SCARED OF HAVING A COLONOSCOPY

[heart2heart2]

Hi all, I'm another one who's scared of the tube up the butt. I've been postphoning it for years. I'm 55 years old, female. I've been having rectal bleeding since 1994! It all started when I was taking Verapamil for high blood pressure which gave me the worst constipation ever. I told the dr. this at that time and a signmoidoscopy was done in 1995. It was awful, they had to give me 2 soapy water enemas because I was impacted and still they found no cause for the bleeding, the dr. thought it may be a "small internal hemorroid". Well I still have rectal bleeding, it occurs after constipation mainly, along with a burning sensation in my butt. I keep eating a high fiber diet and still get constipated. It may be because of my meds.

Because of this bleeding I'm scared the colonoscopy will injure something and cause more bleeding. More so, I'm wondering how I'm going to go without eating throughout the preparation period? I take 9 pills and must take some of my medicine with meals. I'm also a diabetic and if I skip a meal I can become hypoglycemic, how can I possibly skip a whole day of food???  I'm also afraid of the IV insertion since all my veins always collapse and it is nearly impossible to find a good vein in me.  Is there a doctor or nurse who can help answer some of my concerns??

Thanks.

[April2]

You don't have to skip a whole day of food. I started the drink around 4pm or 5pm. I went ahead and ate around 2pm. The drink isn't too bad. It will go right through you so you have to stay near the toilet. I'm not sure what to tell you about taking your meds or insulin but I know my mom and aunt get regular colonoscopies and they're both diabetic and on insulin, so I guess there's a way to work around that. I'd talk to my doctor and the Gastroenterologist about all that. They will guide you on when and how to take your meds.
It really isn't that bad. I slept through the whole thing and then went home and took a nap because I was still sleepy. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable at all. And I had the endoscopy and colonoscopy all done at the same time. No big deal!
Go ahead and get it done. You need to find out what's causing the bleeding so that they can help you. You want to feel better, right? There's power in knowledge. Once you know what's going on, then you can work on fixing it or healing whatever's going on inside of you. You will feel a lot better than you're feeling now! And of course, we always build things way up in our minds, making it much worse in our imaginations than it really is in real life! Once you get throught this, you will wonder why you put if off for so long! Trust me. It'll be ok. I hope this will ease your mind some. Take care.

[JudyRae]

I too stalled with this invasive test.  Every year when I went for my yearly checkup the Doc tried to get me to have one....finally at 67... I bit the dust and said OK..... They tell you what pills you are able to take and I was able to take some of the ones that were needed.  The stuff you drink...is yuk, but not as bad as I thought it would be.... I had myself all stressed out that it would be horrible...its not.  The test itself was nothing... I was sleeping and felt absolutely fine when I woke up...  I could have kicked myself for waiting so long... Test all came out OK....  Just make sure when you drink the junk, that you're next to your potty....it runs through you fast but doesn't hurt or give you any cramps at all like when you got the runs...    My sis had it done and they found a couple of polyps...which they took off.... She had no pain, only minimal bleeding and feels great now.