Severely painful colonoscopy and "bendy" bowel

[Bluebellsfortwo]

Did anyone have a colonoscopy and struggled with really bad pain during it?

I had my colonoscopy today with conscious sedation" - fentanyl and midazolam and was very much awake during it and didn't even feel sleepy. As soon as they began, I felt intense pain like someone had shoved a sharp stick in my insides and was pushing it around violently. I was writhing around in pain, crying loudly in pain, it was awful. I didn't understand why it hurt so much and I asked for gas and air which they had in the room, but was told I couldn't have it because I hadn't signed for it beforehand, so then I said please I'll sign it now, and they said I can't sign anything because I'm technically sedated.

They gave me an extra dose of fentanyl and I was still crying and screaming in pain. My blood pressure and pulse was becoming too high (185/100, pulse was like 150) so they said to me 'if you don't calm down right now we are going to stop and you'll have to do this all over again'. So I silently cried lying there on the table . It was so horrible. I feel so violated 😢

Afterwards the doctor told me I have a "extremely bendy bowel" which meant it was very difficult to manoeuvre the scope and my bowel was so twisty to the point where the scope became twisted on itself and had to be disconnected and reconnected again. The consultant asked me questions like, have you had a lot of C-sections, have you had significant pelvic surgeries which can cause adhesions? And the answer to all of these is no. Apart from that the colonoscopy was completely clear, no issues found at all.

I'm just really confused. I'm home now and struggling a lot with pain from terrible trapped gas. I just wanted to know if anyone had gone through anything similar. Everything I looked up beforehand was people saying it doesn't hurt at all but it wasn't the case for me 😔

Sorry you had to experience this.

I had one a few years ago and had what sounds like the same experience. The consultant also said to me that they were going to stop. I begged them to continue.

My discharge letter stated and I quote… should Mrs X require the procedure in the future a general is advised due to the level of distress to the patient and the staff! I was mortified. Also nothing was found.

At the time I was suffering from severe anxiety and I do think sedation seems to have very little effect. I was also sedated for a dental procedure and they told me afterwards they had to administer the max dose and even then I was apparently out of the chair although I have no memory of this!!

I had the same experience after a positive fit test and despite being given gas and air after the sedatives, the Consultant had to abandon the procedure half way through due to the unbearable pain. I was told afterwards it was due to a loopy bowel. I've never known pain like it, and I've had four babies with just gas and air! I was told beforehand the prep was the worst bit so was unprepared for it. I had a follow up special scan which gave the all clear and would never have another colonoscopy without a GA. Like you I felt violated. My DH had one recently and said his was painless.

So many responses saying the same thing - and several of them saying how the pain was minimised / ignored by staff.
i had the same experience too with my first flexi-sig (similar to a colonoscopy except that aim is to not go as far around the colon). The doctor (aka butcher) rated my pain as a 2…. I complained and he still insisted that my pain in his opinion and that of the nursing staff was 2. I had to have a repeat done and I had sedation plus more pain relief and it was bearable. The difference in the feeling was night and day. I’m still very angry about it and wonder how many more women had to suffer at this person’s hands.
I’m sorry you had that experience OP.

I’ve had the same. I’ve never felt so much pain and was told I have a tortuous bowel i.e. long and bendy. It was really agony and he had to stop as he couldn’t get the scope up to the top part of the bowel. I’ll never have another one without proper sedation or even a GA as I felt traumatised by it.

Mine was up there with labour and broken back pain..horrendous. They removed 3 polyps and said it was a challenging procedure. Like your guy said they didn't want me to have to return. I was given extra sedation but had to keep moving onto my side back and stomach whilst they were cutting.
My trapped air/wind disappeared directly after the procedure though.
It's not something I would be happy to go through again that's for sure.
No one else I know found it as excruciating apart from my daughter.

