Colonoscopy Pain

I'm so glad I found your post. I had a colonoscopy with sedation this morning and it was excruitiatingly painful. I was wide awake throughout and in so much pain that I had to be given two doses of Pethadine, not that it made much difference. When it was over at last, I felt shocked and traumatised by the ordeal. The consultant seemed to think I'd made a fuss about nothing, though the nurses who looked after me were much more sympathetic and understanding. Ironically, ten minutes after the colonoscopy finished, the sedation seemed to kick in and I fell into a dazed stupor for the best part of an hour. Never again! If I ever have to have one of these barbaric procedures again I will insist on a general anaesthetic and pay for it if I have to. As far as I'm concerned, all the websites I read which said that colonoscopies are not painful are simply telling lies. Be warned anyone else facing one!

I had my first ever Conoloscopy (with no sedations just G&A) today and I am in shock still. They asked me if I had any questions before they started the procedure and ofcourse being the anxious annie that I am I asked ''how much is this going to hurt me''. The nurse advised me it isn't painful - just abit uncomfortable. Uncomfortable isn't a word I'd choose to describe the ordeal, more like TORTURE. It was so so horrific. PLEASE ask to be sedated. I was crying in pain, the nurses were so lovely, one stroking my hair whilst the other fed me G&A and another nurse was cheering me on telling me how well I was doing. Cut a long story short, the camera exited me and I was left to feel traumatised from this experience, I feel really upset that I wasn't pre warned about how painful this was going to be. Almost like somebody digging at the raw flesh inside your stomach with a knife. I don't mean to scare anybody, alot say it doesn't hurt at all which I believed and now know that them saying that is 100% far fetched. I am writing this to pre-warn people about the unexpected level of pain and if this will stir somebody to have sedation and not go through what I have been through today then I am happy to share this really unpleasant experience.

I had mine on the 21st too and it was pretty much the same for me. The staff were great which helped a bit but I wasn't prepared for the amount of pain. Because I was expecting it to be a little uncomfortable when I felt the pain, I thought something had gone wrong.

I've got to go back in a few months because they couldn't remove a polyp and I'm already dreading it. I don't think I could bear that level of pain again knowing what's coming. I don't think just sedation is going to be enough for me.

A bit like amhx said, if you are going for this, be aware that this could be the worse pain you ever feel. At the very least, have the gas ready in your hand before they start.

Just found this thread wish I had before my recent colonoscopy at least I would have been more prepared for the experience.

I was referred as urgent but still had to wait 6 weeks. I'd read about the moviprep being the worst part, no it was the easiest part. It had the desired effect although I was still running to the bathroom at midnight and again at 4am. The drink itself wasn't nice but bearable just drink water after each drink. The 6am was just the same but I was extremely tired by now.

I went to my local hospital at my appointment time, changed into my gown and lovely green shorts. I then had to wait alone for an hour in a room apparently the person before me was still in and they were running behind, I understand this happens and can't be helped so I waited (wish I'd have taken my iPad) then I suddenly heard screaming coming from the room where the previous patient was. I thought I'd imagined it but I heard the same familiar screams. I was pretty calm until now but oh my this put me on edge. Finally I got called through and because I'd opted for sedition thought I'd be ok. The sedition didn't touch the sides and wow the pain made my eyes water, I tried to keep it in BUT gave out a loud scream and was told "please don't make that noise" it was agony which I repeatedly told the nurse doing it. I was given some more sedition but didn't do anything. I kept saying how much it was hurting several times. "Just fart it'll help" I couldn't bloody fart. 

Saying all this I've read plenty of stories were it was painless but unfortunately my experience wasn't a positive one.
 

Hello! I've just got home from a colonoscopy this afternoon and have had the same experience as a lot of people in this chat. I'm a bit upset and shaken by it as like a lot of people I was told it was slightly uncomfortable and that the moviprep was the worst part of it! Once I arrived at the hospital I felt a little nervous but had been okay up until that point also thinking "I'll be sedated I'll be fine". The doctor told me in my pre appointment that I'd be conscious but once I came round I'd probably not remember the procedure! Great I thought!! Oh how I was wrong... I was also in excruciating pain, crying and shouting at how much it hurt! It was given pain relief which did nothing and also gas and air which also did nothing! I feel as though I was maybe rushed in as there were other clients waiting for my Doctor. No soon had he given me the sedation he was on with the procedure, no time to let it kick in whatsoever! However afterwards I was taken to a room to come round where I then began to feel drowsy. I did feel very dramatic however I wouldn't have reacted like that unless the pain was so unbarable! 2 biopsies were taken and I'm to wait 6 weeks for the results. I prey to god I never have to go through that again! One thing the doctor did mention was that I apparently had a "soft bowel" due to being so young? I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a reason for the pain. I'm just baffled at how many people are on this forum saying the same thing, youd think in this day in age you'd be given adequate pain relief!

