I had mine 2 years ago. The prep had to be an all time hilite in my life. I remember it like it was yesterday. Sludge and undigested discharge shooting out of my rear-end like Moby Dick's blow hole. There's still places on the ceiling I can't reach to clean. I had to drink a full gallon of that prep. A full friggin' gallon within 4 hours. I didn't go to bed all night. Then, when I get to the hospital looking like a dishrag after a hard day's washing, the nurse says, "Oh, Dear. You mean the pharmacist didn't give you the 1/2 gallon prep treatment? He should have given you the 1/2 gallon prep instead." There's a front row seat in Hell for that pharmacist I tell ya.
Prep was diffinitely the worse part....the procedure was a piece of cake.....oppps bad metaphor.... I was sedated, but watched the screen....no pain at all....the show on the screen wasn't much worse than most TV shows these days.... But then I kept kind of dozing...maybe it was better..... But there is no question having it done is tooo important....Saved my life, no joke....And if you don't put them off like I did, most potential problems can be taken care of with a simple polyp being removed during the procedure.
Had one recently, under sedation. The prep was miserable, but I have no memory of the procedure at all. I do remember that I woke up with my stuffed hippo, Waldo tucked under my arm.
I provided sedation for these for several years. Kinda fun actually - people say some funny stuff under sedation. My favorite though was one little 80 year old lady after the procedure. I always told people that there would be residual gas in the bowel when we were done, and just let it out so as to reduce any cramping. Nobody had ever told her it was ok to fart before, and she gave a little grin and let out a window-rattling reverberating multi-tonal tuba toot that would make any teenage boy awful proud!
Family history (colon cancer) has dictated that I get one of these things every few years. For my first one I was "awake". I put that in quotes because I was not asleep, but I had enough medication that I didn't care about what they were doing. I even got to watch on a monitor, which is very strange indeed. I was pretty "stoned" and found myself laughing at the 'TV Show' I was watching. Not sure what was funny about it. Since then, I've always been complete out.
First one this year. I honestly didn't think the prep was that bad and was sedated for the procedure. I hate recovery time as I really wasn't fully myself again for 36 hours or so. Sure, I was alert and fully functional, but far from 100% mentally. Guess I don't like my body tampered with.
Is this a common procedure for the adult population in North America? I've never heard about it being performed as a (routine) procedure in my neck of the woods. Granted I am "only" 38 and lack the wisdom and experience of my elders, but I guess I would know more about it if it was performed on a regular basis as part of a maintenance check up.
It's usually recommended here for people at 50 years of age to have a colonoscopy every few years. If there is a history of colon cancer in the family they may advise you to start even sooner than 50.
Probably a wise precaution, too bad we do not take the same precautions in Norway. I guess you need to be diagnosed with something or like mentioned above you have colon cancer running in the family.
I've never had one, but many family members have. They all agree that the prep is the worst part...mind you they have all been sedated during it.
When I had mine last year, had appendectomy month before and was just back eating solid foods and had to go back to liquid. Man I. hate liquid diet. . At least all polyps removed were benign.
Not had a camera in that end, but once had to have an endoscopy into my bronchi. Thanks to the dope, I was able to grab hold of the trolley and brace myself for the bad bits, rather than trying to curl up in a ball and rip the scope out. Not the most pleasant experience in the world.
They won't let me use the stuff in my personal stash. Fascists! Truthfully, I don't respond well to sedation. Possible allergy that leads to a rather prolonged bout of short term memory loss.
