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Edited on Fri Aug-03-07 01:01 PM by Hell Hath No Fury
for a suspected cancer check.
The prep sucks. Make sure you stay near the bathroom once you get going with it. I had a small bottle of something that I put into a large glass of water, followed by the gallon of cherry flavored stuff. I had fasted for two days prior to the proceedure, so by the time I got through half of the cherry stuff, I was already completely cleaned out. (My instructions said either finish the gallon or stop if you are passing nothing but clear "water".)
For the scoping itself, I went in at 9:00am, and had my vitals taken and a IV line inserted into the back of my hand for the drugs they were going to give me. Once inside the examination room, I received Demerol (a painkiller) and Fentadyne (?) (a kind of waking anesthesia that generally gives you amnesia about the proceedure) in my IV line. I was VERY relaxed and drifted off just as the proceedure began. I did have some pain when they were going around the big curve of the colon -- a nurse stands next to you and presses down on your abdomen to help guide the scope around the bend. I "woke up" at that time and told them it was hurting and they gave me a little hit of the IV cocktail and I drifted off again. I have what they call a redundent colon -- lots of extra footage that twists this way and that -- so it took a very long time for them to reach the end where it meets the small intestine. By that time, I had again woken up and was watching the monitor as they tok a small biopsy of some suspicious cells. I stayed aware for the remainder of the time, and was cleaned up and returned to the staging area to recover.
For the remainder of the day I was a little out of it -- if I had been smart, I would have just gone home and slept it off instead of trying to do anything. I was ravenous after the proceedure and ate like a pig as soon as I could. My tummy was okay with it, in spite of the drugs I'd had.
All in all I was completely comfortable with what had happened and had a good experience. The outcome was an okay one -- no cancer, but the slight possibility I could be looking at Crohn's in the future.
Make sure to ask them about what drugs they are going to give you -- and make sure it is a painkiller and the anesthesia. I've heard some stories about doctors using only the anesthesia and counting on the memory loss it can cause for you to forget you were in such pain.
I hope yours is as painfree and unremarkable as mine was. You'll do just fine! :hi:
On edit: I read a few posts up thread that reminded me of two important points. If you are at all older or have any sort of weakness or illness, I would recommend having someone near you when doing the preop -- it can take a LOT out of you, in more ways than one. When my 75 year old Mom had hers done, it wiped her out completely -- luckily I was there to help her with changing her nightgown and gettinmg in and out of the bathroom. Also, about the TP situation -- when prepping for a prior barium x-ray, my ass got seriously chapped and downright painful from all the pooping, even with using baby wipes. So when I prepped for the colonoscopy, I used paper for a bit and then just hung my ass over the edge of the tub and used the hand-held shower sprayer to rinse myself off. (Where's a bidet when you need one!) I worked like a charm and I had zero butt chapping. :)
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