Abandoned colonoscopy and ct colonography
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2 posts since
19 Dec 2018
Hi, I found this site after searching for people who had suffered the same issues as me and thought I would share my experiences. I too had a traumatically palinful colonoscopy in 2017 when a polyp was removed. The pain was excruciating but the Endoscopist persevered and removed the polyp. She apologised and said it was in a difficult position and had to use extra air. I had been given 75ug Fentanyl and 3mg Midazolam which was clearly ineffective – there is no way in the world this experience could be described as ‘a little discomfort’! I also have diverticula disease in part of the bowel which may well add to the problem. This was followed 3months later with a Sigmoidoscopy to check the area where the polyp was removed – no medication given and it was less painful and was quicker. All was well so I thought, great that’s the end of that – no, the Consultant who carried out this procedure decided I should come back this year (Nov 2018) for a repeat colonoscopy. Once again, this involved the most excruciating pain – and like others on this site I too have given birth without any pain relief whatsoever. On this occasion I was given 50ug Fentanyl and 3mg Midazolam – a smaller dose than previously, the only reason I can come up with is that it was in a different hospital? After being on my side and in a lot of pain – which I made very clear to them, they asked me to move on to my back and then a nurse was told to press down on my stomach to try to assist the scope around the bowel! The procedure was then abandoned due to ‘extreme angulation and discomfort’. What I find extraordinary is that this procedure was described in the leaflets from the hospital as ‘you may experience some discomfort, but will remember nothing about the procedure’! Well clearly the person who wrote that has never experienced the procedure. Like others on this site, I remember everything! My husband was there to collect me, as we were told that I ‘could not drive or be left alone for 24 hours due to the sedation’(!) he actually asked me if I’d been given any meds at all as there was no reason to suspect I had! In the letter to my Consultant, it was stated that ‘a softer Olympus scope may help or failing that a CT Colonography’. Fortunately the Consultant decided I should have the CT which I had yesterday. I was extremely anxious as I knew that air would still be used to expand the bowel and presumed it would be just as painful as the colonoscopies. The staff were lovely and really helped me calm down. I was given Buscopan through an IV to relax the bowel and the air was introduced. I can definitely describe this as ‘a little discomfort’ – more like bloating or wind – and nothing like the colonoscpy procedure. I await the results.
My main issues with the colonoscopy procedures are:
Why is this combination of meds used when it is clearly ineffective for many people? Why can more meds not be given during the process, in order to complete the procedure? – having gone through all the starve and purge prep, the very last thing you want to hear is that it couldn’t be completed! Why didn’t my last procedure use the more flexible scope in the first place?!
This is clearly a very common problem during a very common procedure, so why not improve the pain relief given so that people don’t have to suffer a failed attempt and then be sent for a more expensive CT scan costing the NHS more time and money. I really appreciate the NHS and all it offers us, but this seems to me to be a relatively simple problem to solve and would serve both patients and the NHS better.
As a footnote, in France it is considered ‘barbaric’ to perform this procedure without a general anaesthetic.
692 posts since
13 Mar 2018
Having been through it twice myself I know where your coming from, I had mine without a sedative. It was agony. Unfortunately a general anaesthetic carries more risk and I for one would not have one unless my life depended on it.
2 posts since
19 Dec 2018
Agreed, not a great option and unlikely to be used in NHS – it was just an observation. My point was that it would be more productive for patients and NHS to use sedation that is more effective. Hope all is well with you now.
40 posts since
12 Nov 2018
Well, sedation and general anesthesia are not exactly the same. Sedation has lower risk, you breath on your own, your hart works as usual and to be honest, the procedure is quite peaceful. I went under it, they put propofol and didn’t noticed a thing of the procedure. I woke up one hour later, really peacefuly and hungry. VERY hungry.
692 posts since
13 Mar 2018
I ended up having a contrast CT scan after two failed attempts and they not found diverticulitis. Thankfully.
180 posts since
17 May 2018
Hi, I totally agree with everything you have written. Not everyone has a easy time. I was heavily sedated but woke up 3 times screaming for them to stop, the pain was awful. They must have grabbed my hand and put more sedation it each time, my whole hand was black and blue next day. I also was sick when they wheeled me into a room to recover. Went in at 8am and didn’t get out till 12.30, even with all the sedation I thought my insides were getting ripped apart. They took 25 biopsies and I’m so glad they completed it as I wudnt go through with it again. I am a petite woman and I’m sure my colon must be smaller than average. I wish they would have taken that into consideration before they started.
