Questions about upper endoscopy

[LurenD]

Hello. Here in Norway a lot of different kind of specialists perform upper endoscopies. Both gastric surgeons, gastroenterologies and general surgeons. I'm supposed to choose which hospital I go to get it done, but I have no idea which one will be better.

I've been reffered to a specific hospital. The doctor is a general surgeon who's primary focus is surgery on hemorrhoids, varicose veins and inguinal hernia. On their webpage it says that he also does a lot of endoscopies.

Gastric surgeons are general surgeons also, but have to have had additional training and education. I don't know if this makes it likely that they will be better at performing endoscopies. I would think it depends more on how many they do and have done in their career and personality/attentiveness maybe. I have no idea how I can find out anything about that. Since the general surgeon at the hospital has a primary focus on other kind of procedures I would think he must devote less time on upper endoscopies than doctors who primarly or only do that.

I have a record at that hospital which says that I have gastritis, IBS and functional dyspepsia. I don't think these are all correct, but it doesn't really matter. I am worried that they will examine me less thouroughly given my record there, for example by not taking samples and/or disregarding or downplaying abnormal findings.

My first endoscopy went great. The second one went terribly bad. It went bad because of the almost continous gagging with very short intervals in between. The main difference was the ammount of local aneasthatic I was given. The first time I got a large mouthfull and was told to swallow it down. The second time I only got a tiny spray in the roof of my mouth. I'm a little worried about the procedure now because of the second experience.

Would have gone back to the first doctor, but then I have to pay 600 dollars instead of 35. I also felt that the doctor who did that endoscopy (diagnosed me with gastritis immediately after) was irritated with me on later appointments because I didn't get better. He later diagnosed me with IBS (just because I also had constipation) and functional dyspepsia all of the sudden because of occasional postprandial pain (30-60 min after meal, I think) that I also had told him I had a few episodes of before the endoscopy. As with his colleague who has access to my records with this doctor, I'm a little worried that he'll do a less thourough examination because of the functional disorders he has diagnosed me with. My main concern with is the additional cost. It might go badly this time anyway and then I'll feel bad about spending so much more money.

After a barium swallow showed a small zenker's diverticulum he told me to check up on it in three years. I found it slightly strange. Being a 26 year old person such a finding is very rare and I would think one should consider possible causes of it occuring so early.

Do you have any suggestions on what I should do about the endoscopy? Should I get it done somewhere else? How can I make a more informed decision about where to take it? Should I just go with one and hope for the best?

I don't know how any of this works in other countries. Thank you for any suggestions anyway!