Tell me about your colon.

In My Humble Opinion
1

My little sis is 29 and in otherwise perfect helath, but over the past couple of years she has had alot of poo problems.

She has intestinal cramping and problems going…and then sometimes problems because she is going all the time. She also just recently told me that it is really common for her to have some blood in her stool.

I finally blew up at her last week and told her she was not allowed to complain to me and tell me about all the pain and potentially serious symptoms and worry me to death if she is never going to see a doctor.

She said she has avoided it because of the potentially invasive and embarrasing diagnostics that she assumed it would entail. I told her I understood that, but the problem was not going away and seems to be getting worse.

So having said all of that…The doctors seem to be taking it very serious and she is now scheduled for a colonoscopy tomorrow…Can you guys offer me some idea of what she and I can expect at this vist? And what I can do for her afterwards to make her most comfortable?

2

My husband recently had a colonoscopy. The worst part for him was the ‘clean-out’ the day before, and the fact that he couldn’t have anything to eat the morning of the test.

Before they start, they give you nice drugs to relax you - which is why someone needs to drive the patient home. My husband’s doctor also offered to let him watch the procedure on a monitor (so I guess you can finally see where the sun literally don’t shine, heh). He took her up on the offer, but I can see why some folks might not.

He was fine afterwards and the first thing he did when we got home was make himself a sandwich. He was completely back to normal that evening.

3

TMI ahoy!

Ok, this is very similar to something that happened to me last summer (and unfortunately, something that came back again recently which I am going to the doc to resolve tomorrow).

Your sister’s symptoms are very similar to symptoms I had. I had a sigmoidoscopy (camera that just goes up the lowest part of the colon) and revealed that I had ulcerative proctitis- basically ulcers in my rectum area. This generated bleeding, pain, and mucus. I was proscribed a prescription enema, and I had to take one every night for a month. Some advice, based on my experience-

-Have her take care of this ASAP. Ignoring it won’t make the problem go away. One weekend the pain got so bad for me I was almost convinced I had appendicitis. Taking the medicine solved the problem.

-If she gets a sigmoidoscopy (like I did) its not bad at all. She’ll take two fleet enemas an hour before going in, then one right before the procedure. They didn’t sedate me or use anestesia, but I didn’t need it. The procedure itself is uncomfortable but was only mildly painful in some moments (mostly just pressure from the air they stick in you; not surprisingly you have an overwhelming urge to pass gas).

-If she has ulcers (again, like I did) they have lots of ways of treating it- pills, suppositories, and enemas. My doctor proscribed the enemas and as gross/inconvenient as it sounds, its really not so bad; I took one before bed and let it sit in me for the night. Whichever method you go, however, it is really important to take it as directed (not forget for chunks of time) because you really have to take it regularly to let that part of your body heal up. Personally I wouldn’t reccomend pills simply because you have to take so many of them (like 6-8 a day) its easy to forget and fall off the wagon.

Whatever the case she needs to go in and get checked out. A biopsy can confirm what is wrong.

4

Thanks for the input thus far. She is drinking the pre-procedure business and taking the laxatives today. She has not eaten anything all day and is understandably cranky.

I think I just wanted to know a little bit about what to expect. If I could trade places with her I would. She is so miserable right now. And she is the biggest frou-frou girlie girl in the world so this humbling experience has been brutal on her.

I am sure she will be fine though, and I told her…look at it this way…more than likely no doctor visit will ever phase you or be worse than what you have been through in the past week.

5

I had a colonoscopy just a few months ago.
I had no anaesthetic. They told me it would be much quicker that way.
So I drank the sodium citrate the night before and cleaned out the system, and had an enema the next morning. Then I went in, put on the robe, laid down on my side, and they stuck the probe in, eventually, as far as it would go.
It wasn’t painful, the pictures on the TV monitor were fascinating (I have proof positive that laxatives and enemas work very well), but it wasn’t terrifically pleasant, either. Anal stimulation is not among my sexual kinks, but if it was, I think things would have gone easier. I would have told medium-level secrets to be excused the procedure.

6

If your sister doesn’t have any petroleum jelly, go get her some for her bum. When you already have ‘issues’, the cleansing the day before can be very…irritating.

As for what you can expect - after the procedure, when your sister is in the recovery room, she’ll be letting a lot of air back out of her colon. It’s pretty noisy.

Finding out what’s wrong generally leads to treatment, which will (hopefully) make her feel better!

My credentials: I’ve had Crohn’s disease for about a decade, and have had lots of colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies. It’s the prep that’s awful - not the procedure, in my opinion.

7

I concur that the worst part is the day-before prep.

They will give her happy juice to knock her out. If they give her Versed (pronounced Vur-SEDD), she’ll actually be awake during the procedure, but she 100% will not remember a single thing that happened after they put the needle in.

One caveat about Versed: the effects last after the medical staff think it’s worn off, so they may try to brief her on her home-going procedures (“no driving, no operating heavy machinery”, etc.) which she very likely will not remember. I got home after my colonoscopy (for Crohn’s), went right to bed for several hours, got up, went into the dining room, and found a hospital gimme bag full of prescriptions and a discharge form, stating that I understood all discharge instructions, that I apparently signed. I mean, it was definitely my signature on the thing.

But all I actually remember is “before the procedure” and vaguely drifting in and out “after the procedure”. There were crackers and 7-up in there somewhere.

So I called the doctor’s office, “um, what am I supposed to do with these prescriptions”? and first they laughed, they actually said jovially, “Ha ha, we told ou when you were signing it that you wouldn’t remember it.”

