What the heck … I got some time to kill.
Mine got cancelled, and I’ve been hesitating on rescheduling, so tell me…what was the worst part? What kind of prep stuff did you have to do? Could you drive yourself home, or did you need someone with you? How long did it take? Was is uncomfortable?
No questions - just sympathy. I had gastroscopy and colonoscopy exactly a week ago :eek: Not the best experience on my life but not the worst either.
**kittenblue ** - they definitely told me not to drive afterwards.
The worst part was the prep. They had me take a phosphate saline solution which runs through you like it’s trying to escape a Nazi prison camp. Use baby wipes to clean yourself; you’ll go a LOT and too much toilet paper will rub you raw. They require you to have someone drive you home because, if they give you the same sedative that they gave me, you’ll be completely out of it. I seriously don’t remember a thing from the time the sedative was given until I got home. It’s a complete blank. The procedure itself only took about twenty minutes but I was out for the whole thing and didn’t feel a thing.
So how long after before you were totally fine and could work? Or is this something that requires taking a whole day off?
I must be rare, I remember the procedure both times I had it. Laid on my side and watched the whole thing. The last time I saw him lasso a polyp and cut it off, then drop it and had to go looking for it. I remember seeing the camera turn the corner from descending colon to transverse, etc, and finally coming up to the end of the road. Didn’t bother me at all. The worst part is the prep and going without food for a day, the best part is the great quantity of smell-less farts that the procedure makes you have.
I’m fine now. It was done at noon yesterday and I was woozy for the rest of the day, so you really need to take the whole day off for the medication to wear off. Two days off is even better, especially if you have any kind of job that requires physical labor.
I picked my dad up after his. On the way back we had a mini work crisis (not a crisis so to speak, but we suddenly got REALLY busy…we work together), so instead of taking him home, I took him back to work and he finished out the day no problem. Wheather or not he remembers working, I don’t know.
Ask the guy who just had a colonsocopy
Heh.
Isn’t that amazing? There wasn’t anything about that procedure I wanted to participate in or remember so I cautioned the doctor beforehand that knockout drugs had little effect on me and, therefore, he ought to use A LOT.
When he started administering them, he asked me to start counting back from a hundred and I fought to stay conscious as hard as possible so he’d give me a bunch. Ninety nine, ninety eight… I got all the way to ninety. He said “nurse, adjust his dosage” and told me to start again. Ninety nine, sixtytwothirtieeee…
No, I don’t remember squat.
That’s what I worry about. This would have been the perfect time for the Illuminati to come in and put in the implants. 
So you’re in Rhode Island. Did you go to that place on Dudley where they tell the Medicaid patients that the doctors own the building and that there are cheaper places they can go if they want - after they’ve prepped all night they tell them this.
Also, was there a lot of farting in the recovery room?
Nope … I was set up by my own doctor at a place in East Greenwich. As for the recovery room … I only remember being in there beforehand, and it was too early for there to be any serious farting from anyone coming out. I really didn’t have that much gas myself, unless I expelled a lot while I was sleeping last night.
So, does the camera love you?
If it didn’t before, it does now!
Yes, but how does your colon compare to Katie Couric’s?
I’ve had a sigmoidoscopy*.
*I realise this is a hijack, but where else can I say this?!
I hate to tell you, you may not remember it, but I bet you had a lot of gas. They pump you up with air!
The memory thing is the best part of being with someone who just had a colonoscopy. My husband and I went out to lunch after his last one (where he told me about the doctors owning the building, etc. - he’s not on Medicare, he just overheard the conversation - about five times, one telling right after the other). He “came to” halfway through a lobster roll at the Wharf Tavern and wanted to know how we ended up all the way out in Warren. And who was paying for lobster.
It is rare, but I was the same way. Watched it on the monitor and remember seeing how the “landscape” changed as they viewed various portions, and I remember them doubling back to double-check the area that was suspect ( the reason I had the procedure, happily there was nothing untoward). Was very high and thought it was cool, but I really didn’t have a sense of how much time it took.
My prep was different from the one I’ve heard described most and somewhat easier. You actually got a small breakfast the day before consisting of specific foods (a piece of dry toast, an egg and a can of Ensure)…then the jello/broth routine. At dinner time I got 4 Ducolax pills and then drank a half gallon of Gatorade mixed with a big jar of Miralax. Less volume of liquid than most prep routines and it didn’t taste that bad. TYhe biggest mistake I made was choosing Lemonade (not lemon-lime) flavor Gatorade…it was too acidic and I had nothing in the stomach to absorb the acid. The diarrhea was not as annoying as I expected, I’ve had much worse with stomach flu.
The evacuation process isn’t a picnic, but it’s not what I’d call “horrible.” The procedure is painless and the “count back from 100” part is positively delicious.
Seriously, I’d rather have a colonoscopy than get my teeth cleaned. Hands down.
Isn’t that an awfully circuitous route to get to your teeth?