This makes me think of Wile E. Coyote and the bottle of earthquake pills.
Well, for the other opinion, i felt groggy for a couple of days after my first endoscopy (with fentanyl and midozalam), and i did a couple awake (including a colonoscopy) and the last time i had propofol. I woke up believing I’d been violated and that I’d nearly died. My doctors assured me everything went fine, but i had PTSD and woke up in the middle of the night sweating for a couple of weeks, and couldn’t concentrate at work, or really, anything. I finally got the anesthesiologist to walk me through the entire timeline of the procedure, which somehow reassured my hind brain. But I’m terrified of being sedated, now.
(It was an upper endoscopy, which is more painful than a colonoscopy, fwiw, and leaves you with a sore throat.)
I’ve done a few upper endoscopies and my one colonoscopy without sedation. The upper is really unpleasant. The colonoscopy is fine. It feels uncomfortable and crampy as they thread the tube up your colon, but it’s not nearly as uncomfortable as the parts of labor where they think it’s too soon for anesthesia. Hell, it’s MUCH less uncomfortable than getting an IUD, for which they don’t use sedation. (Yeah, i do think there’s a sex bias in pain management.)
I didn’t find the actual exam, which was done as they slowly removed the tube, uncomfortable at all, and i enjoyed watching. And the benefits of skipping sedation are that you can drive yourself home, and there’s much less risk of forgetting what the doctor told you.
Without sedation, there’s basically no recovery at all from a colonoscopy. You clean up and get dressed, and you’re good to go. I drove to a friend’s house and played board games.
I had an early morning colonoscopy. My prep was a one-shot gallon of nasty fluid. I started drinking it in the evening, when my family went out after their supper. I was done by the time they came home, and slept without interruption. I had one more tiny bit of diarrhea when i got up, drove to the hospital, and my insides were clean as a whistle. (Remember, i watched.) The whole prep couldn’t have taken more than four hours. I was passing clear fluid by the end. I suspect that’s the key.
I present Exhibit A.
Admitting to not having read the whole thread, if you’re will to pay out of pocket, you can avoid the nasty huge gallons of “lemon\lime” poop juice and ask for Sutabs. Spendy but your doctor may have, and should have coupons that take the price down to $40. You have to take 24 pills, but to be, it’s better than standing puking at the sink all night.
I had three in my twenties. The prep was a nightmare for me. I had intense nausea. I do remember the last time I had one, I was conscious for a moment and said, “Owww” and they put me out again. I came out of anaesthesia giggling like a loon. The nurses were amused.
You let them give you another one?! Holy cow.
Yeah… well… I remember Grandfather Napier going through colon cancer in the early 1960s, and it didn’t seem nice. Colostomy, hospital stays, and he still died pretty quickly. I’m at elevated risk, they tell me, and this is one of those cancers it is really worth knowing about early. And I’m sure the treatment has improved since then, even if it is still a hard journey with no guarantees. So… bottoms up!
Just had my first colonoscopy a few months ago. It was pretty uneventful. Not much to add, except a little bit about what happens afterwards.
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During the procedure they apparently inflate your colon, so there would be some residual air in there which will work its way out in the normal way.
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My body did not “agree” with the sedative. It worked OK, but I felt…hungover? For about a day after the procedure. As if I had drank too much of the kind of drink that gives you a bad feeling the next day.
I think I said this above – you can get a colonoscopy without sedation. It’s uncomfortable and crampy, but not really painful. (ymmv. mine was fine.) I believe that no sedation is the standard in the EU.
It has the virtues of being cheaper, a little safer (you can say “ouch” if they are pushing too hard somewhere, and no risk of sedation-related problems) much faster because there’s no recovery time, and you can drive yourself home. You can also go to work or sign legal papers later that day, should you want to.
Just got back from my first colonoscopy. For those interested, here’s how it went. I also decided to track my weight all the way through, just out of curiosity (so backfilled those in my comments below; note that my scale only provides weight in increments of 0.5 lbs.)
(173.5 lbs) Yesterday, I woke up and had my usual black coffee. Since I don’t eat breakfast, it was a pretty normal day until about 2pm. This is when I went out to pick up some water and Desitin (based on the recommendation earlier in this thread). Unfortunately I had to pass a bunch of restaurants, and my mind was somehow convinced that I was going to be eating in each one as I drove past them. My heart was broken each time. Tried to drink ginger ale, but my body was not going to be fooled. It was hunger pangs and growls all the way until 5pm, which is when the prep would begin.
(171.5) At 5pm, I had to take 12 Sutab pills over 20 minutes, sipping 16 oz. of water through the process. At 6:20, or one hour after the last pill, I had to drink another 16 oz. of water over 30 minutes. At 7:20, another 16 oz. until 7:50. At some point in the 2nd water phase, I began my trips to the bathroom. (171.5 lbs still, so I figured out that the water was just essentially replenishing the weight I was losing)
(171.5) At 9pm, I had to repeat the exact same process, ending at 11:50. (Still 171.5). Since the facility-provided car service was scheduled to pick me up at 6:45 am, I tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately, my hunger was at a level it hadn’t ever been in my 5 decades of existence. Sleep was hard, and I had thoughts of calling the whole thing off and heading to White Castle. Somehow I made it, and even got a couple hours of shuteye. I think I only had to make 2 more trips to the bathroom during the night, but I’d say I went a total of 20 times. And thanks for the Desitin recommendation!
