Colonoscopies

I have had about 9 of these. You won’t feel anything, especially if you get sedation. You will be awake and able to converse etc, watch the tv screen (fascinating) and they give you the result immediately.

You don’t need recovery time, as it’s not an anaesthetic though you may get offered a cup of tea/ coffee and a biscuit as you will be hungry. Really no need to worry.

Its very tiny. Not a box Brownie!!

I dont know how big a paediatric one would be. Minute I should think.

I had a sigmoidoscopy with no sedation and there was only a short period of a few seconds when it was painful. The cup of tea afterwards and biscuits were the best I have ever had. Only equalled by the shepherds pie I had after the birth of my DC1.
Sedation is more usual with a colonoscopy as it goes further rou nd tge 2nd bend of the colon. With sedation I am assured you feel nothing and often you dont even realise its over.

If it's a child having this then they always use a GA for them.

My youngest has had many colonoscopies over the years due to have crohns disease and was always give a GA.

My husband has had several, without sedation and says it doesn't hurt.
I've had just one, with sedation, and it was agony, I had to ask them to stop and they were very cross with me (understandably).
My husband is a big man 6ft 2in and weighs 16 stone, I am 4ft 10 and weigh 6stone 8lb. I wondered whether they used the same size instruments for us both.
I'm not especially sensitive to pain (I have regular injections into my eyeball with no trouble) but this procedure was intolerable.

I don’t know why it should be agony as the nerve endings in the colon are below the surface. That’s why the biopsies are painless. You can watch the implement grab a piece of tissue and draw blood but no pain.

The width of an adult coloscope is less than 1.3 centimetres.

I’m small and I have regular colonscopies without sedation. The only discomfort I sometimes feel is when the tube goes around the bend from the descending into the transverse colon but it’s no more than a temporary griping pain like gas. A gulp of Entonox and it’s fine.

I am 5’ and have never had pain during the msny colonoscopies I have had over the years. Did they have any explanation for your pain Exdancer?

I had many colonoscopies over 20 years, all in the same NHS hospital outpatient clinic, so I saw their practice change over years. The earliest ones were done with twilight sedation; by my consultant and his male registrar ; later they were done by a female team of specialist nurses with no sedation.
Other than the enjoyable junkie rush as sedation goes in your arm, I prefered no sedation; I really liked watching the camera view on the screen, a live journey through my own colon. No pain. .

With sedation you wake up back in bed, needing a while to come back round and gather your wits. With no sedation you're still alert; and get to the tea and toast quicker.

Im puzzled as to all the painless colonoscopies here. I had one with sedation and like the other poster I was begging them to stop. It was horrendous. In fact I had a different type of procedure when they needed to look there years later as I said to GP I was not going through that again for anyone. Why are they so painful for some but not others I wonder?

For my colonoscopy they had to use a paediatric scope as part of my descending colon is narrowed. Didn’t feel any pain at all although the doctor had me changing position to get the scope round bends.

Homestead62 thank you for confirming that the procedure can be painful, I was beginning to think I was coming across as a liar!
I have been pressured to have another one and about 6 months ago underwent a 'virtual' colonoscopy where I lay in a tunnel and was scanned (CT I think) after drinking the dreaded Prep to empty the bowel. The clean-out is nothing to make a fuss over in my opinion, the only painful part came when they
I wish medics could accept that colonoscopies are painful for a minority of people and that a 1.5cm wide camera is too big.

PS and biopsies can hurt - DH had a polyp that they tried to remove but he had to stop them and arrange proper sedation at a later date.

Yes because a polyp is rooted through the surface of the colon to where the nerves are. A tooth doesn't usually hurt on the surface but try to remove it and it is the nerve which causes the pain.

Think about this logically. The average colon is about 6-7 centimetres wide. A colonoscope is less than 1.3 centimetres wide and is flexible. Moving a 1.3 centimetre flexible tube through a 6-7 centimetre tunnel shouldn’t be painful unless the colon is diseased in some way in which case it’s that which is causing the pain.

If you can hold and pass normal size solid stools then why would a flexible colonoscope, which is no bigger, cause pain?

