That’s horrifying. My first colonoscopy was very mild in comparison but I woke up also and it hurt. My dr immediately increased the meds and I was out for the remainder of the procedure.
I moved to central California and a great new doctor who uses propofol and I’m out-out, not just sedated. No pain, no waking up, nothing.
Considering your history, I think it’s important for you to find a good doctor with a good reputation to simply talk to about what happened. You need to have another look to ensure you’re ok.
The fact that you can recall so much of the procedure and experience....... well to me that speaks volumes and in particular it really makes me question the Versed (Midazolam). Midazolam is a short acting drug of the Benzodiazepine Class and one of the few available for IV use. Like most benzodiazepines Midazolam lowers anxiety which,as you’d understand, would be highly desirable pre procedure. However the most useful of Midazolams effect, is the dose dependant level of
Retrograde-Amnesia it produces. That’s just a fancy way of saying along with reducing your anxiety beforehand, Midazolam makes you forget any pain or traumatic memories of the procedure. In your post it is clearly apparent that you were highly anxious and recall a great deal of trauma and details from this experience. This is the absolute opposite of the rationale for use and outcomes from use. I wasn’t there for your procedure obviously, BUT I have seen this before and in both of those cases the reason was the same ....... The midazolam for the procedure had been tampered or switched. ONE of the medical staff present (from anaesthetics tech to the Gastroenterologist, had tampered with The Midazolam syringe (either a swap or dilution) and both patients received either diluted midazolam or NaCl soln. I mean you don’t proceed from distressed patient to physical restraint of patient ...... that’s an almighty escalation of procedure........ not to mention it being outside standard procedure and would absolutely be recorded somewhere. What about giving patient more Midazolam...... that is standard practice not physical restraint FFS. If you think this sounds far-fetched, a medical professional stealing a patients medication, believe me ..... in every single hospital in every single city in the country I could pretty well guarantee you that someone in some bed is being shorted on the medications they need!!
The best thing you can do is tell where this happened and the name of the doctor. YELP it! Help the rest of us avoid this horrible situation, PLEASE!
Omg i just went thru a similar situation a week ago tomorrow! It hurt so bad the dr knew i woke up before in 2010 so in 2013 he used general, this time he did a endoscopy / colonoscopy and i never went to sleep it was horrible i was screaming and grabbing his arm and the rails of the gueney saying stop plse stop i see it on four monitors all the biopsys he takes 3 plces i tell him o tht doesnt look good it hurts just stop make it stop and he continues he keeps telling the nurse Fentanyl i cont to scream until he stops and the nurse wheels ne out and pushes me bck to the recovery and tells me to rest . The endoscopy i felt and was being gagged the whole time and kept grabbing my own neck .the whole this was horrible and my insides are so sore i feel extra sore where he took biopsies. The nurse said she gv me the max amount of versed and demoral and Fentanyl they could give without stopping my respirations and she couldnt believe i was talking . I just don't understand why the dr wouldnt stop and b compassionate whn u say it hurts
The terror of this procedure is understandable. I had a screening sigmoidoscopy some 15 years ago, and the terror from that procedure, which basically is only 1/3 the length, and with only an enema for prep, was so bad because of the callousness of the MD. I guess I have a twisty colon. But I'll never go back, especially as I have no family history of cancer, and accept that I will die of something anyway.
I say that I will just enjoy the moment. And not purposefully plan to be in a place where I submit to routine screening torture. My risk of cancer is low, but the risk of torture from undergoing a colonoscopy is 100% from my torture experience.
Was your colonoscopy at Parkland in Dallas Texas. I had a very similar experience. It has been almost two years and it changed my life. I have pain every day, am horribly bloated constantly and can wear nothing that I used to wear. I have mentioned it to so many doctors but nothing has been done about it. I feel I am slowly dying. I am so angly as it has ruined my life in so many ways.
As I have said before they would be in court so fast for false imprisonment and battery and if that didn't work I would kill him.
Damn, that sounds horrible. Law suit time. I hate to advocate that but there is no reason for that type of treatment.
That wouldn't happen with me.
Firstly I have never had nor will have any form of invasie procedure.
2ndly - if I did - When I say no it is NO!!!!!!!!!! If they ignore it they will be in court for assault and unlawful imprisonment as well as being in front of the MEDICAL Council. If that fails they would be Dead. I am the only one who says what goes on with my body. Not some prick medical professional who thinks he is god.
