I have recently (yesterday) had the Scotcap/ Pill Cam/ Capsule Colonoscopy and I was so scared before hand and tried to Google as much as I could so I thought I would share my full experience on here to maybe try help other people.
Firstly, I’m 30 female for reference and have blood from back passage so that was the reasoning for the referral for Scotcap (I’m in Scotland but I think it’s also called Pill Cam and Capsule Colonoscopy).
I was terrified beforehand because of some horror stories and experiences from others. My experience was not like this, if that offers anyone any comfort.
For prep I had Plenvu. Now it wasn’t amazing, but it’s very doable with a diluted juice/swuash water to chase it. Plenvu is a thin water like consistency so not thick or milky, thankfully! The taste is okay, not the worst. It’s more the volume of liquid that I struggled with, especially after fasting. The effects lasted an hour or two and that was it. I had dose two of Plenvu in the morning and again taste doable but I did vomit some of this but that was due to the amount of liquid that early in the morning on still an empty tummy. But still had clear bowel movements so prep worked fine. I did do a low residue diet for an extra day or two beforehand to make things as easy as possible but that’s not a necessity.
Got to the hospital and had to take some tablets, wait 45 minutes then was fitted with the belt and had the capsule. The capsule was big and I do struggle with large medicine or vitamins but I just didn’t overthink it and it went down easy, easier than any vitamin. We watched it go down on the screen into my tummy and then I went a 10 minute walk around the hospital to get it moving into my small bowel which worked so I could drink straight away just water. I got given 3 lots of booster liquids with the same effects as Plenvu. After the first one I was so fed up of liquids and felt very blah. Had some bowel movements but not capsule. The belt went off and I had to take booster dose 2. As soon as I finished the full drink, I went to the bathroom and the capsule came out! The capsule took just over 4 hours from being at hospital taking it to it coming out flashing, that was a relief for me. So I didn’t need to drink booster 3 and I could now eat and drink again. I handed the equipment back to hospital today (day after procedure). Today I feel a bit tired and blah but nothing too bad and probably just getting over all the mental stress as well as physical.
I was really scared to go through this procedure so I hope by writing this open and honest experience that it provides someone comfort.
Also as I’m only 30 I was embarrassed by all this, going to the GP getting checks etc but honestly it’s not embarrassing and please get checked! At hospital there was a big mix of young and old guys and gals so please don’t hesitate to get checked.
I now just need to wait for results to find out what’s wrong. But in terms of the capsule colonoscopy, it went as smoothly as it could.
I’m happy to answer any questions if I can x