It's the equivalent of wiggling a bendy drinking straw inside say the cardboard tube of a toilet roll.

Talk to your endoscopist about this as there may be some element of psychosomatic stress going on.

I had what was booked in as a sigmoidoscopy but since looking at diagrams and descripiions of what I could feel, I think they went further than just the sigmoid colon which looks quite a small area in the lower left. I certainly could feel the "pushing" feeling and a sharp short lasting pain across what I now know is the transverse colon towards the right hand side. I must reread the notes of the results I was given and see if that clarifies exactly how far my investigation went

Is it feasible that the sigmoidoscopy investigation goes as far as possible, if the bowel is nice and clear, until the patient shows discomfort? The actual sigmoid colon is a really short length.

DH has had several. He was fine with it apart from the embarrassment.

From my own experience, the initial investigation may be just a short sigmoidoscopy that takes about ten minutes.

In most cases of, say, ulcerative colitis, inflammation starts in the rectum then spreads up through the sigmoid colon into the descending colon then into the transverse colon and so on, as the disease progresses.

A rectum and sigmoid colon showing no signs of inflammation or any other disease would signify that the examination need go no further. If there is evidence of disease then the longer examination taking about 40 minutes would be required.

Discomfort around the “bends” is quite normal. The tube is having to negotiate sharp corners. A nurse will often manipulate the patient’s abdomen or position on the table to easy the passage of the colonoscope.

It's why I would always advocate trying to have the procedure done without sedation if possible so that the patient is fully aware of what is going on, can watch the progress on the screen and ask questions. Entonox is always to hand to easy any temporary discomfort.

Thanks Silverbrooks. Looking at the diagram I think the camera went as far as where it says transverse colon. Certainly round the 1st bend. And then halfway across. What you say is logical as nothing was found. And tbey said the bowel prep was excellent so would have had a good clear view. I didn't have sedation so perhaps they went as far as they could before I squeaked. Only a quiet one.
That is actually quite a positive thought that nothing was found further in than just lower down.
I have a follow up telephone call in July and will ask the person who rings.

I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that it didn't hurt, and I'm relieved to find I'm not alone.
Anyway, all I was asking really was 'how small is the camera. and do they come in different sizes?' and I've got my answers, though a straw in a toilet roll tube!
Thats one hell of a big colon! Thank you.

What's entonox? ---- no, I'll leave that for another post.

Entonox is gas and air. Which I refused as I didnt like it when giving birth

You don’t actually see the camera so hard to tell its size. I am sorry you had pain. It may not hurt next time, but if it needs to be done …

I found the bowel prep worse than the colonoscopy procedure itself, but even that wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. I had sedation but was just sorry that I took my glasses off as I then couldn't see the screen properly.

The prep was a doddle, nothing like the pain from that hosepipe they shoved up my bum. Of course I didn't see the size, I was curious to know whether they used different sizes for different sized colons.
I think we just have to accept that a small proportion of us do find it painful - and ask for better sedation.

Homestead62

Im puzzled as to all the painless colonoscopies here. I had one with sedation and like the other poster I was begging them to stop. It was horrendous. In fact I had a different type of procedure when they needed to look there years later as I said to GP I was not going through that again for anyone. Why are they so painful for some but not others I wonder?

If there's some inflammation or obstruction in the colon perhaps that's what causes pain?

Hi - I spoke to my consultant and he tried to play down the episodes reported to me where the "conscious sedation" with Midazolam/Fentanyl didn't work, almost like he was saying they were "mis-remembering" ExDancer - I have decided not to proceed with the standard offering despite reassurances - I am looking for a propofol procedure instead - but I need something to get me to go in the first place as I'm very phobic about anything medial procedure related - I have put the colonoscopy off for over a year now (FIT result +ve) - so need to make this as painless as possible as if something negative did happen - then I honestly don't know if I could ever trust them again

I had a colonoscopy in another EU country and was given an anesthetic which was the norm, so saw it felt nothing however the worst thing ever was the prep drink through the night before, I really thought I would not be able to finish it, I feel real trauma about having another one due to that. Not meaning to put anyone off, I have low tolerance for around taste and smell.