colonoscopy

Hi elizabeth, I was informed that i had the best doctor for that job and maybe thats because i put it out there no meds of any type. They tried to talk me out of it but i refused. I guess everybody is different when it comes to the colonoscopy but honestly for me it was a breeze! Maybe profotol the anesthesia that puts you all the way out would be best for you, like what you would have for a major surgery. However you should not consider not having your next life saving colonoscopy.

Hi elizabeth, I was informed that i had the best doctor for that job and maybe thats because i put it out there no meds of any type. They tried to talk me out of it but i refused. I guess everybody is different when it comes to the colonoscopy but honestly for me it was a breeze! Maybe profotol the anesthesia that puts you all the way out would be best for you, like what you would have for a major surgery. However you should not consider not having your next life saving colonoscopy.

Hi Elizabth. Did you ask the colonoscopist or any of his staff, say, the recovery nurse, why you experience so much discomfort this time? Do you have an acute pre-existing condition of the colon that might make it so?  This should not be a painful procedure. Some gas will have been pumped in to open the passageway and that can sometimes cause a bit of minor discomfort and cramping but the discomfort should not be on a scale that should cause people to be reluctant to have an examination which could provide early detection of a life threatening disease. I'm posting this because I know that many people nervous about their first colonoscopy come here for reassurance. I have had two colonoscopies (I have ulceratve colitis) without sedation and neither caused any pain at all. Logically, they shouldn't. It's a very fine wire travelling through a comparatively very wide canal.

Seems like most doctors are new to the job then. I've ha 3 and 2 were unbearable. The last being aborted even though I was completely out of it

Whatever medication is given needs time to be effective.  Unfortunately, especially in the US where MONEY is so important, and time is money, I sense the comments I have read that time for sedation to take effect is not always provided, probably because time is money when it comes to a doctor's time, and the use of a special procedure room that is booked on a tight schedule.  That is an issue that should be VERY CLEARLY SPECIFIED  before the procedure as VERY IMPORTANT,  as it is a patient comfort issue.  I hate to say it, but I think sedation is given more for patient compliance to a very uncomfortable if not painful procedure, so the doctor can squeeze in more colonoscopies in the schedule.  Because time is money.

If I were you after this experience, I would outline how quickly the procedure was started after sedation was administered, and ask your regular doctor if the sedation takes effect that quickly, and CLEARLY communicate that your procedure was started before your medication was working.  Complain to the facility that actually did the colonoscopy as well, and TELL them that your comfort is important to you, and that perhaps it isn't as important to the those who performed that procedure.

 

The 'scope is not a "wire" but is described as 1/2 inch thick or the size of a typical index finger in internet sites I've read.

I think you may have gotten insufficent sedation and pain relief, which I am hearing from some other patients in the NHS system for some reason. Inexperienced staff, a colon with a lot of extra curves, and an inexperienced operator will make a colonoscopy a horrible experience for most people.  I was lucky to have experienced staff and a very experience operator for mine.

Hi Elizabeth:

Unfortunately, patient comfort usually isn't on the minds of healthcare personnel doing this test. They want to get you in and out like cattle.

Here in the states they usually give patients a versed/fentanyl combination drug cocktail to make the patient more compliant not comfortable. They are now looking at propofol for those that want sedation.

There are in my opinion a few steps doctors and facilities can implement to make the test experience more comfortable for all that take this barbaric test.

The first and most important thing they can do is get rid of the adult colonoscope.

Replace it with the small diameter, extraflexible pediatric colonoscopes which has proved to be invaluable in adult endoscopy practice. Use of the pediatric scope should be mandatory for all colonoscopies. The pediatric scope would prove itself the first time the scope loops in the colon.

The other thing you must have for a good experience is an expert doctor or endoscopist.

Put the two together & you'll bring your patient thru the test with just some short-lived cramping when negotiating the turns and a little bloating from pushing air into the colon.

The other thing they can do better is pay better attention to the drugs being used.

Don't start the test until the drugs have had enough time to work.

Raffie