it should have been even though the overall length appeared to be deep
enough.

Thanks everyone. the question still remains: what happens if you cannot do the test? I will be 80 next year - so, not that many years ahead of me....do I just continue suffering until it's all over or are there other solutions? Not eating seems to help. I eat one meal a day - nothing at night. Still have burning sensation but this has reduced the reflux during sleep. G.

Yes, I have had it done. It showed a small Zenker, it also showed a tiny sliding hiatal hernia as well as moderate or worse esophageal dysmotility/presbyesophagus , whatever that means. I would think it would be enough to come to a conclusive diagnosis needed for possible surgery.

My endoscopy of last month showed a Schatzki ring (dilated), hiatal hernia, gastric mucosal abnomality in the antrum characterized by erythema, biopsied
All biopsies came back normal

Thanks for your response, appreciate it..!!!

Gigi33914.... I am 73 and as I said above, I had two of them....so we are not that far apart