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Painful Colonoscopy

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Vonney63
Vonney63

I am trying to collate information on this. I had one done yesterday and I have never known pain like it. I even shouted for them to stop but all they kept giving me is gas and air and telling me to breath deeply with it. It did not help. I know this is not always the case but after reading lots of messages from people where this has happened to I am trying to get as much information together - trying to see if there is a pattern i.e same doctors, same hospitals. If anyone is willing to put there experience on here for me to be able to put together some kind of proof that this does happen I will be very grateful. I feel so traumatised by this that I want to take this further but I cannot do this without any back up info. So please, I know this is not always the norm to feel as much pain as I did but I am going to try my best to get this recognised and hopefully even if I manage to stop 1 other person going through this I will be happy.

13 likes, 200 replies

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  • Puppyluv
    Puppyluv Vonney63

    Posted

    Saw consultant this morning to discuss ct colonagraphy results, colon is fine. Incidental findings were, shrunken uterus, some thinning of bone,

    some inflammation on pancreas and 2 tiny cysts on liver, consistant with my age, 62 and he said they were nothing to be concerned about and

    I did'nt need to go back....Phew!!!!!

  • SL4_5LJ
    SL4_5LJ Vonney63

    Posted

    I had a sigmoidoscopy on 31st March this year and had sedation with it. reading through here I think I was one of the lucky ones as I don't remember anything about it. I'm having a colonoscopy on 1st May with sedation so hoping that that will be the same and I don't feel any pain or remember anything about it 
    • Vonney63
      Vonney63 SL4_5LJ

      Posted

      Hi SL4 5LJ, more people have a good colonoscopy rather than a bad one. You'll be fine. Let us know how you get on :-)
    • bencooper
      bencooper Vonney63

      Posted

      Yes. The good sign is that they offered and used sedation for the sigmoidoscopy. So it looks as though this hospital takes care of the patients.
    • Vonney63
      Vonney63 bencooper

      Posted

      I agree bencooper, I have just received ackowledgement of my complaint via post. They are looking into it and it can take 21 days before I hear from them again. Don't know if it'll do any good but at least I stood up and said that the way I was treated was wrong. I think if someone is actually shouting stop they should stop. Maybe they'll make the consultant consider how he treated me and might make him do things differently. Or maybe not - who knows.
  • mibry
    mibry Vonney63

    Posted

    I underwent a gastrocopy, colonoscopy and haemorroid banding yesterday. Having read some of the horror stories on here, and not being particularly brave, I asked my consultant if I could have a general anaesthetic. I wasn't surprised that the answer was no. The procedure was done privately so this wasn't due to NHS penny pinching.  In the absence of a GA, I asked for the maximum allowable dose of sedation. I don't know if they took any notice of me but it completely knocked me out and I don't remember a thing. 

    It seems that I was one of the lucky ones but I could have just as easily been one one of the  patients who experienced severe pain. I'm sure the medical establishment has statistics that show that the majority of patients tolerate this procedure well but there seems to be a significant minority who find it excrutiatingly painful and traumatic. When doctors have the means of ending this distress by offering a GA, it seems totally unethical not to do so.  Sure there are risks of having a GA and the procedure has a higher risk of complications under a GA, but in an otherwise healthy person the risk is still negligible. How about explaning the extra risks to patients and letting them choose?

    • bencooper
      bencooper mibry

      Posted

      You were given enough drugs to ensure that you don't remember.

      And as far as I am concerned, that is fine.

      The problem is, I think, that a lot of endoscopists haven't grasped that on less sedation, patients DO remember.

      So, when someone says 'Stop' and they don't, the patient knows that is what happened and is traumatised.

      All endoscopists need to have a colonoscopy WITHOUT sedation performed by a trainee. Just to help them understand.

    • mibry
      mibry bencooper

      Posted

      Interesting point that maybe I was actually screaming the place down but I just don't remember?
    • bencooper
      bencooper mibry

      Posted

      Indeed. If you don't remember...does it matter?
    • Vonney63
      Vonney63 bencooper

      Posted

      Exactly, I couldn't care less if I had screamed the place down whilst I was put under. It has made me feel that I had no control over what was happening to me, I shouted stop so many times but I couldn't do anything about it I just had put up with the pain. Never been in that situation before, with my illness I have been prodded and poked around more times than I can mention. Had a bone marrow biopsy of which I was awake for - it was uncomfortable but manageable. I was also asked through that procedure if they wanted to me to stop if I moved slightly but I just gritted my teeth and got on with it. This time however I cannot describe the pain I felt or how I feel today. The fear of not being able to control what someone is doing whilst you are awake and not being able to stop them no matter what you said will never leave me!
    • mibry
      mibry bencooper

