Motility--Can You Swallow That?

Started the morning paying big bucks to be tortured. This fun exam is called "a motility study" in the Gastrointestinal world where you get to snuff a catheter tube up your nose and then swallow it down into your stomach.

They do spray lidocaine or some numbing agent into your nose before hand. "Do you feel anything?" the nurse asked. Nope--meaning I didn't feel any different. We went ahead. 2 hours later as I drove to my hair appt. I sniffed my nose and THEN my nose, back of throat and tongue went numb. So that's what I was supposed to feel.

The first part of the test you just lay there and you're not supposed to swallow for like 20 minutes. I did pretty good. She then pulls the tube out a bit and gives you water and you swallow. We did this 10 times. And then she pulled it out some more and we did it 5 more times. And THEN she pulled it out some more and I gagged and gagged and eventually barfed. Luckily she read my mind as I madly pointed toward the barf bag. And luckily I had followed instructions and hadn't anything to eat or drink since the evening before.

Miraculously I was able to pull myself together and the nurse remained ever so calm, holding the catheter in place, and we finished the test. My throat hurt the rest of the day. And aren't you supposed to cry a bit after you throw up? I didn't get that satisfaction either and was a little off kilter the rest of the day because of it.

The rest of the day was nice to me as I got a great haircut, Courtney passed her driving test and they played all my favorite songs on my 80's station (as I was in my car until 5:00 driving everyone everywhere). And my throat didn't hurt badly enough that I couldn't sing along. Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto. Domo.