painful colonoscopy

:cry: I had a colonoscopy today - it was agony. I am usually very brave and able to tolerate pain and discomfort, but today was an hour of torture! The sedative and painkillers were ineffective. It felt as if he were trying to push the tube through my abdomen for an 'Alien' rebirth. I cried and pleaded for them to stop. Eventually the nurse said 'she cant take any more I think we should stop'. I had diverticular disease along most of the colon. I suffer from fibromyalgia and I think the operator must have been a beginner. I shall remember the 'procedure' for ever and NO WAY is anyone going to do that to me again.

I have pain in both sides, I feel as if I have been kicked in the stomach and up the backside! :shock:

not had a colonoscapy, but had surgical endoscapy 3X and the sedation is totally inadeqate, the first time they did it the dr instructed the other staff 2 hold me down, it took 6 of them, i felt everything, i was totally aware and could feel the scope moving and cutting for a whole 50 mins. by the time it was over i was psychologically a mess. even the sister on the ward i was on was horrified and the poor student nurse who i allowed to watch the proccedure, in the hope of furthering her learning, was in tears for ages afterwards.

Hi Roslin

Poor you, I do hope you are feeling a lot more comfortable today. It sounded a really awful experience and really shouldn't have been as unpleasant and painful as that. What on earth is happening in the medical world today?

I was a nurse working on an endoscopy unit in Kent 25 years ago. Endoscopies and colonoscopies were carried out on a regular basis and I assisted with thousands - and I can honestly say, I was only awareof one patient who felt any discomfort and this was soon remedied with further IV analgesia. The majority of patients had no recollection of the unpleasant procedure at all.

A couple of years ago my husband had to undergo a colonoscopy and I had assured him that he would feel very little - how wrong I was! When I went to pick him up he was white-faced and could barely speak - he was really traumatised for weeks - he has vowed never to have another one. This was carried out in a private hospital - my mother too, had a similar experience despite my requesting that the specialist ensure she had adequate sedation. Neither my mother or husband have a low pain thresehold - quite the opposite in fact.

It seems that endoscopy units have definitely got to get their act together - the procedure is barbaric in the first place without feeling pain. Complaints must be made to ensure the medics are aware of this. Hopefully, very soon a far less traumatic method of examining the colon will be available, involving swallowing a tiny camera and just watching it's progress on a screen.

Roslin, I do hope you will soon feel less traumatised by your experience and manage to have a lovely Christmas.

Regards

Katie

I'm the original poster and I just can't stand the way that colonoscopies are often done by rough and uncaring practitioners who rely on versed or other amnesia drugs to cover what is basically patient abuse. Well guess what; due to some really distressing symproms, I just had a colonoscopy myself. I met the doctor in an office beforehand and told her of all my concerns; she said that she was pretty gentle and that most patient's seem to want amnesia of the colonoscopy, but that if I didn't want one, it was strictly optional. I asked for no drugs, but she offered IV painkiller (fentanyl) to be available only if I asked for it. To make a long story short, I went in expecting the worse, but she was so caring and gentle that I watched the entire thing on the monitor and other than a few brief, sharp pains when she went around the corners, it was not bad at all. The right doctor made all the diffeence.. Later, one of the nurses told me \"Katie takes her time, is gentle, her patients usually feel little discomfort with minimal drugs and that she finds LOT of polyps since she takes her time. Well, I had a fair number of polyps and get to go back every 2 years and I'm not worried about it at all since she will be doing them. Otherwise, I would not get the test...........

I think its appalling how patients are being ignored when they effectively withdraw their consent to / for the proceedure / s