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Last year both my son (20 mths at the time) and myself (33 at the time) had
intestinal biopsy done.  My son was put to sleep (can't spell the real word)
and was up 1/2 hr later and ready to leave the hospital.  He was not allowed
to eat or drink from midnight the previous evening and his biopsy was
scheduled for 9:00 am so we had to keep him real busy to keep his mind off
food.  He woke up no different than if he had had a good nights sleep and we
went home and he was no different that the day before.  Myself I had the
same thing done and was not put fully to sleep the first time, so I sorta
watched and fought with them a bit.  The second time I wasn't going back
unless they put me to sleep.  Anyway they first sprayed the back of my
throat with this awful tasting stuff to numb it, then they gave me my
"sleepy drugs", then they put a clamp kinda thingin my mouth to keep it
open, then they put a long wire thing in and down into my intestine and
snipped a little piece, pulled it out and went in for more.  They took three
samples from different areas of the small intestine and then I was done.
Took no more than 1/2 hr.  The first time I had a bit of a sore throat and I
think that was because I was gagging somewhat and trying to pull the thing
out of my mouth, the second time I had no after affects since I was sleeping
and didn't fight them at all.

The terms are not medical but this is the way I experienced my biopsy.  If
necessary I would do it again as long as I was asleep.  No trauma involved
even for a 20 month old.  I could not see him or myself swallowing a capsule
with a line on it because I would definitely gag and I'm not even sure my
son would be able to even attempt swallowing it at that young an age.

karen, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada