My colonoscopy experience (almost positive...)

The prep drink is surprisingly tolerable. From what I'd heard I imagined it to taste pretty rancid but it pretty much tastes like a boiled lemon sweet in liquid form. The only issue is it tastes overly sweet. It makes you go to number 2 a lot so thats a nuisance. But better than painful constipation!

The actual procedure itself is not painful at all and probably nowhere near as uncomfortable as you might imagine. The tube goes in effortlessly and there isn't much to feel. Now here's why I put 'almost positive' in the title...the sedation I was given didn't work. I said to them I didn't feel relaxed and they said I'll probably feel it after in the ward. What good is that?! And they also said that I'll probably forget it because sedation gives you short term memory loss. Even though most of the procedure is very tolerable even without sedation it's when the camera goes around the bends of your colon that is extrememly painful. I found myself almost begging them to stop it was that bad. Luckily it only lasted for about 5 seconds and a total of 4 times.

I have no idea why the sedation didn't work. Unfortunately I can't find the form which says what sed was used but fentynl and midazolam was used for my endoscopy which worked fine. Maybe they didnt use enough. If you're going to be having a colonoscopy and worried about this happening to you then voice your concern to a doctor/nurse and say a family member/friend went through this and you're concerned it will happen to you. Say you're very anxious etc hopefully then they may top it up.