comfort pt with tortuous sigmoid colon

[ohmeowzer RN, RN]

i had a pt this weekend that i could not get comfertable. She was a 48 year old female with tortuous sigmoid colon ( from CT scan). to be honest i have never heard of this before , but she looked like she was in alot of pain. I gave her a heating pad ( k pad) and pain med , but she still complained of bloating ( left side only ) and looked so uncomfertable... she a ct scan and it showed no divertculi but will have a colonscopy tommrow. she was on a low residue diet... what else could i have done for her? also what is a tortuous sigmoid ? thank you all in advance.. this was a new dx for her ..

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

tortuous colon is kind of a scary way of saying that someone's colon is longer, redunant and more twisted than normal. as far as it causing pain, most people don't even know they have it--it's genetic, can cause IBS with constipation especially, and made worse by scar tissue or adhesions (and women have awful colons because of pregnancy and c-sections).... it usually does not require treatment unless it is causing a problem.

as far as with colonoscopy, it can be incredibly difficult to get around their colon and incredibly painful for the patient because it requires more pressure to prevent looping of the scope.

not sure about tx for pain, tho. i've never actually heard of someone being in pain from just having a tortuous colon unless they are impacted.

[ohmeowzer RN, RN]

thank you flight nurse for explaining it to me... i wonder why they are doing a colonscopy on her ? she was in in alot of pain.. maybe she needed a enema?? very interesting... thank you very much !!

[Baloney Amputation, BSN, LPN, RN]

I have a tortuous colon. It is not painful unless my colon is full and dilated, which can happen easily when not treated, or there is a rectal tear. Normal laxatives that I've tried have little effect on me (except mag citrate does help, and I don't want to drink that routinely). However, MiraLAX is the greatest thing on earth that I've found and has "cured" me. The most annoying and painful thing is the chronic constipation, which is only compounded in annoyance by the misguided advice to simply "eat more fiber and drink more water and do more exercise." This advice is pretty meaningless without some extra help for a colon that is longer and loopier than the average bear.