      Posted

      Interesting philosophical point ... is it OK to torture someone as long as you give them a drug so they won't remember? 
    • bobby_baggs
      bobby_baggs mibry

      Posted

      Most operations are a form of torture - witness the bruises in the aftermath. You have to accept you are pretty much a slab of meat in a surgeon's hands... However, it becomes unacceptable if the patient is not given enough painkillers or sedation in which to tolerate that pain.
    • bencooper
      bencooper bobby_baggs

      Posted

      I agree. I had about six (maybe more) which were absolutely fine WHEN THEY TOOK THINGS SERIOUSLY and drugged people properly.

      Then came in bowel screening when they tried to make out that sticking cameras up backsides and pushing them right around people's colons is an everyday event which is nothing to worry about and at the most may be 'uncomfortable' .

      They started offering silly stuff like gas and air or even suggesting patients could try it without any drugs!! Yippee!

      I wonder how much money is wasted due to having to stop half way through?

      And how many patients can't face it again and just keep away from the endoscopy clinic taking the risk of cancer.

  • bobby_baggs
    bobby_baggs Vonney63

    Posted

    Hi, just read this thread and thought I would add my own experience... Had a sigmoidoscopy in February with no sedation, which was agony. Not sure if it was the insertion of air or poor surgical technique, but it was very painful. Anyway they found and removed a small polyp which then led to them referring me for a full colonoscopy, which I had yesterday... Because of my first bad experience I was admittedly very nervous despite being told constantly by nurses that with plenty of sedation and painkillers available it would be a breeze... IT WAS A NIGHTMARE... I had been advised to discuss my concerns and past experience with the endoscopist, but he was both arrogant and seemingly uninterested in my fears. Despite the sedation and painkillers, the procedure was abandoned halfway through due to me screaming at them to stop (it is quite vague to recall due to the drugs but it's obvious by that reaction that the drugs aren't 100% reliable). What's most baffling is that from telling them to stop, which I vaguely remember, until about 45 minutes later, I do not remember a thing - I was completely out of it. It makes me wonder if because they are in so much of a rush then they are not allowing the drugs to take their full affect, as I'm pretty sure if they had done the procedure in that intervening 45 minutes then things may have been a bit less painful... I am now going to be referred for a CT scan - I can honestly say I've been put off sigmoidoscopy/colonoscopy procedures for the rest of my life.
    • bencooper
      bencooper bobby_baggs

      Posted

      ' I had been advised to discuss my concerns and past experience with the endoscopist, but he was both arrogant and seemingly uninterested in my fears. '

      Well, THAT explains a lot! With that attitude, I certainly wouldn't want him anywhere near me full stop.

      I wonder if they topped up the drugs when you yelled at them to stop? That might explain the amnesia from then on.

    • bobby_baggs
      bobby_baggs bencooper

      Posted

      I don't know about that. But like any drugs, they surely need a 'kicking in' period??... If they are in a rush, which by the haste I was discharged from the recovery ward seems likely, then it could be possible that some places are simply putting people through these procedures on some sort of production line and not taking patient care or comfort seriously enough?
    • bencooper
      bencooper bobby_baggs

      Posted

      Regarding a 'kicking in' time for the drugs, in those six (or more) perfectly ok colonoscopies, I could feel the drugs working within about 3 seconds! It was great. I wouldn't remember a thing (well a few vague recollections) until after it was all over.
    • Vonney63
      Vonney63 bobby_baggs

      Posted

      I had a gastroscopy first and do not remember much about it only hearing myself gag but other than that I must have been slightly out of it. They didn't top it up for the colonoscopy which he carried out straight afterwards. I think they made a mistake and it should of been topped up before they started the colonoscopy. It's just so wrong!
    • babs49935
      babs49935 bobby_baggs

      Posted

      sounds exactly the same as my experience from sigmoidoscopy removal of polyp follow up colonoscopy ( which wasn't as bad as the sigmoidoscopy) to the then 5 year later colonoscopy..incredible pain, vaguely remember screaming out only to recover and be told the procedure was aborted due to my distress and baulking...had the CT scan not pleasant but a million times better than going through that barbaric procedure
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