recent colonoscopy experience

Specialties Gastroenterology

Published

I had my first colonoscopy last Friday. I am 46 and my mother has had two surgeries for colon CA, so I felt pretty good about being so responsible. I went to every website I could find and researched all aspects of the procedure (patient teaching, videos of colonoscopies, personal experiences, etc.) I also spoke to several people who had gone through the procedure recently including my husband and my OB/GYN. I felt very well informed and more than educated about what would happen, what I would see on the screen, and how it would feel.

I was given Versed 2 mg and Demerol 50 mg IVP and the doctor waited until I assured him that I was groggy. Everythiing went just as I expected until just after insertion when air was instilled into my colon. I experienced some of the worst pain I have ever felt. The doctor immediately instructed the nurse to give me "25 more" which I assumed meant more Demerol. He continued the exam with me moaning in pain. I felt every mm. of my colon being blown up and navigated. I tried to watch the screen because I was really interested to see my own colon after viewing so many others in my preparation for the procedure. The pain was practically unbearable. Since then, I have had trouble concentrating and sleeping because I keep reliving this scene. I feel so duped and betrayed. All of the instructions and testimonials I read stated that there is little dicomfort and the Versed gives the patient amnesia to any discomfort that may occur. I have lamazed three children and had I known ahead of time, I would have gotten into a breathing pattern and anticipated the pain. I will know better next time. And as a nurse, I will return in 5 years because of my FH.

I guess what I want from you guys is some validation that indeed this does occur occasionally and that I'm not alone in this experience.

Thanks for your input. Sorry about the length of this, but I needed to vent!

Please ask for diprivan for sedation. It burns like wildfire going in but the instant it hits your out. Personal experience talking. I awoke and felt like I had taken the best nap of my life. Was not groggy or anything. No discomfort whatsoever and I had a polyp removed too. Now, if they can just figure out what to do with the nasty prep more people would have it done. I'm sorry for your suffering needlessly.

Diprivan should NOT burn when administered. IF it does it was administered improperly and not diluted enough. That burning can cause not just superficial thrombophlebitis but on rare occasion even an actual blood clot and possible pulmonary embolism. (It happened to me. No PE, but a blood clot in the axiallary vein as well as the STP due to improperly diluted and administered Toradol).

I had Diprivan once and you are right, it is WONDERFUL, out like a light and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in no time at all.

...

There is no "mandatory injection" given to relax the bowel, as scopes have been done without any meds at all. Do you happen to know the name of the med? ...

You're right, its not mandatory and its now thought probably doesn't really do much good, but most likely that drug was glucagon.

...Since this experience, I had been wondering about sigmoidoscopies done without sedation. Assuming my pain tolerance is as good as anyone else's, don't people find this to be extremely painful? Apparently, yes they do. ...

I've only had one sigmoidoscopy (thank goodness!) but it was not at all painful. It was done in 1976 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I was apprehensive as all get out! They were VERY considerate of the embarassment. I was shown how to position myself in a "chair bench" on my knees. Then the nurse left me alone in the room and the chair bench tilted until I was almost on my head and my bottom was up in the air!!! A gentle voice then explained each step as the scope was entered. The worst part of the whole episode was my terror of expelling the air into the doctor's face!!! I got thru that with the thought "he deserves it for putting me thru this humiliating experience!"

He mentioned if he introduced too much air and it got painful to be sure to tell him immediately. When done, he told me I could pull the gown around me and he exited the room before the chair bench was all the way down to normal position. The nurse then knocked and entered the room and showed me the way back to the dressing room. I never saw the doctor who did that scope. I never saw the nurse except when I was upright and fully gowned. I was given every bit as much privacy and avoidance of the humiliation and embarassment such a procedure causes as was possible and it was MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Kids,

From a patient perspective, it was the single most scary and uncomfortable experience I can remember having. They gave me something, but it wasn't enough. I was aware of everything and could feel everything. It was fine until the rounded the bend into the Traverse Colon, when the air opened it up, I flushed with a cold sweat and felt very nauseated. I told this to the nurse and doctor and they ignored me. It was like I wasn't there. Pressing on to the Cecum was nearly unbearable, but it didn't last long. I was able to deal with the rest of the procedure.

I was so glad it was over, I felt great immediately after the procedure, but the next day I felt depressed, upset and angry. I thought back to the procedure and I remembered the pain and that at one point I thought I might be having a heart attack or something, because all I had heard was what a breeze these things are. I was angry that I could be in the same room with three other human beings and be that terrified and no one seemed to care.

If you have a bad experience and you later feel a little traumatized, you're not crazy. This discussion thread really helped me when I found others had had my same experience. I really wish that I had been prepped that what happened to me was possible. I dealt with it anyway and it would have been nice to know that it was in the spectrum of possibilities.

Thanks for letting me rant.

The transverse colon can be difficult to traverse w/the scope as it is very flexible and can dip down a considerable way into the abdominal cavity and then the scope and colon must rise back up to the hepatic flexure to negotiate that curve. It is a common area for the vagus nerve to get ticked off causing nausea, etc. If that occurs during my scopes my gastro always adds a little phenergan to my IV "cocktail". Once around the hepatic flexure they can use the scope to suck the air AND the ascending colon up and it should be a piece of cake until the ileocecal valve which can be difficult to enter to reach the distal end of the terminal ileum.

