19 days till my colonoscopy anyone care to join me ( in spirit not in body) :)

[Anyoneforacheckup]

I am due a colonoscopy to be done, and am actually a few months overdue .... My sick leave last time was refused and somehow time elapsed and now I'm panicking just a little bit.
If anyone is also having one soon, please come and talk pleasantly to me and take my mind off it all and tell me your story.
To add to the usual embarrassment involved, I actually WORKin the place where said investigation is to take place

My GP is holding the threat of another one over me at the moment. The thought of having to go through 4 litres of Klean prep again is enough to inspire me to try and get a grip of my symptoms diet wise first

Not the best of things is it, even when you know you have to.

I had one to double check a diagnosis of C Diff a couple of years ago. To be honest, the sedation was the thing that almost had me cancelling, not the colonoscopy itself.

The prep is undoubtedly the worst part of it, I had to be very close to the loo and here they tell you to mix the movicol with Kool Aid - not something I've ever drunk before, or ever will again!

I had no after effects from the procedure and everything was fine. You'll be fine too

Last times I had no sedation as you can choose. Think I may have some this time .

Then go for the sedation. Despite my worries (about not waking up! Totally irrational I know) having the sedation meant that I was completely unaware of what was going on. It was only a light sedation, so when it wore off I just woke up and didn't feel groggy at all. Being sedated also had the advantage of completely relaxing my muscles, and as I have some ongoing back pain which is muscular, I woke up pain free.

You will probably need someone to take you home, though, or at least a taxi, I wasn't allowed to drive. DH came with me.

That was the problem last time, I wanted to drive and pick the kids up, which I did.
However, it can be a bit painful .
I am trying to avoid all colleagues as much as poss. hopefully 9 am will help slightly with that. I have chosen a doctor I do not work with directly, unlike the other four who I do work with ,but there will be others around unfortunately.

the procedure itself was completely fine. but after drinking that evil movicol stuff, I had a sore bottom. they advise cream. unfortunately I applied cream containing peppermint oil and it made my poor bottom burn for ages.

so don't do anything stupid like me and you will ok. I enjoyed looking at my guts during the procedure. I had sedation

I understand that it could be embarrassing to have to have a procedure done by someone you know. I had to have a little boob op to take out a papilloma, and the following week I bumped into the surgeon at DDs meet the teacher night. I had no idea she was a parent at the school!

I didn't have sedation and my bowel went into spasm about 10 minutes in. I ended up screaming the place down and was given pethadine and sedation half way through...ridiculous given that I have given birth to an 8lb 4 baby without uttering a word. I would be sedated straight off next time so the proceedure doesn't worry me, just the prep.

Oh, and when I came round it turned out that one of the health assistants who have been there throughout was someone I knew from my boozing/gigging/dancing days!

I had sedation and I didn't feel any different. I was totally aware of what was going on and could feel everything. It was uncomfortable but not excruciatingly painful.

There are two things you can have, midazolam for sedation and fentanyl for pain( among others) . My bowel is difficult to manoeuvre round the corners( Thanks God) so hence the pain. Am going for a bit of analgesia and bit of sedation this time.

I know all the nurses in the unit . Hopefully they will, out of professional courtesy keep minimum staff in there that's what usually happens.

I had one 2 months ago. The only prep was having some liquid syringed inside me. The procedure was weird, feeling this thing inside me (no sedation). He couldn't retro flex as it was too uncomfortable but to be honest it wasn't that bad.

The worst part was post evacuation, waiting for the procedure in a waiting area that had This Morning on the tv, interviewing a woman with terminal bowel cancer.

Listen to David Sedaris on Radio 4iplayer on this very subject. Very funny man.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jysr6

Only available for a couple more days.

Hope this doesn't offend anyone who is genuinely worried.

Worried, are you sure that wasn't a sigmoidoscopy as the usual prep for colonoscopy is over a few days by mouth