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Very painful colonoscopy

Meg1961
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I had the procedure done on the 29 December 2025. It was the most painful and traumatic experience that I never wish to repeat.

The bowel prep was horrible. I managed to get through the first dose but felt sick and bloated. Halfway through the second dose I started vomiting and couldn't face anymore. At this point there was only a clear yellow liquid coming out of my bowel.

Despite having sedation and gas I was in a lot of pain and started screaming. It was just awful.

The doctor just told me to 'stop screaming' which I couldn't. His response was not helpful at all.

Eventually he removed a large polyp which had been the cause of bleeding. They also discovered I had diverticulitis. The doctor said I needed another test doing in 3 years time.

I've reported my experience to my GP. I informed them that I never want to go through that again unless there is an alternative way of looking into the bowel and colon. Either that or a general anaesthetic.

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    Hi Meg I know what you mean by the vile prep I vomited all of the second lot ,it makes you wonder why in this day and age it has to be so awful ,I'm sorry to hear also that you had a really bad experience during the Colonoscopy ,I'm wondering if this was because of the large Polyp they removed ,I take it they are testing it to make sure its nothing to worry about ,I've had 2 Colonoscopies and apart from the prep they went ok and like yourself they found a few things that could have caused the bleeding nothing sinister ,if I were you I would definitely go for a General next time ,no one needs to suffer pain like that ,I've heard of other people screaming out and being told to be quiet ,and even passing out with the pain so you are not alone ,and I hope you recover well from this ordeal .....

  • Offline in reply to Jenny3109

    Hello Jenny thank you for your kind and supportive comments. I'm comforted by the thought that i'm not alone in my bad experience, if others have had it too. You are right though, in that in this day and age they need to look at other ways to check inside the colon without it being so traumatic.

    I heard that in Scotland, they can give you a capsule to swallow with a tiny camera in it. You wear a special belt which picks up the images from the camera inside your colon.  They can see if you have polyps, cancer, diverticulitis etc but unfortunately cannot remove them through this method.

    Apparently the camera eventually comes out through your bowel.

    Who knows what they will come up with next but the current method in my opinion is barbaric.

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