3 posts since
22 Aug 2019
I had a colonography today, they had to do it without air because the attempt to inflate with air failed.I am worried that there is possibly a tumour .
180 posts since
17 May 2018
H, sorry to hear about your colonoscopy today, at least they stopped the procedure, did they say what they would do now.? Maybe they will go for the CT one. Hope you are ok, they would have done a biopsy if the tumor was there. Try not to worry although that’s easier said than done.
3 posts since
22 Aug 2019
Mine was a colonography it wasn’t abandoned but it is worrying that they couldn’t inflate the bowel with air it leaves me wondering what was blocking it.
3 posts since
6 Sep 2019
I agree with so much of what you said. I just had the most traumatic day of my life, and I am still in agony!
I have been anxious since the appointment letter arrived, to be fair. I couldn’t attend the first appointment that I was offered, as I had no way of getting there or anyone to collect me. Managed to change it to a local hospital, and my daughter agreed to drop me off and pick me up.
i am severely needle phobic, and reading through the booklet blew my mind! Apart from the prep, which I found difficult, as a vegetarian, I was starving and miserable for most of the week, I was dreading the welcoming canula in the hand, while I waiting to be called up. I’m on the small side, and I think the laxatives were overprescribed. 20 hours of crippling stomach cramps, nausea,headache, sore legs from sitting on the toilet for hours and sore bum, all while tired, sleep-deprived (due to 20 hours of diarrhea) hungry and extremely anxious were too much for me. It had been agreed on the phone that I could have gas and air, because I couldn’t face having the canula in my hand, but I was basically bullied into having the canula, after being told that “anxious” patients are more likely to find the process “uncomfortable”, and they wouldn’t be able to give sedation once the procedure had started, if the entinox didn’t work. After all the prep, I didn’t want the procedure to fail, so I felt I had to agree!
it took several attempts to get the canula in, which was horrible, painful and a total waste of time, because the sedation didn’t work. I remember cold gel being applied and the doctor roughly shoving his fingers in for a rectal examination. That was unpleasant and uncomfortable, but not painful. The tube apparently went as far as the sigmoid colon, when the pain became so excruciating that my screams brought the manager in from another part of the colonoscopy suite! It felt like my insides were being ripped out! I don’t know how much sedative they gave me: my hand is black and blue, and very painful. They told me that I couldn’t or wouldn’t use the entinox, although that is the ONLY thing I don’t remember!
The doctor came to see me afterwards and asked if I would like him to see if the hospital could do a ct scan as I had done all the prep, which was nice of him. So just about 40 minutes after my original appt time, I was told they would do it, but that I would have to wait “a while”.
After that, I was told that I would have to arrange for someone to come and take me for the scan. I explained that I didn’t have anyone to do that. I had given my daughters details as next of kin, and told the dept that she would be picking me up, but I had not told her WHY I was in hospital. I had just told her it was a routine appt, as, apart from being embarrassed about it, I didn’t want her to worry. She also has a baby, and would not have been able to accompany me. So, against my wishes, and without my permission, someone called and left a voicemail, from the colonoscopy unit, telling my daughter that “her relative” was ready to be collected and to come to the colonoscopy unit in 30 minutes! Fortunately, and laughably, they actually left this voicemail on MY phone, and I retrieved it FOUR hours later, while I was still waiting to be discharged!
An hour after being told about the scan, two nurses took me to the X-ray dept, on my trolley, where we waited for about another hour.
