I am getting a Colonoscopy, I and need help
 

I did the research. I understand it's just a test, but it scares the shit out of me..no pun.

A technician runs a remote camera 22 inches from your asshole up into your system.
Can you feel the instrument running around inside of you? This sounds like torture to me.

http://www.dhmc.org/dhmc-internet-up...n/flex_sig.jpg

BoyAlley, can you take this one?

i've never had one... but I heard that they give you some kind of drug and you dont remember that anything even happened

All i know is they give you something so you don't feel it. It's not going to hurt.

http://www.ddc.musc.edu/ddc_pub/images/colonoscopy.gif

http://www.med.nyu.edu/virtualcolono...images/VC1.jpg

Had one about 4 months ago to find the cause of persistant abdominal pain. They knocked me out with a mild general anaesthetic and it was all over in about 30 mins. An hour later I was walking out the door and I would never have known I had it done.
It truely is a painless procedure...don't worry about it.

some docs will give you just enough meds to make you drowsy but you'll still feel it - so before they start, be sure to tell them you want to be knocked out and they'll do it. and then, as others here have said, you'll wake up and won't even know that they've done anything.
the "bad" thing about a colonoscopy is the day-before prep where you have to drink stuff to empty out your system. the actual day you go in for the procedure is a piece of cake.

i had one done, its not bad, you wake up and dont feel a thing after its done..

However the day before you gotta drink like 3 gallons of this stuff that tases like vomit, and lets just say, you cant leave the house for even 1 minute.

Make sure the metal isn't cold :1orglaugh

good luck . . . I suggest dinner and a movie first

what's that lump on Cyber-Hustler's pic? Is that a cyst? Ewwww!!!!

I’ve known people who requested not to get a sedative/anesthesia beforehand. Those people regretted it. :)

At my age, I've had numerous ones; the preceding day's "prep" is terrible but the painkiller IV along with Versed makes the actual procedure easy/painless and it'll be over before you know it began (thanks to the amnesia properties of the Versed in the IV.

Good luck!

Forgot to mention the 'prep'. I was given 2 sachets of crystals to mix with water some hours apart. Took around 5 hours to work till I first needed to go to the toilet. After that, I was there every 15 minutes or so for the next 4 hours before it eased. It certainly 'cleans' you out!

Yeah the prep doesn't sound too fun

Be careful your doc isnt cutting expenses and using a vx2000 instead ouch lol . My dad had it done piece of cake. The scary thing was, Im with him in this big recovery room. So you can hear them talking to the ones that didnt have a clean test very scary.

Actually the pre-prep is worse than the procedure.

you won't notice much



they will give you something to sleep over the time they check you...

as has been said a few times here, the worst bit is the prep the day before ... oh and any surgery they decide you might need after they've stuck the camera up your ass!

You'll be fine ... its a standard procedure these days that's done thousands of times a day ... and you'll feel nice and clean and light the week after thanks to bowel prep! ;p

Just wanted to reiterate what everyone else basically said--the colonoscopy itself is painless and easy. You won't remember a thing. The prep isn't too fun (the worst part for me is drinking the phosphus soda itself). I've had 2 now even though I'm only in my 20's and I have to get 1 every five years for life. It's worth it though!!!!!!!!!! Good luck.

Yipes, good luck with the Roto Rooter.

:Oh crap

Goodluck with it...

What did they determine was the cause?

My friend has been through them several times since his father died from liver cancer. He hates them mostly and here is what he wrote on his online joural a few months ago:

See I have to have colonoscopies because my father died of liver cancer. Don't follow? Well he had a colonoscopy and they found polyps. They told him to come back in 3 years and have it done again. He didn't go back. When Mom brought it up he would complain about having a "pipe stuck up his ass" and that was that. When he got real sick it was colon cancer, but it got worse.

When they were prepping to do surgery and remove part of his colon they noticed a few shadows on his liver in the MRIs. So while they were "in the neighborhood" they checked his liver. It was covered in small cancers--the cancer had migrated. He lived 5 more years.

I had my first colonoscopy soon after. They found polyps, but they were benign. 3 years later I had another and was clean, save for a couple of internal hermeroids. I was told I didn't need another for 5 years. That was 2 years ago. See right before Thanksgiving I had blood in my stool. Just at night and once, then a couple of days later it happened again. Off to the doctor I went.

My doctor was like "Well in anyone else I would say--forget about it, but with your history..." off to the internal medicine doctor to have a colonoscopy. (this is the same one who did the last 'scope) he said the same thing. "Well, in anyone else I would say it was the hemeriods, but with your family history..." so the day after Christmas I started prepping.

The problem I have with colonoscopies are not the procedure (I'm drugged to the point of disassociation. I'm awake because I have to move occasionally for them, but it all seems to be happening to someone else) but the prep.

For those who have never done it, the procedure goes something like this:

1. No food the day before, you can have all the clear liquids (broth, water, tea) that you want.
2. Now I use the Fleet prep and it goes this way:

24 hours before the procedure-you drink a 10oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate laxative. It tastes like a salty 7-UP and is the best tasting of the bunch. This gets the party started--chemically induced diahrea.

6 hours later you get the double whammy. Fleet Phosapha-Soda laxative and 4 Dulcolax tablets. The Fleet is only 1.5 ounces poured into 4 ounces of water--it is horrible tasting. Now chase the lot with at least 8 glasses of water (64 ounces) in a couple of hours. Along with whatever else you have been drinking. This causes the condition I know as "peeing out my ass" because all you have is liquid.

6 hours before procedure: repeat the above step. However drink you water in an hour.

4 hours before procedure: You can't drink anything, but you're still passing liquid. Cotton mouth is usual.

Now you are up to procedure time. You go (with a driver because of what they give you) you get the drugs and they do the procedure. Then I'm loopy for quite a while after (at least that is what my wife says. I also keep telling her I'm fine. (Good drugs)

What gets me is the prep. Not the no food part, that's rough, but doable. Being a bit of a control freak it's the loss of control over the body that gets me. Not knowing is that is gas that's coming or liquid. Being up and down all the time--that gets to me. Luckily I'm married to a wonderful woman who puts up with a grouchy rhino.

Now after all that--would I not go through it again, or put off a procedure? I would do it the next week if I had to. Much as I hate the prep--it can keep me alive. I don't want to go through what my dad did. So despite what I've said get it done if you need it.

I get one once a year. They always give me Demerol (painkiller) and Versed (Midazolam/Benzo). Great mix.