u/KeyCartographer9173

This will be a long one but, I found it really useful reading everyone’s experiences so thought I’d share mine just in case it helps anyone. I’m 38f UK, I had a gynaecological MRI prior to a hospital appointment which showed thickening of my descending/sigmoid colon so my GP ran some blood tests and had me do a fit test, this came back at 89 so I was referred on the urgent suspected colorectal pathway, this was on the Thursday and the hospital called me Tuesday to say I’d been booked for a colonoscopy on the Thursday and said I needed to go and collect my bowel prep. Plenvu & instructions collected, luckily I knew about the low residue diet so I started it straight away after the call and luckily due to my anxiety being sky high I hadn’t eaten much for the last few days. Wednesday was prep day so had some toast around 8am then swapped to clear liquids only. I mixed up my prep with 500ml cold water and put back in the fridge until 1pm when it was time to take it at 1pm. Before I started I applied Vaseline before the toilet trips started.. I was so anxious about what was to come having never done anything like this before but 1pm came around and I got my prep along with apple juice and some lemon squash to sip after. Managed to get the prep down over an hour by having a small glass through a straw every 15 minutes, it wasn’t pleasant but not the worst thing I’ve tasted though the last glass did make me gag. 2:15pm only 15 minutes after starting I got the first urge to go, not too bad and I applied sudocrem straight after to protect the area. Had a lot of false alarm movements where I had to run to the toilet but only had 4 more movements between then and 18:50 where I was worried it wasn’t working because I was thinking this isnt too bad… 18:55 I started dose 2 ’fruit punch’ again not awful but I’ve had nicer drinks and used apple juice/lemon squash to get it down, this took me about 90 minutes to finish because it made me feel so sick and around 19:30 it kicked in - for the next 4 hours I was in and out of the toilet roughly every 10 minutes making sure to apply sudocrem / metanium cream after each movement and I used wipes to dab/pat rather than wipe and I had very minimal pain which I had been worried about. I also needed to pee very often so it was pretty exhausting being up and down so often! I was on and off the toilet until 3am when I managed 2 hours sleep before I was awake and needed to go again - had 3 more trips to the toilet up to 7am then it just stopped although I did have the feeling like there may be more - 17 hours on and off of up and down & in and out of the toilet - I’ve had better days lol

Procedure day - my appointment was 10:50 so arrived around 10:40 and checked in. They were over an hour late calling me by which point I was an anxious mess, they called me in and took my OBS and asked if I wanted sedation which I said I did. They gave me attractive blue paper style shorts and a gown to get changed and let me know where to wait. I had an absolute meltdown whilst waiting and a lovely nurse found me and came in and spoke to me and took me to the recovery area to wait so I wasn’t alone, they put my cannula in and had a chat and explained what would happen etc then the doctor came in & went over everything with me. I was still sobbing at this point so they asked if I wanted to wait or was I happy to go in, I decided to just get it over with. They wheeled me in to the room and had me lay on my left side and put the sedation in. The doctor had warned me it would be painful as they get round the first bend and they weren’t wrong, I found it very painful but they upped the meds and it didn’t last too long. It felt like I was only in there about 10 minutes but it was actually about 30, it hurt a little on the way out again but nothing major and the all clear was given, no biopsies needed and only some hemorrhoids found. Was taken to recovery and given a drink and some biscuits, ended up having to stay longer due to issues with my blood pressure and heart rate but after an hour I was fine and allowed to go home where I had a 3 hour nap!
I did have a few issues with pain after, every time I ate I would get awful pains, this settled after about a week.

My top tips:

Make sure prep is cold & use a straw and have something to take the taste away after

Dab/pat with wipes and not toilet roll

Wrap up, I was freezing after starting the prep (dressing gown, blanket, hot water bottle and had the heating on)

Use Vaseline/sudocrem/mentanium before the toilet trips start. This saved pretty much all the pain!

Stay close to the toilet, the urge to go hits without warning and you need to go instantly. Do not wait, I was about 5 steps from the toilet and still only just made it a couple of times!

Ice lollies/Jelly (avoiding the restricted colours) were a lifesaver when I was so thirsty no amount of drinking was helping

DO NOT TRUST A FART!!

Overall, not the nicest thing to do but it was manageable. It became annoying at the end rather than unbearable. But I got it done and it’s so important to do!

I apologise this is so long, if you made it to the end thanks for reading and I hope it helps even just one person. Good luck ☺️

Hi! My GP has suggested I start this medication but I’m a bit nervous. I have previously tried citalopram and was on 40mg for a few years with no issues and mirtzapine but I felt like a zombie and gained so much weight so weaned off that. I’m a little scared to start if im honest, how bad are the side effects? I read insomnia is common and I cannot have worse sleep than I am currently dealing with, for example last night I couldnt sleep until 4:30am and only slept for 3 hours, in a bad anxiety/ depression cycle and my brain won’t turn off. I really am not keen to add something in to the mix that is going to make it worse as I havent slept for longer than 3/4 hours in over 2 weeks now and they don’t want to give me anything to help with that even though the mental health practitioner recommended it! Wondering if I should just start citalopram again as I know I was okay on that before.

Hi all! I have my first appointment in a couple of weeks. I was referred around a year ago after around 9 months of changes to and worsening periods. I went to the GP after I had 3 weeks of continuous heavy bleeding and awful pain that nothing made better. After being fobbed off by a male GP I saw a female who actually listened, examined me and first comment was “oh you are bleeding a lot aren’t you” I went for an ultrasound/transvaginal scan which showed my left ovary is adhered to my uterus but nothing much else but she referred to me to hospital anyway. The hospital contacted me and sent me for an MRI scan which I had in March, this showed some thickening of my sigmoid colon (this has been investigated separately with a colonoscopy after a positive fit test and the inside of my colon was clear) it also suggested my left ovary may be adhered to my sigmoid colon but they said there was no signs of endo or adeno so I ‘probably don’t have that even if it’s not picked up on scans’ I had the implant in and take double dose detested which has controlled the bleeding but I still get a lot of pain sometimes most days and it is mostly on the left hand side and feels like ovary pain. I do get some bladder/bowel symptoms at times and pain with s*x! I’m just worried I’ll be fobbed off with no further investigation as to what is causing the pain, I had some severe left sided pain following my and the nurse bleeped a doctor who said “it’s probably due to my adhesions“ and asked the nurse to ask me what was being done about it. Has anyone experienced similar, any tips or advice for my appointment? What would likely next steps be, a laproscopy perhaps? Thanks for reading and any advice shared.

Feeling low after all clear colonoscopy?

Historically do have a diagnosed anxiety and depressive disorder. Was very anxious when finding out I needed to be referred for suspected cancer. But was given the all clear and almost a week on still feel so anxious and low? Motivation for anything has totally gone and sleep is awful. Anyone else experienced this?