Finally I was wheeled in for the ct scan. This procedure was not explained properly to me. The dreaded canula was still in my hand, which was very painful, and I couldn’t even look at it. They tested it, pumping something in, which hurt. Then I had to climb on and off, between trolleys I don’t even know how many times. Any dignity I ever had has gone. Virtually all the staff were men, and they’ve seen more of me than my ex husband did! Embarrassing, humiliating, painful…. the day’s experience just got worse and worse!
once they got me under the scanner, having told me that they would have to inject dye via the canula which would make me feel like I was wetting myself, (which it actually didn’t), that was bad enough, but then they stuck a tube up my bum which I was not expecting and started injecting air! Painful? My g-d it was 100 times worse than the aborted colonoscopy! I had three children with no pain relief, and I’m not saying that was a picnic, but the agony of the air injection was worse than anything I have ever experienced in my life!
i screamed, I cried like a baby, totally embarrassed myself and wailed that I just wanted to go home! It was horrendous. The nurses came in, and were lovely, but the men doing the procedure moaned that they had to inject FOUR litres of air and they had only managed to inject 1.8 litres. I felt like I was being impaled, the pain was indescribable, and now, nearly 12 hours later, I still feel like someone is twisting knives around in my insides!
This procedure was also aborted, since I couldn’t “tolerate” it, but they did do another scan, with the contact dye. That was pretty horrific, a full minute of dye being pumped into the canula, made me feel a bit nauseous, but that was probably more down to my needle phobia than anything else. I had a bad reaction to the dye, and had breathing difficulties. Apparently my heart rate and my blood pressure went sky high! I think it was a panic attack. A doctor was called in, and I heard him say to give me adrenaline, but hearing that was enough. I tried to jump up, and almost fell off the trolley. After that they took me to a recovery room for observations.
I am NEVER going through any of these procedures again. I am so shocked at how horrendous all of these procedures are. There must be kinder ways of diagnosing conditions, and is all the pain, inconvenience, humiliation, embarrassment and trauma really necessary?
I, for one, would much rather have had the original procedure done as an inpatient, under general anaesthetic. Apart from depression and anxiety, I am relatively healthy and strong, and it breaks my heart to think of elderly, vulnerable and/ or really sick people having to go through torture like this! Not everyone has someone to bring them to hospital, and collect them, either. I know the NHS is trying to save money, but I just think there must be better ways of treating people.
180 posts since
17 May 2018
Hi, that sounds horrific, I bet these doctors have never experienced it, I honestly wudnt have one again. My poor hubby having one soon and I think I will be worse than him when he gets it. I’ve had loads of ct scans and experienced the contrast dye going in many times. The last ct enterograohy I had was bad as well, I had to drink the cleanprep in the waiting room, I can’t drink cold drinks fast and had to drink 500ml every 15 mins for an hour. My insides were churning and I prayed no one was in the toilet. I had to run before I went in. Sitting on bed at ct scan was agony as my insides told me I wudnt last till they did it. Again the cannula took two nurses to get it in and I was shouting to them that the dye was was really painful when it went in. They didn’t answer me. She did say it was a small vein that they put it in. I had to jump off that table and run to loo. My hand was absolutely black and blue and so swollen, I think the liquid went into my hand. She put a massive plaster in it, I was shocked when I saw it.
3 posts since
6 Sep 2019
I feel your pain! I hope your hubby doesn’t have too bad a time, when he has his procedure.
i had to go back to the hospital yesterday for a chest x-ray, as I’m still coughing so much that I’m vomiting every day. I have a splitting headache, the diarrhoea is back, and I want to just crawl under a rock and die. My hand is still black and blue too.
Doctor told me yesterday that the hospital will be in touch with any results in 5 or 6 weeks!
3 posts since
6 Sep 2019
It’s all horrible, isn’t it? The prep, (in the waiting room??), the stomach churning, the worry of making it to the loo in time, then being poked around, and the whole canula thing, aaarrrrgggghhhh!!!! And the dye going in DOES hurt! A lot!! I don’t think they believe you. They kept telling me to relax… right, it’s just all sooo relaxing. If they’d tried pumping the air in slowly it might have been bearable, but they put in 1.8 litres in a few seconds, and, apart from feeling like I was being impaled, I could feel it going back out. I thought I was pooing myself, mortifying! Then he said,, quite abruptly, “TRY to keep it in”. I was in so much pain I didn’t have any control of anything! I think they should all have to have these procedures as part of their training. Maybe then they would have a bit mire empathy!
180 posts since
17 May 2018
Hi, I hope your results are quick and are good, the waiting bit is not nice but at least the test is done now and hopefully be enough for them to diagnose. I hope I don’t need any of those tests again. Take care
Abandoned colonoscopy and ct colonography
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