Frightened to death of having a colonoscopy

No problems when I used to have colonoscopies ....BUT as soon as I go into an MRI machine, I go into total panic. The first time this happened is when I discovered how very claustrophobic I am.
Was given all sorts of breathing exercises, etc. But panic continued, starting as soon as the machine starte to move move me.
I even looked up, at one time, how much it would cost to go private for this test, in the more open machines, but could I afford this.
Then one time, GP gave me Diazepam tablet. Had to attend appointment an hour early to take it there, but it was absolutely wonderful!!! Got through the whole scan without any problems. Mind you it did effect me for the rest of that day. But, at least with that little tablet I know I can actually have these important scans.

Might be a bit late, but a friend of mine did recently have similar issues and as a result they refused to attempt the procedure under midazolam/fentanyl again so they got it done under Propofol - which they said was a breeze. They too (as it turned out) needed some large polyps removed which surely was made easier as they were totally out of it. They said they would always request Propofol going forward (I think they will have to have every 3 years now). The NHS does offer this but it requires more planning and waiting. The GP's hands are tied as offering a reasonable dose of Diazepam unsupervised isn't advised by NICE these days.

I had a colonoscopy a few years ago. I had 1 mil of sedation and 1 mil of pain relief and didnt feel anything but stayed awake. The nurse held my hand as I was very nervous. Staff were lovely to me.

I have contributed to this post previously. Briefly, I was due to have a colonoscopy and did all the preparation but they couldn't do it as my blood pressure was too high.

I am now on BP medication and had a CT colonography at the end of May. It was a bit uncomfortable but OK. I don't have any other medical conditions.

I have just seen the hospital doctor for my results. I have three polys which need to be removed. I will have to have a colonoscopy in order to do this.

I mentioned to the doctor about my blood pressure and the white coat syndrome. When I take my BP at home it is OK. The minute I walk into a medical situation it goes up. He advised me to speak to my GP and ask him to give me a tranquiliser to take prior to my appointment to calm me down.

I have decided to have sedation this time but I am worried as I had a bad reaction to general anaesthetic about 10 years ago and ended up in intensive care because of this.

I am worried that a tranquiliser will react badly with the sedation.

Has anyone else been in this position with the colonoscopy, anxiety, blood pressure, bad reactions etc?

I haven't received an appointment yet but am stressing out already.

Thanks in advance.

Hi - has anyone received propofol sedation rather than the midazolam/fentanyl version that seems standard? My partner and colleagues didn't find the later very effective, especially if you were anxious - which I am! I don't want to do this at all - so looking for things to make it easier (full disclosure, I've had several meetings with GP, nurse practitioner, consultant that all seem to think I just need reassurance it will work - but that's not enough for me to risk it - plus I have stockpiled all sorts of things over the years such as diazepam, gen 1 antihistamines, beta blockers that I could use to help me self medicate to actually get to the appointment because the small diazepam from the GP didn't do anything). The referral was a year ago and my partner wants to know my plan!

No I’m not a smoker. I’m evidently just prone to dry socket as I got one last time I had a wisdom tooth out but I don’t remember it being as painful as this time. It really is complete agony which has been going on now for almost three weeks. Thanks for your sympathy, much appreciated.

Dollymixtures

Sorry that I haven’t been back to report but actually I’ve had such a lot of pain and discomfort from my tooth extraction (dry socket) that I’ve not been on here. As you all say, the actual colonoscopy was nothing. The week of prep first was the worse, it seemed endless and inconvenient. The colposcopist was a bit brusque and obviously didn’t want to do the banding. He didn’t talk much or comment to put me at my ease, the nurse was lovely though. I couldn’t definitely feel sedated but just laid watching it all going on quietly.

