Hope my experiences of colonoscopies, which I'll detail below, will be useful for anyone who's got a colonoscopy coming up or who may require one in the future:
Due to family medical history, 5 years ago I had my first colonoscopy organised by my GP at a private clinic. Prep was 'Movieprep' and I spent quite a lot of time going back and forth to the loo that day. Procedure - I chose sedation and don't really remember anything except towards the end when I must have been slightly aware as I recall the endoscopist telling me what was being shown on the camera. I then nodded off again. No pain, good recovery and results all clear.
Today, my next 5 year appointment at Sheffield Northern Hospital. Prep this time was Plenvu. First dose at 7pm last night was salty/sweet but pleasant tasting and worked in about 2 hours but to be fair, I wasn't on the throne as much as I thought I would be, compared to last time. Second dose at 4am was much saltier, though still sweet, and tasted of old-fashioned cherry medicine. Not quite as palatable as the first dose as I had to keep taking swigs of water between each mouthful of prep. But.. got it down without any problems. Worked almost immediately and continued to do so for the next 5 hours! On arrival at the hospital, this time I decided to go for gas and air simply because recovery time was quicker and I wanted to get back home. Have never had G&A before so didn't know what to expect. Well.. what a ride that was.. I was spaced out, trying not to laugh hysterically.. at nothing.. enjoying the rippling sensation going on down below, telling the nurse how much I needed to fart (that G&A had me saying anything!) however I did have the odd cramping pain as the camera went around the corners and air was pumped up the tubes but that soon passed as I chugged on more G&A. Procedure quickly over and given the all clear.
Advice.. 1. Keep your diet 1-2 days before your procdure light and white and try to evacuate bowels as often as you can. The less in there, the less you'll be on the loo when you've drunk your prep. 2. I used bottled water which I kept in the fridge and used that to mix up my prep. 3. I purposefully kept myself thirsty before the prep so that I would appreciate having the 'drink' when the time came. This certainly help get the first prep down. 4. Have another cold bottle of watr ready to chug down the next day. I stopped drinking 3 hours before my procedure. 5. I would definitely have G&A again for this procedure. I have a low pain threshold but found it more than tolerable. There's no pain, just windy discomfort that soon eases.
Now.. having had 3 hysteroscopies (investigation of the womb), I can say quite categorically that I would have a colonoscopy any day than a hysteroscopy where, outrageously there is very little choice of pain relief. Many hospitals do not offer G&A, few sedation, in fact the only suggestion is to either take paracetamol or have a full-blow general anaesthetic (which I have had twice now as the first hysteroscopy on just paracetamol had me almost passing out due to the pain). To put a camera through the tiny cervix, to take biopsies of the womb... surely this warrants a choice of pain relief.. not just putting big girl pants on and hope for the best? I hope the way hystersocopies are performed are changed in the future.