Hi Sucane1, welcome to the forum! I'm sorry that you have such horrible symptoms, hope you'll get well soon! (•‿•)
I've personally done an upper and a lower colonoscopy at the same time before, so let me briefly share my experience here. I was pretty scared about it initially, so I definitely understand the anxiety you're feeling right now. It's a surgical procedure after all.
(I believe I've posted this on another thread before, but for the benefit of others who may be reading this thread, I've decided to post this here as well.)
I found that having more information about what I was going to go through helped to ease my anxiety a little, but I'll leave it at your discretion not to come up with a thousand and one ways how your colonoscopy may fail. Basically, there are 4 steps to a colonoscopy, namely, bowel preparation, sedation, the actual colonoscopy and the recovery.
1) Bowel preparation
This is the longest and hardest part of the colonoscopy. I found myself having to drink 4 litres of Fortrans ("industrial-grade laxative") a day before the colonoscopy. That thing was repulsive. When it first goes into your mouth, it tastes a little salty, but leaves a horrible aftertaste in your mouth, which tastes something like Barbie doll plastic.
For me, what I did was to make a detailed schedule of when I would drink the Fortrans throughout the day, and it looked something like this:
1 litre every 3 hours, 1 250ml cup every 45 minutes, 1/3 of a 250ml cup every 15 minutes.
It also helps if you could cross something out every time you've finished a third of a cup of whatever PEG you'll be using, which may differ from country to country. But whatever you do, do not try to cheat. The price you'll have to pay is that the gastroenterologist will have to wash all the leftover poop from your gut during the actual colonoscopy.
After a few cups, you'll feel the urge to go to the loo. A lot. I ended up having 17 BMs in a day. Your should end up having clear watery stool at the end of the day. It'll be good if you have 24/7 access to a vacant toilet nearby.
Furthermore, make sure you fast before going for your colonoscopy, or all your previous efforts will be in vain.
2) Sedation
It is very likely that you'll receive sedation through an IV. After 3 failed attempts of installing an IV for me, I've become downright terrified of needles. Solution: ask for an adult butterfly needle if you're feeling scared. It's less painful.
You'll also need to change into some surgery gown and wear some loose fitting underwear, both of which the hospital will provide.
3) Actual colonoscopy
If you're doing an upper colonoscopy, an anaesthetist may spray an anaesthetic into your mouth before the start of the colonoscopy. It has a very minty flavour, and stings quite a bit. The anaesthetist may inject some sedation through the IV, and you may temporarily feel a ice-cold sensation running through your veins. It's normal. You should feel a little groggy but still conscious the whole time.
When the scope is pushed down your mouth, it's okay if your gag reflex acts up and you end up gagging up a ton of saliva. The surgeon would try to force the scope downwards, but at any time if you feel pain, feel free to gesture to the anaesthetist for more sedation. I ended up having 3 shots of sedation.
For a lower endoscopy, more sedation would be given and this may out you into a light sleep. While the gastroenterologist pushes the scope in, you may feel a weird sensation down there, but that's all I'm able to tell you as I don't recall much from the lower colonoscopy.
4) Recovery
After you wake up, you may find that your throat is dry, your gag reflex is gone and you feel nauseous and have a splitting headache. These are all side effects of the anaesthetic and the sedation, and they'll wear off in a day or two. Make sure you get plenty of rest during the recovery period. I find that sleeping off the sedation was a good solution to pass the time.
In addition, it's okay if you have dark coloured stools in the next few days if you had biopsies removed from your gut during the colonoscopy. You may feel awfully bloated too, but that'll resolve on its own by the end of the week. Also, you'll have to force yourself to eat something after the procedure, as you've probably gone without food for a good three-quarters of a day now.
After observing you for a few hours, the hospital should remove your IV and discharge you. The procedure is complete! But, if something goes wrong after a few days, make sure you come back to the hospital to get it checked. I believe you can find more of that on the Internet.
Anyways, here's my experience with both an upper and a lower colonoscopy, hope you found it somewhat useful. I'm sure there're many more people here who have gone through colonoscopies before, and you can look at their stories in the forum. More importantly, you'll find that you're not alone on this forum, and there'll be many more people who are willing to lend you a listening ear and hear what you have to say.
Here's wishing you all the best for your colonoscopy on Friday,
CYY ^^
