my colonoscopy - 05/31/10 10:55 AM
first i'd like to thank donna (avonldy) for some wonderful advice in her recent post: colonoscopy instructions -from IBD sucks
the timing couldn't have been better and the advice, brilliant!
the things i found most helpful from that list on prep day were:
1. drinking that awful stuff very very cold
2. drinking that awful stuff through a straw.
i tried experimenting without the straw, impossible to get it down!
3. vaseline (for the other end). now i feel like this should be in the anal leakage thread! LOL! butt seriously, vaseline is awesome stuff. use prior, and keep using. even with that.....but without it, can't imagine.
ok, so prep day pretty much sucked, of course, but i got through it and survived.
something i wonder. the instructions on the "go lightly" says to drink 8 oz every 10 minutes. but my doctors instructions were every 20-30 minutes (to lessen the chances of gastro cramping and gas). i drank it every ~30 minutes. and honestly the first few cups not that bad; thought to myself, "no big deal." they say to drink 3-4 liters, whatever is needed, but at least 3 liters. by the last cup to make ~3 Liters, there was no getting anymore down. my husband made a good point. one's body develops an aversion to things that make us sick, and maybe spacing it further out, makes it harder to handle, not so much quantity of liquid as much as length of time. i don't know if drinking it every 10 minutes would be better. there has to be a better way!
the last thing you do is take 4 dulcolax right before bed.
warning: this next comment pretty gross. but if i hadn't known what to expect, i would have been completely freaked. bile is green, bright green. when things go through you quickly, the system doesn't have time to do things right and that green bile comes right out of your butt. i found this out about 8 years ago when i had a nasty gastro bug coupled with vioxx induced gastro difficulties, put that together and green bile coming out. i called the doctor on call completely freaked, that's when i learned that its not as scary as it seems. anyway, from 6:30-8:00 am, every 30 minutes. good thing it stopped because i had to get to the hospital.
molly, i want to comment here on your experience. i can not imagine prepping in a hospital vs my own home. i'm so sorry you had to go through what you had to go through. i could empathize before, but not in the way that i can now!
the procedure itself pretty anticlimactic. except for a few things to comment on.
the first thing they did was start an IV, vein in the hand or wrist. usually the needle hurts a little for a second or so and that's it. this time it really hurt! really hurt! i made a comment to the nurse, asked if it was because the needle was fatter than i had remembered and she said yes, so i laid there and just sucked it up. every so often commented about how much that IV was hurting, but trying to be a good patient and not complain. but my hand was going numb, then it was hurting all the way up to my elbow, then i noticed how swollen my wrist was becoming. so finally i told my husband that and he said to the nurse, "iv shouldn't be swelling up her hand and wrist, should it?" and the older nurse came over and took care of it. moved it to the other hand and told me that no, an iv needle should only hurt for the second it is going in, then there should be no pain. the first younger nurse had missed my "good veins" that she commented on how good they were. and when i told her it hurt and hurt, she kind of ignored it. so saline solution was going into my tissues instead of my blood stream.
moral of that story. we suck up pain so much that i think we just get used to it. so if something that really shouldn't be hurting is hurting, don't just suck it up the way i did, but say something.
they gave me a warm pack to put over it to reduce the swelling which after about 15 minutes had become pretty severe.
this is a note for LDN users: the normal drugs for a colonoscopy are versed and fentanyl. i had had those 3 times in the past with good effects (2 upper endoscopies, 1 colonoscopy) but that was before the LDN. i was planning on just taking molly's advice and stopping the LDN a day or so before the procedure so i could be given the fentanyl. however, there is another, in my opinion, better option, which i wasn't aware of. the gastroenterologist wanted to be on the safe side, so instead of trying to figure out how to deal with both LDN and fentanyl, which interact with one another, and without my having to go without my LDN for even a day, he set up the procedure to include propofol. its a deeper sedative than versed, and hence no need for the pain killer fentanyl. insurance usually wants the docs to use the versed / fentanyl because its cheaper because use of the propofol requires an anesthesiologist due to the deeper sedation. but if the doctor can state why its needed, its really a good option. rapid onset and the recovery time is even quicker as well.
so, i am wheeled into the procedure room, oxygen tube put on my nose, and the next thing i know, i'm waking up, wondering where i am. then realize. there was no getting drowsy. one second i was awake, the next, or so it felt, i was waking up.