Pearl is correct..if patients are dumb enough to sighn a blanket sedation consent then they have no recourse..they will give you amnestic drugs such as Versed and they don't give a damn if you are screaming or writhing in pain; you won't be able to resist and they will get you out the door in a Versed-induced stupor..the fun (and the nightmares, PTSD, memory loss) start when you get home..why would you expect them to care about your mental state, hostility and PTSD? after all, you signed a sedation consent that allowed thme to give you Versed. Too bad that you didn't do your homework and write on the consent: "I'm not consenting to Versed"
It's been four years since my colonoscopy, and I still have anxiety and anger when I think about it. It was truly the worst experience of my life. I "woke up" mid-procedure to the worst pain imaginable (20 on a pain scale of 1-10) , and although I clearly remember thrashing around, I don't know if I was screaming or not - I could not see or hear anything. No memory of anyone trying to reassure or encourage me. I, too, wondered if perhaps all patients in pain are ignored since they don't expect us to remember. It also bothers me that those of us who have had bad experiences are told to keep quiet or we'll scare others. Our experiences are every bit as valid as those who have good experiences, and patients should be told the TRUTH...which is, a colonoscopy with Versed can indeed be terribly painful !.
I hav had 9+ colonoscopies, all hav gone well until my last one 2 days ago. The medication they gave me were Fentanyl for pain and Versed so you don't remember what happened to you during the procedure. This time they didn't give me enough of either. I experienced the most brutal treatment and excruciating pain of my life! The dr began inserting the scope and when it came to a corner of my bowels I couldn't handle the imense pain. I said stop stop! I was crying but he just continued, that's when the nurse grabbed my arm and pinned me to the bed and told me you can't be moving around! Agony is an understatement, not only from the scope but now for my arm. I now have bruises all over my upper arm from her fingers digging into me while pinning me down. Thisus also the first time that my insides still feel badly bruised and it hurts to sit down from the upwards pressure.
Now I am having nightmares and wake up sweating with tears on my pillow!
I now know what really happens during a colonoscopy and I may never go through it again even though I should because of my Crohn's.
I believe I have been assaulted but hospital believes it was all on my head from the drugs...
OMG same exact thing happen to me.. DAMN DR!! he didnt even wait till anything took effect, just jammed it in and kept going OMG.. Im still scared for life..
Well, for those of us who read this we know to ask for propofal then right? I mean I was in such horrible pain toward the end when the Dr was going up and around OMG the versed and Demerol I got was a JOKe..
OH WOW WISH I READ THIS SOONER!! I really thought I was going to get propofal but change of Dr and guess he wanted to see me suffer, and suffer I did omg!
No where in my post did I say that all polyps are pre-cancerous. I said "colonoscopies often find pre-cancerous polyps which are then removed preventing colon cancer". When a biopsy is taken, you can tell whether the polyp is non-cancerous, pre-cancerous, or cancerous. A colonoscopy will often find pre-cancerous polyps (in addition to non pre-cancerous polyps) which are then removed, lowering your risk for colon cancer.
You are making an assumption in your post that isn't scientifically valid.
All polyps are not "pre-cancerous" (any more than a mole or freckle is on your dermis). Most polyps in the 1-5 mm band do grow. However, most polyps in the 5-9 mm band REGRESS. Almost all polyps will NEVER progress to cancer.
So to be consistent, I want you to rush over to your dermatologist and get any funny looking tissue whacked off and certainly all moles and freckles! Yes, I am kidding and yes I realize it's easier to monitor events on your skin than your colon (although the analogy does hold for places like your back!).
We are waging a war on dysplasia not cancer and we haven't a clue which dysplasia is actually dangerous.
You are free to make your own choices about what medical procedures you choose to have. However, they are not "totally unnecessary" most of the time. In people aged 50 and older, colonoscopies often find pre-cancerous polyps which are then removed preventing colon cancer. They also do not do "more harm than good" most of the time. The people you see on this thread are the less than 1% who had problems from their colonoscopies.
That is exactly the reason that I have never had, nor will ever have any form of invasive treatment. Most of the time they are totally unneccessary and do more harm than good. I will take my chances instead of having some medical "professional" messing up my insides.
You are not bullet-proof from CRC because you agreed to have a colonoscopy NOR is a colonoscopy the only step you can take to reduce your chance for CRC.