I didn’t need anything removing although he told the nurse that there was a polyp in my appendix but he didn’t want to touch it which seemed a bit odd. Anyway the upshot was that he wouldn’t do the banding (I just think he couldn’t be bothered). I do have some inflammation apparently which he’s given me suppositories to use for a month and if I’m still bleeding, then I have to go through getting referred for the banding again! I won’t have to do the full prep though, ‘just’ an enema! Meanwhile I’m trying to make damned sure that I keep regular. It’s my goal every day now! Thanks for your good wishes, you’re all so lovely.

Are you a smoker Dollymixtures? That is often the reason why you get a painful dry socket. Over 20 years ago I was a smoker and had a dry socket. It was absolute agony!! Poor you.

My dh had one and said it was really okay. Someone once said fear itself is the worse thing that can happen

Sorry that I haven’t been back to report but actually I’ve had such a lot of pain and discomfort from my tooth extraction (dry socket) that I’ve not been on here. As you all say, the actual colonoscopy was nothing. The week of prep first was the worse, it seemed endless and inconvenient. The colposcopist was a bit brusque and obviously didn’t want to do the banding. He didn’t talk much or comment to put me at my ease, the nurse was lovely though. I couldn’t definitely feel sedated but just laid watching it all going on quietly.

I didn’t need anything removing although he told the nurse that there was a polyp in my appendix but he didn’t want to touch it which seemed a bit odd. Anyway the upshot was that he wouldn’t do the banding (I just think he couldn’t be bothered). I do have some inflammation apparently which he’s given me suppositories to use for a month and if I’m still bleeding, then I have to go through getting referred for the banding again! I won’t have to do the full prep though, ‘just’ an enema! Meanwhile I’m trying to make damned sure that I keep regular. It’s my goal every day now! Thanks for your good wishes, you’re all so lovely.

If your BP is high our surgery suggest that you take your BP at home every morning and evening for 7 days ( there’s a chart online) I fill it in and send it off to them.
It usually averages out that I have raised BP, high enough for a low dose pill.
I also have White Coat Syndrome so it’s always very high in the Surgery, much higher than when taken at home.

Thanks everyone who responded to my post.

In hindsight, the nurse who took my blood pressure didn't do a great job. I have since read that you need to be calm, still and not talk. I was none of these things. I was talking whilst he did it and moving about. I knew it was going to be high because I was stressed and have the white collar syndrome. I didn't expect it to be so high though.

The hospital rang me the day after to make another appointment. We agreed that I should get my blood pressure sorted out first. I also asked if I could have a CT scan instead. I know that I will have to do the bowel cleansing for this. She said that she would check with the consultant. She also said that if they found something at the CT scan I would have to have a colonoscopy anyway. I am hoping that it is my haemorrhoids that have caused a positive FIT test. I have no other symptoms.

I went to see the nurse at the GP surgery yesterday. My BP was still high. She didn't say what it was. I asked her not to tell me. I didn't really want to know as it would cause me more stress.

I have to go back on Thursday to have it checked again. In the meantime I have ordered a home BP monitoring machine. I have been booked to have a 24 monitor in a couple of weeks. I can't have it any sooner as it is booked out.

I had a 24 monitor about six years ago. I saw my GP for something else and they took my blood pressure and it was high. I had it checked over a few weeks and it was still high because of the WCS. Not as high as now though. The 24 monitor came back OK.

In the meantime, I am trying to overall my diet and have cut out alcohol completely. It was quite normal for me and my DH to share a bottle of wine every night with our evening meal. I also need to do more exercise. I don't have a bad diet but I am overweight by about 3 stone. I think that is probably due to portion size plus the empty calories in wine.

I feel a bit better today. I have had constant headaches since Saturday morning but they have gone now.

I had a colonoscopy last year which was all fine thankfully. My son took me there and back
I have to have another one and this time have no one to take or collect me. will have to get a taxi , I'm worried about that .

I am sure that I posted on this thread very early on. I wrote about my 7 previous experiences with the procedure.

I had a phone call last Friday to book my check up colonoscopy, I was hoping that they might have forgotten about it! This will be number 8.
Anyway it is next Monday morning, so I will be on the loo for quite a lot of the day on Sunday.