while in there, they found 2 polyps in the large intestine and 2 small ulcers in the small intestine. and lately i've been having almost no symptoms. reason for it being done. in the fall very bad pain --> very bad gastritis --> very bad diarrhea, not digesting food, weight loss etc. but i was in too much pain to go in for a procedure. so, if they found that much when i was doing good, hmmm? was just reading that a colonoscopy should not be done during a flare of IBD, maybe i read that wrong, hmmm? i was actually quite surprised that they found anything, as when i developed my bad gastritis in 1993, the only thing the colonoscopy showed was cellular dysplasia, "not IBD but probably not normal". but of course that was a long time ago and at the start of my problems, only 30 at the time, now 47. i will be interested to see what the biopsies show. assuming polyps are benign or i'd have gotten a phone call. i predict the ulcers in the small intestine will prove inconclusive, like so much else. we'll see when i go to the doctors in a week for a followup.
so when i wake up, i tell my husband how great the propofol is, that its the way to go! and a nurse overhears me and says, "in any other country you'd be doing it without drugs" (don't know the truth in that statement, but still i'd take the drugs). then we had a short debate over the use of drugs in every day. she thinks we americans abuse drugs way too much and we should make due without so many drugs. of course me, the patient, thank goodness for drugs! though i wish i didn't need them, so glad i have them. afterwards, my husband thought that an entirely inappropriate conversation for a nurse to be having with a patient who had just come out of a procedure and was just commenting positively about my experience and my doctors. so glad my doctor and the anesthesiologist had more compassion.
the only other thing to mention. about 2 hours after returning home, had a lot of blood come out of my intestines when i went to the bathroom. called the doctor, he said it should be ok, but to call back if it was still going on in the evening; it wasn't. anyway, this did freak me out. it seemed like a lot of blood. but he did do a bit of cutting and a lot of scraping or so he told me. and oddly, though i typically go every day, took 3 days to go again, now about a week and a half, only every other day. so my body is still adjusting, but am making sure i'm getting lots of fiber and plenty to drink; that should help.
ok, think that's it, hope some of it is useful to oters.
the timing couldn't have been better and the advice, brilliant!
the things i found most helpful from that list on prep day were:
1. drinking that awful stuff very very cold
2. drinking that awful stuff through a straw.
i tried experimenting without the straw, impossible to get it down!
3. vaseline (for the other end). now i feel like this should be in the anal leakage thread! LOL! butt seriously, vaseline is awesome stuff. use prior, and keep using. even with that.....but without it, can't imagine.
ok, so prep day pretty much sucked, of course, but i got through it and survived.
something i wonder. the instructions on the "go lightly" says to drink 8 oz every 10 minutes. but my doctors instructions were every 20-30 minutes (to lessen the chances of gastro cramping and gas). i drank it every ~30 minutes. and honestly the first few cups not that bad; thought to myself, "no big deal." they say to drink 3-4 liters, whatever is needed, but at least 3 liters. by the last cup to make ~3 Liters, there was no getting anymore down. my husband made a good point. one's body develops an aversion to things that make us sick, and maybe spacing it further out, makes it harder to handle, not so much quantity of liquid as much as length of time. i don't know if drinking it every 10 minutes would be better. there has to be a better way!
the last thing you do is take 4 dulcolax right before bed.
warning: this next comment pretty gross. but if i hadn't known what to expect, i would have been completely freaked. bile is green, bright green. when things go through you quickly, the system doesn't have time to do things right and that green bile comes right out of your butt. i found this out about 8 years ago when i had a nasty gastro bug coupled with vioxx induced gastro difficulties, put that together and green bile coming out. i called the doctor on call completely freaked, that's when i learned that its not as scary as it seems. anyway, from 6:30-8:00 am, every 30 minutes. good thing it stopped because i had to get to the hospital.
molly, i want to comment here on your experience. i can not imagine prepping in a hospital vs my own home. i'm so sorry you had to go through what you had to go through. i could empathize before, but not in the way that i can now!
the procedure itself pretty anticlimactic. except for a few things to comment on.
