Can a patient refuse sedation?

I have to say that i have had many different investigations, flex sig and colonoscopy included and nothing prepared me for the pain that came with them....esp the flex sig which was w/o sedation. I have since been told if you have inflammation you have more chance of being in pain - which I have:-(
I could not force myself to go thru that again without proper meds. I'm in awe of anyone that can tolerate this procedure w/o anything to dampen the pain.

I guess people have to decide for themselves what they want to do. I was just commenting that for myself, having had both upper and lower, both were easy with a little sedation. I watched my lower scope on the screen and that was neat but I was totally asleep for the upper endo. No ill effects. I guess I am lucky that I have never had any kind of negative response to any type of sedative medication and my GI doc uses pediatric size scopes.

Well, now, there is a difference between having no sedation and having no analgesia! I have nothing for my upper endoscopies but we do use some demerol for the colonoscopy as we tend to have some difficulties w/my transverse colon just before the hepatic flexure that can get uncomfortable. Just enough demerol to take the edge off and keep the discomfort bearable whilst "we" work "our" way past that point. And it can get uncomfortable at the ileocecal valve as well so I'm NOT a masochist! I just don't want to be sedated so that I can't watch the monitor and remember what I saw!!!

ChronieToo-I couldn't agree with you more. Sedation and analgesia are often used interchangeably, but in fact many people have negative experiences with sedation (especially Versed), but they can have a comfortable procedure with just an analgesic (fentanyl).