Sorry to hear that you had the same colonoscopy experience. I also felt as though they were rushing, the nurse doing mine actually said that because she was running late if any large polyps were found she would have to get me back in because the lady in front of me had made her fall behind schedule (an hour to be exact). Seriously so I'd have to go through all this again!! I was so surprised when they pumped the sedition then started straight away. Before hand I was offered gas and air or sedition I mistakenly thought I'd chose wisely, they need to maybe sort this out as if will put people off going for another colonoscopy in he future because of their bad experiences.

Hope your biopsy results come back clear.

Oh gosh that's awful! Imagine having to go through all that again knowing they could remove them there and then. I kind of wished it found this feed beforehand as everyone I have spoken to has advised it's just a little uncomfortable not absolutely unbearable! I was thinking gosh am I the only person that's reacted this way, so I just have a really low pain threshold but it turns out not! Something definitely needs doing about this  

Hope your ok now! X I had my first colonoscopy today I was petrified asked for strongest sedation. As soon as they put the camera in the pain was horrendous they had to remove it after a minute as the prep hadn't fully cleared my bowel. Now having to go back in two weeks to go through it all again, absolutely dreading it:'(

Just been called for regular scan and came across this thread. The first time I had a sigmoidoscopy it was awful, I could barely tolerate it. A colonoscopy was then prescribed but with sedation. I had an intravenous sedation and was unaware of the whole thing. In the notes afterwards it said I'd tolerated the procedure 'with difficulty' but I had no memory of it at all. Seems to me people on here are not getting the treatment they deserve. Why is anyone having to suffer, when I was knocked out sufficiently to not notice anything? 

If you get bad pain , stop the procedure as too much air may being pumped into your colon and may damage it.

Good luck.

I was 69 when l had a colonoscopy and it was agonising so the soft colon reason l think is a whitewash.

I think some operators pump far too much air into your colon to make their job easier and quicker. 

I had one 15 years ago too and that was not rushed and completely painless.

I was 69 when l had a colonoscopy and it was agonising so the soft colon reason l think is a whitewash.

I think some operators pump far too much air into your colon to make their job easier and quicker. 

I had one 15 years ago too and that was not rushed and completely painless.

Hi Richard today I had a double,endoscopy and a colonoscopy in my local hospital I had the throat spray for the endoscopy. And sedation for the colonoscopy.the endoscopy was fine bar for a lot of discomfort but tolerable.i was then given sedation for the colonoscopy but warned that wind could be a problem and you should expel it.imagine my horror the father he was going in,the pain was getting worse.i was told to expel the wind which I couldn't, the more I tried the pain increased. I was on the point of abandoning the procedure but for the dr to say. I am nearly  there. or other wise I would have been out of there. and heading for the nearest toilet. In conclusion. that when they say its painless I have to think to myself it must be me, so I am glad that I have found this site and can experience other peoples agonies and it's not all in my mind?

Hi all fellow colonoscopy suffers

i had my first colonoscopy yesterday. I feel ok today but quite bruised if that's the right word. 
I feel like I was butchered yesterday. Absolute excruciating pain as the Dr got the endoscope around the corners of my bowel. I was crying and screaming and the Dr had very little sympathy. And he had convinced me to go with gas and air rather than sedation - which just made me dizzy - it was a kin to contractions - in fact possibly more intense at times.  Like many of you have said the nurses were fantastic and offered me sedation half way through but the Dr wasn't keen to do that. At one point I said 'get it out' and the doctor spoke to me like I was a 7 year old who'd done something wrong. 
I have read my report this morning and it says that he removed a polyp... from what went on in that room of torture what I remember is that he tried to remove the polyp but didn't get it all so said to the nurse to just call it a biopsy. So I need to sort that out, to get my records straight, and after all that I think there is still a polyp in my acsending colon... fortunately there were no signs of cancer - colitis was diagnosed and I await biopsy results. 

Hi glad that you have had a diagnosis. Colitis is bad enough but you can live with that.i have not been as fortunate as that.despite going thorough extortionate pain during the procedure i am still in a lot of pain in my stomach.which I did not have before I had the the colonoscopy. I am awaiting  the results of the biopsies which can take up to 3 weeks .to make matters worse I have a infection in my water and on antibiotics for a week.and taking buscapan and pain killer's to ease the pain.

