What to Expect When Having a Colonoscopy

I finally had my endoscopy and colonoscopy two weeks ago.  I have the follow up appointment with my GI doc today and am very anxious to hear what he has to say.  I threw all my eggs in this basket and really hope to find out what my problem is.  If you have never had these procedures done, I'm going to tell you about my experience so you have a better idea of what to expect. 

First of all, I've been dealing with GI issues for close to 5 years now.  I've spent the better part of 2 of the last 5 of those years trying to self diagnose rather than go to a doctor for two reasons: the first being that I had two different doctors (when seeing them for other reasons and just kind of mentioning it to them) tell me that it is probably "just" IBS and the second is to avoid a colonoscopy.  I had this huge mental block when it came to having that procedure done.  No matter what anyone told me, "It's so easy!!", I just wasn't buying it. 

The last year has been very hard for me with my stomach issues so I finally bit the bullet and went to see a doctor.  Sure enough, he wanted to do a colonoscopy.  But in addition to that, he wanted to do a endoscopy as well.  When he initially said this, I went into panic mode....you are going to stick a camera down my throat??  But then he said the magic words: "Since I'll be doing both procedures, we will put you totally under."  I didn't hear a thing after that.  I'll be totally asleep??  Do whatever the hell you want then!

The prep.  Ah yes, the prep.  Wow.  First of all, five days before procedure day (Valentine's Day by the way....so romantic), I was to stop eating all raw veggies, nuts and seeds.  Dude.  That is the bulk of my diet!  Then a day and a half before, I was put on clear liquids only.  My family wanted to run for the hills by that point because I was pretty damn cranky.  Then the day before, at 2:00pm, I was to take 2 ducolax tablets.  Let me first say that I believe based on talking to other people who have prepped for a colonoscopy, that my reaction/experience was not 'normal' although I'm going to talk to the doctor about that today.  Anyway, I took the ducolax at 2:00 and by 5:00, I was having major, major pain.  Gas pain but in a really horrible way.  I was on the couch and couldn't do anything.  At 6:00, I had to start the liquid portion of the prep.  I had a 64oz jug of lemon lime Gatorade mixed with a bottle of myrlax and had to drink 8oz every 15 minutes.  The fun began instantly.  Bathroom trips every couple of minutes.  I will spare you the details.  Where I don't think my experience was the norm is that I had a lot of pain in the beginning (turned into dull cramping from then on out) and that I continued to run to the bathroom throughout the night (I was up 6 times during the night) and the next morning before we left the house at 8:15am, went 4 times then again twice when we got to the hospital.  I'm sorry but that cannot be normal!

Once in the room, the nurse started an IV and fairly quickly I was wheeled into the procedure room.  I don't think it took more than 3 or 4 minutes for me to fall asleep once the medication was started.  I kept asking how quickly I would fall asleep because I was so worried I'd be in a drunk-like stupor that I'd say something inappropriate.  I know, I worry about strange things.  I remember them saying, "You should start to feel sleepy any minute now." and me trying to tell them that I wasn't feeling a thing but couldn't get my mouth to form the words. 

Next thing I knew, I was awake back in the first room where the nurse started my IV.  I was super groggy and generally out of it.  The doctor had already been in and talked to my husband - this was where he apparently told him that he didn't see anything major but did several biopsy's.  He did see esophagitis and gastritis and did a biopsy of both areas and then for celiacs as well.

We were out of the hospital very quickly and back home.  For the rest of the day, I was super tired but generally felt fine.  The next day, I could feel that my throat was sore but not anything major....just a little annoying when I would swallow.  Similar to how you would feel if you had a sore throat/cold coming on.  The biggest issue was that I had a lot of gas-like pain for the rest of the week.  I tried to get back to the gym on Wednesday and had to leave in the middle of a class because I felt so off.  Then still on Thursday, same thing happened.  Tried to take a class and while I made it through this time, felt uncomfortable.  Running was out of the question for the entire week because of stomach pain.  By Saturday, I was able to get a 6 mile run in although felt crampy all the way through.  I have read that some discomfort after a colonoscopy is to be expected but I'm not sure I get why my discomfort lasted so long.

So.  Here we are two weeks later and it's finally time for my follow up.  I'm interested to hear what he has to say although I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't see anything during the procedures that would explain outright what is going on.  I have this feeling that he is going to recommend I see an allergist but we'll see.