painful sigmoidoscopy

Anyone who thinks you could possibly be so out of it you don't care has obviously not experienced this pain.

I feel really angry about it and may not return for the barium enema I'm told I must have now since they could not examine the full length required. It is absolutely disgraceful to treat people this way - nothing short of torture!

The nursing staff were lovely; the procedure worse than I'd ever imagined. I've had 4 children & managed with gas & air & breathing. I couldn't manage this at all.

I think at the beginning of the procedure it was just very uncomfortable as expected but it then became very painful.

When the scope wouldn't get round 1 of the corners ( though she didn't explain that at the time) she got me to move from my left side to right side & onto my back & then back onto my side and then they asked me to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10 (about 9 I reckoned - I really wasn't with it by then); took some of the air out (reducing the pain to about 6); said I was tachycardic and then I guess decided to give up. I had to stay in the recovery ward for a couple of hours - severe stomachpains & very nauseous. Finally got home & had to lie down for the rest of the day. Today I still feel unwell & am seriously concerned about the barium enema scheduled for 3 weeks time as all the medical staff told me that it would be worse than the flexible sigmoidoscopy.

I think I would have felt the pain/feeling so ill was worthwhile if they'd managed to complete the procedure but to go through all of that & then only have a limited procedure carried out with the warning that you might have to come back again isn't good .

The doctor also made me feel as though I was at fault in some way -I think her words afterwards were something on the lines that she'd been doing this for x years & this was the first time she'd only been able to do a limited procedure. I asked if sedation might have helped but she said not necessarily - so if they do the procedure again what are they going to give me?

I had one after having 2 colonoscopies, for which I had sedation and didn't feel much pain at all, but these where performed at a different hospital. When I moved I had to go to a different hospital and when I got the appointment I thought it was funny that I didn't have to have any stuff beforehand to empty my bowel like before and when I got to the hospital I found it was for a flexible sigmoidascope. the staff didn't even give me an enema and the pain was dreadful - had a fan on me as I kept getting panicy and afterwards I felt so bloated and could have f***ed and blown myself home on the wind!!! Thankfully I was discharged and have not had to had anything else done.

I think they should give some form of pain relief as not everyone is the same and this can be a very painful experience and also not a pleasant thing to go see a dr about in the first place.

Hope they do something about it soon for all you sufferers out there.

Jane

Although I expected to have my haemorrhoids banded during the procedure, I didn’t notice the surgeon doing any of that. Everyone was preparing to leave behaving in the typical mood one has in the end of a working day. As I was pulled out of the procedure room in the trolley I’ve asked the nurse if it was normal to still feel abdominal pressure and pain. She answered affirmatively and said that I needed to “pass wind”. The next moment she left me in the hands of a man who continued to roll me to the changing room and then he left hesitantly after giving me an uncertain look. With my colon filled with the air and the liquid that was introduced during the procedure, I went to the toilet and did what the nurse had advised me to do. Once I had that done, I felt much better. Some minutes later a nurse brought me some papers with the sigmoidoscopy results and asked me to call a phone number to arrange an appointment. Looking at the results I was surprised to read: “Intermittent bleeding and fourth degree haemorrhoids noted. Too swollen and painful for banding.” This explained why the surgeon ended the procedure without any haemorrhoid treatment, which was the main point of the sigmoidoscopy.

The most pain for me though was only about to begin, 15-20 minutes after the procedure when the local anaesthetic faded away. Seemingly the surgeon couldn’t avoid hurting my prolapsed haemorrhoids while operating the device during the sigmoidoscopy. The stingy pain persists to the present moment as I type this, two days after the procedure. Last night I mostly didn’t sleep because of the pain.

Yesterday I’ve called for the next appointment which unfortunately couldn’t have been arranged sooner than mid March that’s in a month and a half time. I am frustrated to have to wait so long and right now in a great deal of pain. I also have a job interview to attend in a week and I feel anxious not to miss it due to my pain, I can hardly walk right now.

If you have to do a sigmoidoscopy, I wish you the best of luck. It will be rather unpleasant but you’ll be fine immediately afterwards. If you are in a similar with me unlucky position to need haemorrhoids treatment, then I deeply empathise with you and I wish you get the right treatment for you and get the best results in the end.

Anybody who says this procedure is just uncomfortable, clearly hs never had one done.

I have had two, the first one around 3 years ago, was so painful that I literally screamed for him to stop, the doctor kept saying he knows its not nice, but he just had to get around the top bend in my colon and needed more air. By tis point I was digging my fingernails so hard into the poor nurses hand and sweat ws running down my face and chest, I was at the point of complete collapse, in fact I would go so far as saying that for anybody who had a heart condition, this was enough to cause them to have a heart attack.

There is no exaggeration here, it is the worst pain I have ever endured and cannot imagine why patients are not put out for this procedure,

~Worst of all last year My GP said I had to have another one done as conditon getting worse, I told her NO but she assured me that this time it wouldnt be so bad as only the very lower portion would need air to expand it. WELL IT WAS HELL FOR THE SECOND TIME... and the worse thing was IT WAS THE SAME Massocistic doctor performing it.... again he made me feel I was a baby, and this time I shouted to him, had he had one of these procedures performed, he said no.. and I told him he then didnt have a clue.

I still have the same problens but I would NEVER EVER GO THROUGH THIS PROCEURE AGAIN. and pity anybody who everhas to....