And when I brought up the ethical issue of briefing a patient who they knew wouldn’t remember any of the briefing, they got all huffy and suggested I talk to the colonoscopy office. Which I did, and my issue didn’t get any further attention there, either. Versed is the drug of choice for colonoscopies, and it’s actually used in experiments on memory loss and learning. The fact that they’re giving discharge instructions and prescriptions to someone who probably won’t remember any of it seems not to concern them.

So the moral is, make damn sure you’re there when she comes out of it, because they may brief her and get her to sign stuff that she literally will not remember later.

As far as home aftercare, if she had Versed, she may be incredibly groggy even after they say she can go home. I barely remember the drive home.

She can eat normally. Soup is good, after starving all the previous day.

8

My spouse had his age-50 screening colonoscopy not long ago, and he agreed that the clean-out is the worst part, but it’s important to be aware that the more closely your sister follows the prep procedure, the better cleaned out she’ll be, and that’s what makes a successful scope. I transcribe a lot of these procedures, and when the prep is not complete, they often have to repeat the procedure.

Most of the physicians I transcribe for use both Versed and fentanyl. My mother always sleeps through the entire procedure, and she agrees with me that the colonoscopy is a lot less distressing than a bowel resection and a colostomy would be.

Finally, tell your sister not to be embarrassed. Her doctor and the staff have seen so many kiesters that they don’t think of them as an “icky” part of the body like so many laypeople do. It’s no more reason for humiliation than having her sprained ankle wrapped by a nurse.

Oh, and do your fraternal duty and buy her whatever she wants to eat or drink once she recovers!

9

How is she on getting her annual pelvic exams?

Look, none of us like getting poked and prodded by the doctors. But until they finally invent the Star Trek medical device scanner, we’re stuck. So she might as well be a grown-up about it.

I hope everything turns out treatable.

10

{Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. Things in this post are, or should be, common knowledge.}

MintJulep, you say this about your 29-year-old “little sister.” You don’t say how much older you are, and I won’t ask. However, if her test shows up so much as a polyp, go ask your doctor if you also should get a colonoscopy. Colon health problems often have family links, and her problem puts you in a high-risk group.

11

I had a colonoscopy earlier this month. As everyone else has said, the day before is the worst part, especially that colon cleansing stuff. Very soft toilet tissue and some A&D ointment are a must for me. My doctor did it as an outpatient procedure, but he insisted that I have a responsible adult with me in the waiting room and the recovery room. I took my husband, who is at least an adult, if not always responsible. Good thing I did, too, because apparently it took me a while to really be able to remember things. At any rate, I had NO pain or even discomfort before, during, or after the procedure, except for the problem of finding a good vein for the IV. I did have to expel a tremendous amount of gas. I have a set of photos which are completely unsuitable for Xmas letters, and no, I’m not going to post them.

I was nervous about the procedure too. Tell Lil Sis that everyone here says that it’s not painful. I wouldn’t do it for fun, but the only real objection I have to doing it again is drinking that colon cleanser.

I have IBS, at least, and the reason I had this done in the first place is because I’m tired of having all the digestive problems. I completely sympathize with your sister.

12

I’ve had a couple. I can’t even look at Gatorade any more, since the liquid I had to drink in large quantities the day before tasted like it. I disliked the input far more than the output.

I was out once, but awake the other times. I found being able to see movies of my insides fascinating. I have a copy of Through the Alimentary Canal With Gun and Camera from 1930. Little did they know the joke would one day come true!

13

I think this bears repeating. Since one of our parents has ulcerative colitis & diverticulitis, and the other chron’s disease, both little brother and I have been warned by doctors to take any potential eliminatory problems in ourselves seriously. So far we’re okay, but our dad was older than I am when he first developed symptoms of Chron’s (mid-thirties, which is unusual), so neither of us is out of the woods yet when it comes to worry about that stuff.

14

I haven’t had to had this yet, but I did have to send off a “sample” for testing.

I think the most embarrassing thing would be passing the gas later. I think I would ask the nurse to trust me and just let me go home. :o

15

I don’t think that they let you go home til you start passing gas. My recovery room nurse was waiting for me to start farting, and then encouraged me to pass as much as I could, as often as I could. Since I had a squeaky clean colon, I didn’t notice any odor. She did recommend that I not go out to eat as I had planned, as she said it would continue for some time. So I went home, gassed the cats (they’ve gassed ME often enough) and ordered my husband to cook me some brunch.

16

That’s exactly Fianceephone’s experience. Colon cancer runs in her family, so she got a colonoscopy a month or two ago. She was able to eat a late lunch the day before the procedure, then had to be there around 10am, and was kind of hungry when she got to the hospital.

The first part of the clean out wasn’t so bad: gentle laxatives and Gatorade diluted with water. But the last bottle of “Colon Super Blow Out Mix” made her feel really nauseated, so while sitting on the can she thought she was also going to upchuck.

The only difference is that she was asleep for the procedure itself. They gave her a sedative, she fell asleep, then woke up. I don’t think she had the option of watching it on the monitor. She was expecting a sore butt, but didn’t feel a thing. She said it was like nothing had ever happened.

Dr. Colonfixer said her insides were great and “See you in five years.”

Her mom drove her to and from the hospital. She didn’t mention anything about passing gas afterwards, but she may have been sparing me the details. (She still gets embarassed about stuff like that and told me to go spend the night at my buddy’s so I wouldn’t hear her in the bathroom during the colon blow out).