CRC can be fast-moving and it does NOT have to follow the polyp model. And colonoscopies have double-digit miss rates when all is perfect anyway.
So let's be careful about annointing a surgical procedure turned mass screening tool of healthy people as "vital".
Average lifetime risk is around 5%. A big chunk of that happens late in life (primarily ladies, making the one-size-fits-all screening guidelines wrong). You can lower this further by not smoking or drinking, watching processed meat consumption, taking aspirin and vitamin D-3, exercising vigorously and lowering body mass, etc. Those are "vital" because the benefits accrue to maladies not named CRC.
I had colonoscopy because of Fissure and bleeding. It was not painful at first ( they used pain killer through IV), but after the procedure, pain started. I could not control gas and it turns to anal and fecal incontinence. Doctors believe that it is from damage to anal sphincter muscles and nerves. Anyone have the same problems? Please help. I am 35 and it makes me scared and depressed.
A vital procedure?
Let's take a look at that.
1. Some CRC does not follow polyp pathway and some is rapid onset. This procedure doesn't make your bulletproof.
2. Double digit miss rate very much influenced by quality of prep (and no 2 doctors agree on this... many gastros still not preaching split dose).
3. Incidence rate may sound low at 0.25% but this is a mass screen (even if surgery) so it's a big deal. You might not get a colostomy bag from CRC but from your colonoscopy.
4. Generic screening guidelines that ignore gender. Men are at much greater risk for CRC than women (35-40%) and contract it earlier. Women are generally at risk in their 70s (men in their 60s) so subtract 10 years from each and establish your guidelines. Nope, per norm, the ladies get duped and screwed.
5. Risk factors are not consistently used well in screening guidelines. Big difference between 1st degree relative with CRC at 50 and one who gets it at 70. So too much made of family history and not enough attention paid to age at diagnosis. Bigger problem is that risk mitigants ignored...exercise, not smoking, not obese, calcium / dairy consumption, aspirin consumption, vitamin d consumption can influence risk profile SIGNIFICANTLY. This isn't theoretical and rocket science but ASGE wants its billings.
It's way past time for fecal DNA (sDNA) but that diagnostic is being held to a standard never applied to colonoscopies.
Glad colonoscopies exist but they should never be a mass screen. Truly bizarre that they are.
you are very lucky that it went so well, I had a traumatic experience and was left crying and in agony feeling very confused as to what had happened to me, i phoned the department the next day to see if what happened to me was normal as i felt so upset and that I was being overdramatic and a baby. I was screaming and writhing about in agony with a less than impressed dr shouting at me. Im glad to say that they deemed it as 'normal colonoscopy' although they couldnt complete the procedure they only got to the 'splenic flexure' so less than half way round?? but im happy not to question that and i'll take my chances. no symptoms since colonoscopy so im guessing the bowel prep flushed away a simple nasty infection. However had i read this forum prior to the procedure i would have felt scared but more prepared for the horror i was about to face as I could have questioned the meds etc - i was given a tump load of 'Versed' which couldnt have worked as the pain and feeling that i was a nuisance was overwheming. I will refuse to ever have another colonoscopy and would definitely pay Private if i had to for a virtual one instead. I wouldnt wish my experience of a colonoscopy on my worst enemy! a knowing colleague told me that the prep was the worst part and they lied to save me from worrying so i guess that was a good thing as if i had anxiety and sleepless nights before hand it would of tipped me over the edge!! Not knowing is sometimes a good thing as I would have been reluctant to have it done but then again I wish id had some clue to just how awful it was going to be, two sides to every coin i guess!
Am I ever glad I found this thread. I thought I was alone in what I experienced. It was horryfying. I don't even know for sure if I was properly sedated, because the nurse in the room with me knew my neighbor and asked me about her while I was supposed to be relaxing before the procedure. This neighbor had been causing us trouble for years, so it was no doubt the nurse happened to be a good friend of hers and was "paying me back".
The enitre procedure was RUSHED. The doctor came in and got started, then the pain came as he kept pumping me with air. I cried out in so much pain that I squeezed the nurse's hand. He could not get around my spleen, so he stopped after all of my agony. It was the worst experience of my life. If I ever have it done again, which I doubt, I will insist on proponol. I will insist on being OUT. Because I have every memory of the entire thing.