I had this, although thankfully I have no memory of it as I had it done privately where (in the consultant's words) they "use the really good drugs" so I was completely out of it. He said it was the hardest colonoscopy he'd ever done (and he must be mid 50s) and that my bowel was long and tortuous. Still had to have the sedation topped up half way through as apparently I was in a lot of pain but to me it was like having a GA as I knew nothing from when I first lay down to when I woke up. Scared of ever needing one on the NHS. It's awful how they gaslight you about pain.

I had a fertility test once, I can't remember the name but it's where they shoot dye up your fallopian tubes. I was screaming in agony (and I am not a dramatic person!) and the nurse pinned me down with her body. The doctor was really horrible afterwards and said it wasn't that painful and he didn't know why I had made such a fuss. I was quite young so didn't say anything at the time but if that happened to me now I would be making a strong complaint.

I have them with my looped bowel and had a 30cm polyp removed and was not in as much pain as you describe. I was given the full amount of sedation but procedure took one and half an hours so was given gas and air when I started to feel the pain . I remember feeling a bit like a rotisserie chicken with them asking me to go on my knees then my side then back etc to loop round the bowel 🙈

sounds like your staff weren’t as gentle as the ones I experienced as
i couldn’t fault them

I've had two. I expected sedation at the first but the nurses told me it wasn't necessary and -for me - they were right. I was happy not to be sedated for the second. I drove to the hospital and as soon as it was over, I went straight to the pub and had a beer and crisps. (I was starving!)

I was diagnosed with bowel cancer (in Australia) two years ago and my surgeon mentioned that the survival rate in the UK is 20% lower than Australia and that it’s the lowest in the developed world.

In Australia propofol administered by a anaesthetist is standard in private and public hospitals. You go to sleep and when you wake up you have no recollection of the procedure. If someone was to tell me they weren’t able to do it for some reason I would believe them.

I wonder if the pain relief offered by the NHS contributes to the survival statistics due to people delaying or avoiding colonoscopies. So many people saying they’ll never have another one. Think of all the friends and family that hear about these painful experiences and decide they will avoid the procedure too.

@unluckystar rotisserie chicken is such a good description I had to move around a lot as well lol. I think if I had been allowed gas and air top up it would have helped a lot.

gas and air doesn't make masses of sense as an adjunct for colonoscopies even though it seems to be widely used - it distends gas filled spaces and can make things more uncomfortable.
Sedation has to be strictly protocolised when it's being done by people who aren't routinely managing the cardiovascular/respiratory/airway side effects of the drugs. There are barely enough anaesthetists in this country to be doing all the stuff that definitely needs an anaesthetic so GA colonoscopy lists aren't going to be routine even if it were the right thing for everyone. GA lists are definitely done in the NHS though for people who either have found it too unpleasant/would be predicted to find it too unpleasant based on their medical issues -it is worth exploring for those people who have found it unbearable (but it may add significant time to the wait for the procedure). GA/deep sedation may limit the test due to the obvious immobility that being unconscious causes. Am also not sure if it may increase the chance of perforated bowel due to the lack of verbal feedback when it gets painful during the procedure.

I had one recently for unexplained stomach problems I’m 42. I had gas and air and a very small amount of whatever the iv painkiller was and I was absolutely fine until he put air into my bowel then holy shit the pain was the worst I’ve ever felt, it was absolutely unbearable I had to push it straight back out. He kept doing it and I was crying in pain by the end of it. It was just like when you’ve got agonising trapped wind and can’t stand up but a thousand times worse. The camera itself I don’t think really caused me any pain. I don’t know if this was just me…

Mine was just mildly uncomfortable with minimal sedation. Though I do remember reading somewhere that colonoscopes were designed with the slightly larger male colon in mind...

Generally colonoscopies are more painful for women because we tend to have longer colons and because we are smaller they are packed into a tighter space with more twists and turns which makes them harder to get the instruments around

it makes me so angry that so many women are made to feel they are being unreasonable about the pain when research shows it is more difficult to carry out colonoscopies on women

I had one and the sedation and painkillers did not work, it was agony, I was begging them to remove it, I could not move at all due to the pain and they wanted me to turn over

I will NEVER have another