Comment by ORDINAND_PIZZA
5 hours ago
just get the colonoscopy, it's really not that bad. if ya haven't had one yet, i wrote this for u (30 second read of my experience):
5 hours ago
just get the colonoscopy, it's really not that bad. if ya haven't had one yet, i wrote this for u (30 second read of my experience):
I had the colonoscopy without anasthesia, it was over in 5 minutes with less pain than almost any visit to the dentist. The experience made me baffled at the insistence on total anasthesia, and the assumption the unanasthesized procedure is harrowing, that is often reported by people in private-insurance countries like the USA. So, I agree, if you need the procedure because of age or family history, just get it done.
I will say, the drink prescribed by my own GP tasted just fine, like any electrolyte sports drink in powdered form, so I think you were unlucky there!
>I will say, the drink prescribed by my own GP tasted just fine, like any electrolyte sports drink in powdered form, so I think you were unlucky there!
Mine was so bad I almost vomited it all up immediately from the taste. Would very much like your option next time.
I would also like to do it without the anesthesia next time to save $1500.
I asked, but the clinic that I went to did not offer the option. They cited safety as the reason. e.g. any movement by me could risk intestinal damage.
Presumably they still used a nerve block or some sort of local anasthetic on you. How was the recovery?
No, no local anasthetic at all. A lack of anasthesia seems usual for public healthcare in multiple EU countries; if you want anasthesia, you go to a private clinic and pay.
Recovery? The procedure left no lingering feeling at all except for a little gas; it was as if I had never had the procedure at all. The sole discomfort, when air is blown into the colon to inflate it for inspection, abated as soon as air was no longer being blown.
Maybe ya just got a loose b-hole. Congrats.
Stop slit shaming
Good piece, and ditto. Really the worst part for me was just not being able to eat for 24 hours before; the actual procedure was painless.
I turned 50 this month and after asking him to "please schedule me for a colonoscopy", my Primary Care Preventer is working hard to talk me out of it and into alternatives. Ones that I assume are cheaper for the Org and he gets to prolong the process by saying it's a loooooong time to schedule (which is why I reached out, duh?)
I intensely dislike American Healthcare. Every little damn thing is a fight.
Primary care preventer?
Change doctors. If they don't listen and work with you tell them that. If you have valid reasons for requesting care and they try to convince you otherwise that isn't a good doctor.
changing doctors has been an annual tradition for me for the last 5 years. It's an odd mix of "nobody is taking new patients" and "here's someone even worse" that I seem stuck on. Still trying. I think I am fighting "the protocol" at this point. It has that enshittified vibe.
This thread convinced me to sweep aside his bullshit and insist though, and I'm thankful for that nudge. I might not be in a few months when I'm drinking the gallon of paste, but that's a problem for future Mike :)
Seconded.
Although everyone’s experience varies a little - for me, the prep is quite miserable, not because of the obvious, but because I feel very dehydrated/hung over for hours during it. Conversely, a friend who has relatively regular colonoscopies doesn’t share this at all.
And continue to get them as advised. I have had four and was told to return in three years. My wife and one of my sisters died of colon cancer. One of my sons just had his first colonoscopy at 32.