To anyone wondering about this, I did it last year. You don't remember the procedure at all, you're just left with the blissful afterglow of the drugs they use to make you sleep. That stays with you for a couple of days. The uncomfortable part is the day before when you have to do a cleanse. Worth it.
> You don't remember the procedure at all, you're just left with the blissful afterglow of the drugs they use to make you sleep.
Technically this will vary depending on the protocol. I have friends in this field and in some countries they effectively knock you out with sedation. Others you might get some anxiety medication and only sedate elderly or uncollaborative patients.
Regardless of that everyone should absolutely get checked but just wanted to make sure we don't set unrealistic expectations.
I’m literally having a colonoscopy today (Wednesday), so I’ll say what my prep has been.
Starting on Friday, I followed a “low residue diet”. This primarily meant no fibrous fruits/veg or whole nuts/seeds. It was inconvenient but not hard.
Yesterday I started a “clear liquid diet”, which meant that I did not eat anything and only drank apple juice, gatorade, and the prescription prep solution. Starting at 5pm and going until about 6:45p, I drank half of the prep solution, which was like 64oz of stuff that tasted like flat Sprite. Right about the time I finished drinking, the draining out the other end began. It wasn’t a problem, and didn’t hurt, but I did visit the bathroom about 10 times over the next 2 hours with another few throughout the night.
I slept great overnight, and now I’m getting ready to start the second half of the prep solution. I’ll drink it over a 90 minute span, beginning four hours before I am scheduled to arrive at the endoscopy clinic.
(I’m also planning to have my colonoscopy without sedation. I have a very high pain tolerance, and was told that I’ll be able to watch the realtime video feed!)
The hardest part was probably convincing my doc that “yes, I’m sure I don’t want sedation.”
The procedure took under 15 minutes, with only about 2 minutes at the start being quite uncomfortable (“beesting way up my butt”). After that, it just felt like a bad case of gas rumbling through my gut. It wasn’t pleasant, but I’m not sure it is that much worse than a painful dental cleaning.
The doctor was quite good at talking through what we were seeing on the big screen. I didn’t feel anything when he used forceps to remove a few tiny polyps. I felt good that I saw the “problem spots” in realtime and could ask questions. (I’d likely have stressed out with a “we found a few tiny polyps” report after waking from sedation.)
After the procedure, I was free to leave. I put on my clothes and immediately left to walk home. No issues throughout the rest of the day.
I’m glad I skipped the propofol, and will skip sedation in the future.
It might depend on the doctor also. I had one last year and, from what I remember, there was no prep besides the 24 hour fast/liquid diet before the procedure.
I was long overdue to the first one but I won't be from here on out. The entire thing was easy.
Did it without sedatives, nothing special. Common thing in northern Europe - not so much in eastern. Stomach checkup as well, cause you might as well at that point - the equipment and specialists are there.
A friend's girlfriend got stage3(?) recently, not 30 yet. My dad passed away ~5 years after diagnosed stage4. I had some pretty nasty IBD which, along with the mention of my family history, _finally_ got them to agree to do it. Anyways, all clean, other than h.pylori that got taken out with the first round - stomach - apparently exceedingly common here.
Watch your shit, get your stuff checked. I still had the needles set up in case perforation occurred and they had to sedate and do exploratory.
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