Advice while awaiting diagnostic colonoscopy

Good luck - I hope it all goes smoothly for you.  

Thank you everyone for your advice. Your responses have helped with my decisions and me realise what I am feeling while waiting for next week is similar to others. Thank you very much.

Also, if you play the autism card at expert level, your helper *can* be with you all the way through - an extra pair of eyes during the procedure - as long as they have a strong stomach!        My wife has been through loads of them with me.

I was going to mention that too. My wife took me home both times, I wasn't quite sure what was going on,  as my memory was affected : )

For the heart ultra sound, I was given a Sedative as part of the procedure. For the Endoscopy, I remember two nurses trying to persuade me not to have a Sedative, but I insisted on it and so got one : )

If you haven't got anyone to take with you, you'll have to stay at the hospital for some hours, to get the sedative out of your system. You might be advised to get a taxi back home.

I REALLY recommend taking someone with you - I had one last week and I had Entonox & sedation - so I wasn't paddling with all my oars in the water afterwards.   I needed someone to be aware of what was going on around me and advocate for me because I get very, very stressed about it all.

The sedation meant I couldn't drive afterwards,

When I had a transoesophageal echocardiogram (A heart examination, where an ultrasound probe was fed down my throat) and an endoscopy -  I elected for a Sedative . I'm not sure what they used but, I remember being given the drug (through my canular) and then no memory of anything to do with the procedure. The next thing I remembered was being in mid conversation with a nurse in the recovery room. It was like I had lost my short-term memory, because I had to be conscience during the procedure and following instructions -  but I just didn't remember anything about it.

So I would definitely recommend it and don't let them try and put you off giving you the sedative.

At some point soon, being over 55, I will be offered a Colonoscopy and will definitely play the Autism card and ask for the sedative : )

One final piece of advice, if during the Colonoscopy, you need to break wind, - just do it. It will only be air and so not smell. My friend tried to hold it in and it was very, very painful for him.

The waiting is scary. I had this done ten years ago. I'm not sure what I had, but def not sedation and I didn't feel any pain. It was weird, but well done. And i had a negative result. Eventually it turned out my internal bleeding was a reaction to Ibruprofen.

My gut health was poor for ages afterwards though until i saw a herbalist who said this was typical and strongly recommended pre biotic foods, eg raw asparagus, onion,  leeks, and a variety of pro biotic foods like sauerkraut, chamomille tea, etc.

Good luck.