To ask for your top tips for a full colonoscopy please? especially if you are a migraine sufferer

[mechanicalpencil]

I have a colonoscopy on Sunday 26 October.
Dreading the prep because lack of food, different schedule,stress are all triggers for a migraine.
Any tips to help get through this without inducing one?
Also any other general tips for the procedure itself would be really helpful as I am dreading it.

Thank you 🙏

good luck OP. Keep drinking water. The prep shifts what’s there and works slightly differently for everyone. Get yourself in to hospital as soon as you can - they’ll then be able to assess whether you can have any medication etc or glucose tablets. They may move you earlier if they see you’re struggling. Once you’re out you can eat pretty much immediately.

Honestly you’ve done the worst bit with the prep - the actual colonoscopy will be fine . Thinking of you !

I’m probably too late for this thread but maybe ask if you can have IV fluids when you get to the hospital for the procedure.

Dehydration from fasting gives me migraine every time.

Yes, definitely the actual drink itself has been the worst part, especially the last bit… literally wretching to get it down.

Also extremely cold as others have reported and have had the central heating on with my back to the radiator.

Have had 5 trips to the toilet this morning, roughly once an hour and the last time was just clear liquid and I could see the bottom of the toilet! Success! I was so worried it wasn’t working.

Going to start getting ready to go to the hospital shortly but feeling rotten and still have more trips to the toilet. I have adult nappies as the hospital is an hour away.

Thanks for the support and encouragement. It really does makes a difference 💓

Home in bed now and absolutely wiped out. Could hardly climb the stairs.

The colonoscopy turned out to be a very painful experience for me unfortunately despite full sedation with fentanyl and gas and air. Not sure if the sedation had not kicked in but could experience and feel everything. Interestingly, when I had a gastroscopy a few months ago, I didn’t feel a thing and that was a very pleasant experience (also fentanyl). I wonder if there had been a problem with the cannula and the drugs didn’t end up going in? Hence the gas and air? i don’t know, all I know is it was not the lovely floaty feeling I had last time! 😬 and I and I can remember eveything.

However, it turns out I have a “very long, tortuous bowel” which I had never heard of and seemed very apt phrasing for today 😱..and this tends to mean colonoscopies can be extra difficult. So don’t let this put you off.

Also, no biccies, toast or sandwiches for me after the procedure as I had read other posters got - I did get a glass of water though and luckily my husband had brought a banana in the car.

I am in full aura now for migraine so will sign off now but will come back to list my tips for others which hopefully will help people getting this done in the future, especially if you suffer from migraine.

Glad it is over for you op

For anyone else reading this, awaiting the same.
Please please do not sit on the toilet 'till you stop going'
It is not a good position, and actually bad for you to sit on the toilet for that long
Set urself up comfortable as close to the loo as possible but not actually on the toilet to read a book :%

I didn’t want to add to my post that DH also was in considerable pain throughout, despite the sedation, he wasn’t allowed gas and air due to having had a triple heart bypass. They couldn’t do a thorough enough look so he had to have a CT colonoscopy which was less painful. Did they tell you if they found anything, at our hospital you go in a side room after and they discuss what they have seen.

Aww OP - I thought the whole thing was beyond dire and awful, but to have the pain and a migraine as well - can’t imagine and hope you’re better soon.
I always take my own snacks as coeliac but did get coffee and biscuits were available so that’s extra annoying for you.
As an aside I said to the nurse after that it seemed a special torture to have to get up at 4:30am to make myself sick effectively - he said when they were planning times initially for these clinics the consultant said very early starts were fine as people get up at that time to go on holiday!!!

Just a thought but do you have EDS or are hypermobile? I am and a gastro told me that colonoscopues are particularly painful for us and managed to assess what he needed with an MRI . He recommended always going for deep sedation where possible.

Sympathies, I am in a phase of having loads of nil by mouth procedures which always end up in migraines for me. Hope yours has shifted overnight

I'm so jealous of people for whom the sedatives work really well so they barely remember these procedures. When I had an endoscopy and colonoscopy, the endoscopy (which they did first) was OKish but the colonoscopy was definitely painful. Subsequently I have had to have regular endoscopies, and I duly ask for sedatives but they're still pretty painful - though I think that's partly because they take several biopsies each time.. Last time I tried asking for a slightly increased dose, but they weren't up for it, sadly.

Oh, come on. Sitting on the toilet on one occasion for 90 minutes or so is not going to do anything terrible. Let's face it, it's what you would be doing for most of the time anyway as the medication takes its inevitable effect. And it means you don't get a horrendously sore bum from wiping it all the time.

I was out yesterday with a migraine so here I am, back with some tips for those having an upcoming Colonscopy… especially if you suffer from migraine.

• make sure you are hydrated before you start as the process dehydrates you.
• stock up on some treats to look forward to for when you get back home, you will be too drained to go shopping after
• adult nappies for extra peace of mind for going to bed the night before and the commute to the hospital ( I was still going right up until my appointment)
• softest toilet roll, dettol spray to clean the toilet after each use
• cream to put on before you start going … I used petroleum jelly which was fine
• wet wipes and a bag to dispose of them in
• Clear fluids - fruit juice with no bits, lemonade, clear broth, water etc
• i got very very cold, so blankets and a hot bottle
• be careful to read the list about medications but any you can take make sure you don’t take them an hour either side of your bowel prep
• get something to do ready while the prep is working and stay near the toilet - I had some things I wanted to watch on Netflix. I personally found I had enough time each time to get to the toilet and once there stayed about 15 mins to allow several “goes” , then freshen up and go back to your base
• the first lot of bowel prep didn’t do much for me, I only went once. The second one got things moving.
• i didn’t feel any cramps, just nausea from the revolting drink (especially the second one)
• you can take paracetamol, but best check with the nurse (you can call to check)
• it is very important to drink enough water especially in the hour after the bowel prep - you probably won’t feel like it, but it is necessary for the prep to work and to try and keep hydrated.
• Before the procedure you are asked to change into a pair of paper bloomers which some down to your knee and have a hole. Then a gown over your bra, keep socks on.
• bring a snack and drink with you for afterwards as nothing was offered to me after except a glsss of water, even thiough I could have done with something to eat as my blood pressure had dropped very low.
• i had no wind to pass on the day itself which was odd.. where did it go?😳
• my abdomen area was quite sore the next day
• aura on way home and second migraine began that evening ( I was on the tail end of a migraine as I started my prep)

I think that’s everything!

I think the experience itself depends a lot on how experienced the doctor is and what kind of bowel you have. My doctor seemed very experienced but it turned out to be a tricky bowel, hence the pain but from many of the experiences on Mumsnet, the Colonscopy is generally not too bad.

Findings: redundant tortuous bowel, polyps, biopsies taken.

@Sub2Mumma Best of luck for Thursday!

Good luck on the biopsy outcome, plenty of support on here if you need it after.