Today, I woke up at 5:45, took my shower and then weighed myself. 169.0. Okay, so a 4.5 lbs. weight loss versus normal. Medical transport picked me up right on time. Entered the Endoscopy place at 6:15. I then sat for 30 minutes doing nothing, watching others get processed, as this endoscopy center is basically an assembly line of colonoscopy patients. Paperwork and Q&A from 6:45 to 7:00. Back to the waiting area until 7:15, when they called me in. There were lines of beds separated by curtains, some with medical staff and patients, until the nurse led me to mine. There was more Q&A, many of the same that I had answered earlier. The question that I answered that made the nurse smile was my answer to “when was the last time you ate or drank anything?”. I said “the last of the water that I drank at 11:50pm last night” She said that was the right answer, and maybe 10% of the people get it right. Sure enough, while waiting, the same question was asked to both of my new neighbors, and their answers were 9pm last night and 6am this morning, respectively. The 6am guy was appropriately scolded. The anesthesiologist paid me a visit, asked me some questions, made some jokes (do all anesthesiologists do this?), and then seemed particularly interested in my teeth and possible loose items in my mouth. I assured him that there was no risk of that, but he still checked.
Once I was in the procedure room, the anesthesiologist again asked if I had anything in my mouth and then the nurse asked again about the possibility of loose items (fillings, dentures, etc.). Still no. Finally the GI doc comes in and says hello. Reminds me of what she is going to check for, etc. Finally anesthesiologist tells me I’ll be out in 10 seconds. 3 seconds go by, nothing. Another 3 seconds, nothing. Finally I feel some tingling and good night.
I wake up and the nurse brings me apple juice and graham crackers. I swallow these and ask for more. She brings me another round and again I chow down. She asks if I want more, but I decline.
Doc comes back in and tells me she didn’t find any polyps, but took a couple of “just in case” biopsies. If those come back clean, I may be good for 10 years. Once home, I weighed myself and was up to 169.5, I guess from the juice and cookies. I decided to eat light and just had a banana and yogurt drink.
Congratulations!
It seems likely that this is all water loss. You didn’t mention drinking anything in addition to the prescribed amounts. I’m curious if you didn’t drink anything other than what you mentioned, and also if you were told not to, or just not specifically told to? My instructions say to drink lots the whole day prior, and specifically to drink things with protein, like clear broth, to help with hunger.
I’ve had to postpone my colonoscopy twice now, once because I had a covid breakthrough infection and once for scheduling reasons, and I really want to get it over with now. Rescheduled for February now, so I get to dread it for a while longer…
They did give me a very limited list of things I could eat, including 99% fat free chicken broth, colorless jello and popsicles. My problem was that I left my house at 2pm and had to begin the prep at 5pm. I had 2 work meetings from 3-5pm, so really had no time. So you’re right; I probably suffered a bit more than I should have. I think I assumed that not eating all day wouldn’t be an issue, so didn’t prepare enough in advance by buying those items.
Oh, I wasn’t intending to point out fault, I was just curious if you had different instructions. I have a liquid prep rather than pills, so it’s already going to be slightly different.
Right, so my instructions were:
2 days prior: no beans, corn, salad or uncooked vegetables
1 day prior: drink only non-alcoholic liquids that you can read a newspaper through, black coffee with or without sugar, plus jello (but not red, orange, or purple), popsicles and 99% fat-free chicken broth. Absolutely nothing to be consumed after midnight.
congrats!
I fast every year for yom kippur. So I was mostly astonished at how not-hungry I was when I could drink as much sugar-water (ginger-ale) and eat as much lime jello as I wanted. Lime happens to be my favorite flavor, and it was approved as not red. 
So I had prepped by making myself a lot of lime jello, and didn’t finish it.
That was my first. My second will be this coming July. I need to do an upper endoscopy at the same time, and I’m kind of dreading that part. I expect the colonoscopy to be fine.
oh wow, they told me not to eat anything with fiber for 5 days. THAT was unpleasant.
I guess every GI doc has their preferences. On my list of instructions, they specifically mentioned NOT to follow the instructions in the Sutab box, and to follow the doctor’s (which were provided on a photocopied page with some blacked out lines).
Yeah, I was specifically allowed to eat red Jello and drink cola, for example.
(Since I started this apparently overdone thread, I should mention that mine went pretty well. Polyp removed that wasn’t cancerous, so I’m good for the next ten years. As expected, the hard part was all the consuming of fluids beforehand, though I think the earlier Crystal Light lemonade suggestion was very helpful with the prep mix itself. First sedation experience went as folks said: conscious one minute, the next I’m in the post-procedure room.)
For me the roughest part was the prep, of course you will be nervous waiting for the scoping but the next thing you know you wake up & it over.
I must have still been under the influence of the anesthesia when I wrote my summary, but for the record, each of the times I mentioned after I reached the facility are exactly 1 hour off (early). I was picked up at 6:45 am and arrived at the facility around 7:15. So add an hour to each of the times thereafter. Amazing that I didn’t notice this when I was drafting. Powerful drugs, I guess.