The pain or discomfort encountered during colonoscopy is due, not so much to the air, but even more so to the flexible scope looping back on itself and stretching the colon, it is the stretching whether from too much air or the scope shaft looping back on itself that causes the pain or discomfort. The colon can and does stretch lengthwise w/no problems but stretching the "circumference" can be very uncomfortable or painful.

They were supposed to do a fluid push to raise your bp to sedate you, YES, they were to stop, PAIN is the 6th vital sign and pain is an unacceptable response to diagnosis and treatment. They were to stop, give you fluids, then meds then schedule you under anesthesia..... like you had with diprovan/propofol. THAT is what a good doc does and should do. I never would have gone back.... but at least NOW you know what works and NEVER settle for less. The nurse there to care for you needed to speak up.... that whole group IMHO is lacking.... twice is a crime.

I thought pain was the 5th vital sign????

Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

Nope mine was blissful because the guy I see uses Profanol (sp) any ways out like a light... Love it... did the same for the endoscopy and liver biopsy... Three very good sleeps LOL ;)

I've had 2 colonscopies. The first one was a piece of cake. I went to a very experienced doc. They started sedating me before he came in the room Once he began inserting the scope I moaned, he said something and that's all I remember until I woke up in recovery. The second scope was entirely different. I was admitted to the hospital with a suspected bowel obstruction. Before they took me to endoscopy, the floor nurse gave me Valium 10mg po. Once I got to endoscopy, the doc (who was new and I'm betting had done very few scopes prior to mine) told the nurse to give me a "little medicine" IV. Well, it took 4 nurses lying on top of me to hold me down for the procedure. I've never felt such pain. I was begging, screaming and crying for mercy the entire procedure. The sadistic SOB continued and I was not given anymore sedation. To this day, I remember every bit of it. Like the first poster, I had PTSS for months afterwards. And I was as mad at the nurses as I was the doctor, because being a nurse, I knew that they were supposed to be an advocate for me. As soon I they took me back to my room, I asked to speak to the charge nurse, who immediately called the DON. I told them what happened and they kept saying I must have dreamed it, that it couldn't have happened that way, yada, yada. I told them to go to Endoscopy and read the nurse's notes and if any of the nurses wrote that the patient tolerated the procedure well with no distress then those nurses were liars. About 3 weeks after leaving the hospital, the CEO of the hospital called me at home, apologized for what I went through and told me that I would not be charged for the colonoscopy. I'm sure he was afraid of a lawsuit. The doc who did the scope left town shortly afterwards. I have vowed to never have another scope, although I think most docs in my area now put their patients completely to sleep now before the procedure. I wouldn't do to my worst enemy what that doctor did to me.

CONGRATULATIONS, dbmc, and GOOD ON YOU for lodging the complaint! Thank you for doing so. I only wish more patients would do so when the encounter such an experience!!

How could I not report it? I didn't want anyone else to go through what I did! I'm not one to hold a grudge, but to this day I would love for those nurses to look me in the eye and tell me why they didn't stop that doctor...

Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

Its amazing how many replies are posted to this question- do all nurses have a colonoscopy? My doc wants me to be scoped every 2-3 years-I've had 4 so far. The posters that say the trick is to find a doc that isn't afraid of medicating are right- I don't remember a thing. It helps to tell your doc your expectations- for me "more narcotics less benzos" I dont want to forget the pain I don't want to feel it to start with. Besides narcotics are easier to reverse if they do knock me too far out. Interesting to note, in most of the world a colonoscopy is not a sedated proceedure. We are spoiled in the USA in that we "waste" all that money sedating patients for this proceedure. All I can I'g glad I live in a wasefull country.

... Interesting to note, in most of the world a colonoscopy is not a sedated proceedure. We are spoiled in the USA in that we "waste" all that money sedating patients for this proceedure. ...

It is not so much a matter of "pansy" Americans needing sedation and analgesia as it is a matter of US doctors not taking the TIME to properly do a colonoscopy. It takes considerably more time to use less air, to proceed slowly w/the scope and to stop when the scope shaft loops back on itself to pull it back and straighten it. I have my colonoscopies w/o sedation by choice. I do have a light dose of Demerol. But my gastro is caring and considerate of my wishes in this respect. It also takes her considerably longer to do my scopes because of no sedation. I enjoy watching the monitor and REMEMBERING what I saw. "Our" problem area is the transverse colon, I never have even discomfort at the sigmoid colon or the splenic flexure. Due some Crohn's disease scarring the ileocecal valve can be a bit of a challenge but no more than discomfort.

Gastrointest Endosc. 1996 Feb;43(2 Pt 1):124-6.

Why is colonoscopy more difficult in women?

Saunders BP, Fukumoto M, Halligan S, Jobling C, Moussa ME, Bartram CI, Williams CB.

Department of Endoscopy, St. Mark's Hospital, London, England.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=8635705&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Patient pain during colonoscopy: an analysis using real-time magnetic endoscope imaging.Shah SG, Brooker JC, Thapar C, Williams CB, Saunders BP.

Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy, St. Mark's Hospital, Harrow, London, United Kingdom.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12048623&dopt=AbstractPlus

Colonoscopy How To

http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/vol47_2/4720010.html

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