Perforation risk and palpitations with gastroscopy

[Min75]

My biggest fear with gastroscopy is the risk of perforation of the oesophagus or stomach. Don't know how to manage this fear. I know it's rare, but rare things do happen. Am I being overly anxious worrying about perforation?

Also, I am under cardiology for investigation of my heart palpitations. I won't have the Cardiology follow up appointment until after the gastroscopy procedure. The pre assessment endoscopy nurse said over the phone yesterday that it might be better to postpone my gastroscopy until after my Cardiology follow up and she emailed cardiology to chase this up for me, as both are within the same hospital.

In any case, she said that if I have palpitations on the day of the endoscopy, then the procedure may need to be postponed. My other fear is incase I start having palpitations during the procedure and if I want them to stop the test mid way, would it cause panic and increase the risk of perforation?

I am so stressed firstly with worries about perforation risk and secondly, I am worried about the palpitations complicating the procedure.

Any advice from anyone in a similar situation or anyone else who knows about this topic would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

I have had a gastroscopy and tbh it really set my heart racing.

If the medics are advising you to postpone this until after your cardiology appointment, I would think that is sound advice.

Good luck.

It’s quite obvious that you should postpone the procedure.

Definitely postpone. And definitely ask for the gastroscopy to be done under an anaesthetic. It's not for the faint hearted and I'd never go near one without an anaesthetic. Sorry to sound scary but it's awful.

Thank you for your replies. I have had the gastroscopy procedure previously in 2011 with only a throat spray and it was unpleasant and I gagged when it went in, but over with quickly. However, at that time, I didn't have the problem of palpitations and I wasn't being investigated in Cardiology. So that's the difference. I also don't recall fearing perforation etc back then. I guess I was less fearful when I was younger.