Midazolam is used at my local hospital for sedation for these procedures, Galton, and it is given when on the trolley just before turning on your side. I have not had Propofol - it is mostly used for rapid induction anaesthesia in my experience, but a very small dose could be used for sedation too I guess.

I will just have Entonox this time as I am without an escort to and from.

The prep was the worst part for me, procedure was nothing to be scared of didn’t tale long at all no sedation for me

One time I went I had to wait for over an hour to let my BP get down. to normal, maybe if they had given you more time you could have had it done. If I had had a CT scan I would have had to have a colonoscopy as I had to have bits removed.

I agree with Franbern.

Either procedure is going to require bowel cleansing to ensure that the colon and rectum are empty.

A CT scan may pick up things that mean you have to have a colonoscopy anyway e.g. polyps that an endoscopist would remove at the time.

Note that a side effect of the bowel cleanser Moviprep is temporarily increased BP.

I was scared stiff and yet it was ok. The staff were lovely.

PinkCosmos a MRI would show everything going on in side. You just have to beable to be in a tunnel for a while. It is scary I have had many . But I do breathing exercises and they help me get through it. Last one I had was just over 90 mins on my heart . It's just an idea as I would choose the tunnel over a colonoscopy any day.

Blood pressure can be controlled with medication. May take a little while to get the correct dosage of drugs for you, but once it is sorted out, takes away all the concern, and eventually even white coat syndrome.
It as at a pre-op consultation over twenty years ago, that my very high BP was detected. Yes, I do occasionally still check it at home (easy to use machine), but it remains about the same whether I do it at home, or at GP's and I can remain quite calm about it.

Do not think a CT scan will pick up the same sort of things as are detected by a colonoscopy - so go to your GP and start on BP medication, get that underway and then arrange an appointment for a further colonoscopy

Update from my colonoscopy appointment on Saturday.

I did all the prep. Got to the hospital and had my blood pressure taken and it was too high so they said I couldn't have the colonoscopy.

It was very high but I had stressed myself out massively before I got to the hospital. I have White Coat Syndrome at the best of times. When I got there I had a really bad headache and felt sick as I think I drank the last dose of bowel clearing potion too fast.

I have now asked if I can have a CT scan instead.

I am still feeling stressed as I am now stressing about having high blood pressure.

I have been to see the nurse at my GP's today. I was stressed whilst I was there - WCS again. It was still high.

I have to go back later this week for another bp test. I have ordered a blood pressure machine from Amazon but I am stressing about using that and my blood pressure still being high.

I feel like I am going around vicious cycle and making everything worse.

Oh , right no wonder mine didnt work because they gave me mine on the table as she was starting the procedure. It never did kick in though. Reading all the posts it has made me realise that I was just plain unlucky and if needed next time I will ask for the sedation and ask for it to be given correctly. I just hope our Dolly Mixtures is ok.

Due to history of bowel cancer in immediate family I had to have regular screening every three years until I was old enough to have regular FIT test. I was given a little sedation but I watched procedure on the screen, I can’t say I felt anything really apart from a little pushing when they found I had a loop in my colon. I have a very slow metabolism so with me the jollup I had to take before procedure took 8 hours to work instead of the one or two stated!!

May be I have missed the reply (nothing unusual there) but how did Dollymixters get on , I have been thinking of her.

Can I add afterwards if possible try and follow a high fibre diet if you do have haemorrhoids, it makes life a lot easier and the haemorrhoids less painful. Hopefully you can get them fixed.

Thanks Jasudow. I am feeling much more confident now about just having gas and air or nothing at all.

I do like watching medical programmes but I am not sure about watching my own insides . I will see how I feel on the day!

The fact that there is no real recovery time (as with sedation) also appeals to me. You also have to have someone with you for 12 hours after sedation. Given that I have had a bad reaction in the past, I am not prepared to risk having sedation unnecessarily

My SIL had sedation and said she barely remembered the procedure even though she doesn't recall being asleep.