11 Comments
User's avatar
Jo Diwell's avatar

Having had 2 I can confirm that the worst part is the bowel prep. Also staff are so professional and caring

Ron Baker's avatar

Dr H does a great colonoscopy..lay back and relax..shut youer eyes, sleep for a short time..the Tea and Biscuits...To be honest the pre prepartion is the interesting bit !

Dr Arif Hussenbux MBBS's avatar

Haha thank you sir!

3forlunch's avatar

What a calming reassuring piece - thank you

Linda B's avatar

Thanks for this great overview. Question for you - does the bowel prep result in an altered gut microbiome and if so, what steps should be taken to rebuild a healthy gut afterwards?

Queenie May's avatar

Thank you. I wish I had read this before my own experience. Overall, things went okay, but at one point during the procedure I was in a lot of pain. The junior doctor had to press down hard on my abdomen to ease the pain and I was given more sedative. I have severe deep pelvic endometriosis, so they thought that might have been the cause.

After the colonoscopy, I was diagnosed with diverticular disease, but I haven’t had any follow-up for that. I also haven’t had any further support or guidance regarding my severe endometriosis, which at the time (two years ago) had spread to both my bowel and bladder.

I’m currently dealing with very difficult symptoms from both conditions and feel unsure about where to turn next. I would really appreciate any advice.

Maria Betts's avatar

I’d be very interested to read a reply to both Queenie May and Linda B please author, and/or other relevant source.

Jan Hempstead, RN's avatar

I just had my third one 2 weeks ago.

Michael Kirsch, MD's avatar

Tea and biscuits? How British! An excellent primer. I suspect that colonoscopy will fade out when more convenient and less expensive non-invasive screening tests achieve a certain level of accuracy. When will this occur? I think it will be sooner than we think., Nicely done!