Prepping For Scope

[care34us]

New to the board and need advice.

Our son (6 year old) was having so many tummy aches and messy accidents. Took him to the doctor and she tested him for everything including Celiac. His number was huge - 632! When we went back she was going to send us to a ped specialist, but thought it would take a long time so told us to go gluten-free cause it could take months to get in. That was 2 weeks ago. Since then the specialist faxed and said to do a pre-op asap and they would put him on a cancellation list.

I am not sure how long that will take, but I was wondering how you got your kids 'ready' mentally for the scope? DS is not happy with needles and I am not sure how he will be. Could you share your experience with us?

Thanks so much

Carrie

[Ursa Major]

One mistake is, to start the gluten-free diet before a scope. Because by the time the scope is done, the damage to the villi could have healed, resulting in a false negative.

So, if you really want to have the scope done, you need to start your son back on gluten, and not just a little bit but a substantial amount every day.

If you find that he has improved so much on a gluten-free diet that you don't want to do that, you would have to cancel the scope.

On the other hand, if you put him back on gluten and he gets very ill, you should also let the doctor know, because a severe reaction to gluten after being gluten-free is also diagnostic, especially with positive blood tests.

[Amyleigh0007]

Some of you might think this is bad but we did not tell our 8-year-old that he was getting a scope when we went. We told him he was going to the doctor but that was pretty much it. My son is a worrier and he would have spent weeks upset and stressed and we didn't want to put him through that. We told him as we were waiting to see the doctor. He wasn't mad at us. He understood why we did it and he even agreed that he would have been upset thinking about it before hand. We had encouraged him to bring his favorite stuffed animal, a few books, and his Gameboy and he was glad he did. It helped pass the time. After the procedure he said it wasn't that bad.

[betty6333]

my 6 year old had his biopsy yesterday.... they put an iv in and then gave him the gas to knock him out. we told him they were taking pictures of his tummy and that he would be sleeping during the pictures. they gave us a photo of his tummy to take home and we will tell him when he is older that they cut his intestine in 5 places.... kids don't always need to know every gory detail when they are little as they mature you can filll them in on the scarier and more adult parts of life, but at 6 some kids are just not ready. you do what is best for your child.

DO NOT TAKE HIM OFF GLUTEN TILL THE BIOPSY unless you want to waste your money getting a false negative.... talk to your actual doctor and discuss what wou;d happen if you got a false negative....and do not bother with a nurse or pa. if they dont have a real degree they are not a dr.

[Guest Angi]

When my two year olded needed his scope I didn't know what to do. He has seen so many doctors and is terrified of needles so what I did was I went to the Chemist and bought a face mask and we played doctors on eachother and his teddies. W"hen he went for his scope I asked them for gas first and they put on the gas mask and he just went to sleep before his needle. It worked a treat. I was so proud of him. My little guy has never ever been apart from me. He has never even been babysat and they did not want me in the recovery room when he woke up. I was so worried that he would freak out and think I had abandoned him but they rang me to say he had woken and and I went in and he was so brave, just sitting up in the big hospital bed by himself with no tears. When he saw me he cried though because he wanted Lightning Macqueen (his littel car) I was so proud of him. I am not sure how this would work with a six year old but a game of docotrs with a gas mask or a needle may be an idea for you

Angi

[Darn210]

My daughter had her scope done when she was six. We told her the day or two before. We were able to be with her the whole time. I know some places let you do that. Some places let you go back to the procedure room with them until they are asleep. Some places don't let you go back at all. You might want to check what they allow so that you can tell your son upfront a little of what it's going to be like. We told her that they would put a mask on her to get her to go to sleep (kind of like the asthma inhaler mask that her brother had when he was little). Then after she was asleep, the would send a tiny camera into her tummy and take some pictures. We needed to talk and marvel about how tiny the camera was, first time through she assumed it looked like one of our cameras . We talked that when she woke up, her throat might be a little scratchy and that IF it was, she could have a little ice cream when she got home to make it feel better. She did say it was scratchy (I do believe it was, but I knew she would say that no matter what ). They did not draw any blood until she was asleep. I don't remember an IV, but if they did, that was after she was asleep, too. In the recovery room, the nurse said to let her sleep as long as possible (to sleep off the anesthesia . . . otherwise, it will give her a bad headache until it had sufficiently left her system). She stirred once and was crying/moaning and then went back to sleep. When she woke up the second time, she was just fine, but really wanted to go home. The nurse gave the same little speech to the people next to us and as soon as she left, they woke their daughter up and she continued to cry and moan the rest of the time we were there. I don't know if it upset them to see her "artificially" asleep or if they were in a hurry to get home (they still had to wait a minimum amount of time before they were allowed to leave).

. . . and I will reiterate . . . keep your son on gluten until after the scope. They're scoping looking for damage from the gluten and kids heal fast.

[nikky]

i just had sedatives for mine (i was 14 at the time) but as your son is so young they will probably give him a GA. Tell him he is going to have a funny mask and go to sleep, if you want you can tell him that they are going to use a special camera to take pictures of his tummy. Tell him that his throat might hurt a little when he wakes up and if it does you'll let him have some ice-cream. When he gets home let him rest as much as he wants but dont force him to, and let him do what he wants (within reason). You may need to keep him off school for a few days (1 or 2 because the doctors say.. at least mine did and/or because his throat is sore).

As for the needle try to get him to look the other way, and once its in tell him what a big brave boy he is. When i was young (4) they told me that the IV was a butterfly that wanted a rest on my hand, which made me more interested than frightened.. maybe something like that would help your son if you cant distract him.

Good luck, i hope this helps.

[mcs1984]

my son is 4 and had been to the docs. office so much in 12 weeks that by the time we got the scope done he was a mess. So what we did was 2 days before we told him that when we went to the doc that they where going to taking pictures of his tummy. I told him that mommy and daddy would be there for a little bit but they where going to give him some med to help him take a nap and that when he got up that we would be there waiting for him. Yes we had to wait about an hour after he was really awake to be there (because he is MH they had to watch him close) but as soon as he saw us he was fine and today he still is not to cool with going to the docs office but he did great. Yes he was scared, and yes he did get upset a little bit, but i believe if i did not tell him that it would of made things a lot worse for him.

[care34us]

Thank you all so much for your advice! It is really helpful. You will be glad to know that he is still on a regular diet, athough I don't know how long I can handle his mood. He is so cranky it is unreal.

Anyways, thank you all again!

I will keep in touch!

Carrie