the first thing they did was start an IV, vein in the hand or wrist. usually the needle hurts a little for a second or so and that's it. this time it really hurt! really hurt! i made a comment to the nurse, asked if it was because the needle was fatter than i had remembered and she said yes, so i laid there and just sucked it up. every so often commented about how much that IV was hurting, but trying to be a good patient and not complain. but my hand was going numb, then it was hurting all the way up to my elbow, then i noticed how swollen my wrist was becoming. so finally i told my husband that and he said to the nurse, "iv shouldn't be swelling up her hand and wrist, should it?" and the older nurse came over and took care of it. moved it to the other hand and told me that no, an iv needle should only hurt for the second it is going in, then there should be no pain. the first younger nurse had missed my "good veins" that she commented on how good they were. and when i told her it hurt and hurt, she kind of ignored it. so saline solution was going into my tissues instead of my blood stream.
moral of that story. we suck up pain so much that i think we just get used to it. so if something that really shouldn't be hurting is hurting, don't just suck it up the way i did, but say something.
they gave me a warm pack to put over it to reduce the swelling which after about 15 minutes had become pretty severe.
this is a note for LDN users: the normal drugs for a colonoscopy are versed and fentanyl. i had had those 3 times in the past with good effects (2 upper endoscopies, 1 colonoscopy) but that was before the LDN. i was planning on just taking molly's advice and stopping the LDN a day or so before the procedure so i could be given the fentanyl. however, there is another, in my opinion, better option, which i wasn't aware of. the gastroenterologist wanted to be on the safe side, so instead of trying to figure out how to deal with both LDN and fentanyl, which interact with one another, and without my having to go without my LDN for even a day, he set up the procedure to include propofol. its a deeper sedative than versed, and hence no need for the pain killer fentanyl. insurance usually wants the docs to use the versed / fentanyl because its cheaper because use of the propofol requires an anesthesiologist due to the deeper sedation. but if the doctor can state why its needed, its really a good option. rapid onset and the recovery time is even quicker as well.
so, i am wheeled into the procedure room, oxygen tube put on my nose, and the next thing i know, i'm waking up, wondering where i am. then realize. there was no getting drowsy. one second i was awake, the next, or so it felt, i was waking up.
while in there, they found 2 polyps in the large intestine and 2 small ulcers in the small intestine. and lately i've been having almost no symptoms. reason for it being done. in the fall very bad pain --> very bad gastritis --> very bad diarrhea, not digesting food, weight loss etc. but i was in too much pain to go in for a procedure. so, if they found that much when i was doing good, hmmm? was just reading that a colonoscopy should not be done during a flare of IBD, maybe i read that wrong, hmmm? i was actually quite surprised that they found anything, as when i developed my bad gastritis in 1993, the only thing the colonoscopy showed was cellular dysplasia, "not IBD but probably not normal". but of course that was a long time ago and at the start of my problems, only 30 at the time, now 47. i will be interested to see what the biopsies show. assuming polyps are benign or i'd have gotten a phone call. i predict the ulcers in the small intestine will prove inconclusive, like so much else. we'll see when i go to the doctors in a week for a followup.
so when i wake up, i tell my husband how great the propofol is, that its the way to go! and a nurse overhears me and says, "in any other country you'd be doing it without drugs" (don't know the truth in that statement, but still i'd take the drugs). then we had a short debate over the use of drugs in every day. she thinks we americans abuse drugs way too much and we should make due without so many drugs. of course me, the patient, thank goodness for drugs! though i wish i didn't need them, so glad i have them. afterwards, my husband thought that an entirely inappropriate conversation for a nurse to be having with a patient who had just come out of a procedure and was just commenting positively about my experience and my doctors. so glad my doctor and the anesthesiologist had more compassion.
the only other thing to mention. about 2 hours after returning home, had a lot of blood come out of my intestines when i went to the bathroom. called the doctor, he said it should be ok, but to call back if it was still going on in the evening; it wasn't. anyway, this did freak me out. it seemed like a lot of blood. but he did do a bit of cutting and a lot of scraping or so he told me. and oddly, though i typically go every day, took 3 days to go again, now about a week and a half, only every other day. so my body is still adjusting, but am making sure i'm getting lots of fiber and plenty to drink; that should help.
ok, think that's it, hope some of it is useful to oters.
Apparently you take 65 tablets - 5 at a time every 10 minutes with some water. As a veteran of colonoscopies Christine swore this was the best way yet *by far*, so when I go to see my gastro soon I will be asking for more information on this method.
but he did leave us with a good message as to the colonoscopy's importance. in a way, consider myself fortunate that with my moderate gastro issues am checked more often (for IBD stuff) so get the cancer screening more often than others, that's a good thing, a very good thing. of course gastro issues not a good thing, but looking for the positive in it.