Sorry to hear you are still in pain. I have pain today but as expected I suppose. I hope no damage has been done to your bowel! All the best. 

I have just had my first ever colonoscapy and I pray I never need another one.

I opted for sedation, thinking it meant general anaesthetic.

I was given Fentanyl 75ug and Midazolam 2mg both administered intravenously. 

 I too was told that the procedure would be uncomfortable but not painful.

 As soon as they started the procedure the pain began, It was so excruciating that I ended up begging for more pain meds, I was given an extra IV painkiller then entonox too.

 At one point I ended up yelling in pain at the top of my voice, they stopped briefly then restarted, informing me that I had a loopy bowel. I can honestly say that I have never felt pain like it in my life even though I have broken ribs, fingers and even broke my upper jaw in a car accident.

 I persevered for as long as I could as I really wanted the full procedure but eventually the endoscopist stopped the procedure saying that all the noise I was making was too destracting and that I was obviously in pain.......

 I too was made to believe that I was an awkward patient and overreacting.. 

 It's good to see that I am most certainly not and I think this must be the norm....... So why do they all lie in saying its nothing more than discomfort,(like trapped wind)?

On my report I saw that they found I had a tortuous colon (a colon with a lot of tight bends in it) and that the scope was retroflexed in the rectum...

Absolutely  traumatic experience.

Sorry to hear you had to go through that as well as others.

I had a second colonoscopy a few weeks ago now. The reason for this one was because there was a large polyp that they couldn't remove last time. This time they said I would be given Fenantyl and Midazolam to relieve the pain. I said I had read of others experiences where the sedative didn't even work and was still concerned that I would feel the same pain as last time and they said the gas and air would be ready aswell.

The sedative didn't work so I needed the gas and air anyway, but like last time I still felt a lot of pain, it was just made bearable by the gas and air. It seemed like the sedative just made me feel dizzy and nothing else. I had someone to look after me when I left but I was able to function normally and just felt like I needed a quick nap when I got home. It made me wonder if the amount of sedative was too little, or it just doesn't have the same effect with everyone, just like the procedure itself.

I'm going through a lot of things at the moment so I don't know how they may have affected my mood, reaction and so on but afterwards one of the nurses checked my blood pressure and pulse again and said she was doing so becuase they remained constant through the whole process which they'd never had before. When I say a lot of things going on, I mean it in a sense that I have begun to not care what happens to me as if I've lost any sense of self-preservation and maybe this time subconciously couldn't care less if anything went wrong.

The result was that they couldn't see the polyp this time so they took a photo and will need to speak to the previous surgeon. I may have to go back for another one yet. Again, it seems I was fortunate to have a great team as other people still don;t seem to have.

Bless you. I'm glad the pain was manageable with the gas and air.  The fact they couldn't see the polyp, could be a blessing in itself. I pray that that is the case.

With regards to the negative feelings you're having, I have had some seriously dark periods in my life where I couldn't see a way out. If I could ask for one thing from you , it would be to hang on and focus on the positives. Life has a wonderful way of completely  turning things around in a moments notice. 

 If your problems are focused around your health, then please try to keep your spirits up and keep a positive mindset, the body has an incredible ability to heal plus the advances we have made in medical treatments over the past twenty or thirty years are really quite phenomenal. 

I pray that everything works out well for you .

All the best,

Hugh.

Thanks Hugh, I think I'm just at a stage where nothing is going my way and the help I've been told is there, isn't. I've got health problems such as double vision, which I;m also waiting for surgery for, Chronic tinnitus, hearing loss, depression and anxiety and possible ptsd (I was advised by a nurse to get it looked into when I explained to her my health and behavioural problems for the sigmoidoscopy pre-assessment). I;ve been speaking with Talkworks who seems to not want to recognise it as PTSD but after reading up on it I'm sure the nurse is correct. I'm also autistic which doesn't help matters at all.

Anyway this isn't supposed to be a thread about me. Thanks again for your kind words of support. I hope my two earlier posts help people who think to look up colonoscopy information before they have it and they use this entire thread to prepare themselves for the pain. To me the worse thing was feeling this excruitiating pain when I was told there would be none. If I'd been told beforehand that people feel pain, for me, that would have been better because the moment I felt it I wouldn't have thought they'd done something wrong and thoought for those few seconds I might be about to die in pain.

They should just be straight with people and tell them some people feel a little discomfort and others feel very bad pain and it's something the patient needs to accept and deal with by making the decision to abort or continue if and when that pain occurs. I'd have hated to have been some of the people in this thread who have clearly had unsympathetic surgeons dealing with them.