The best part of a colonoscopy is when they start the anesthesia into your vein; that 2 or 3 seconds when it starts to kick in but before you go out.
No family history that I know of, just glad I didn't wait for it to turn into something worse. They did tell me my kids should get it done at 30.
I had a colonoscopy about 12 years ago. They removed 2 polyps. It wasn’t bad except having to drink that gallon of colon cleaner. Fast forward a few years and it was my wife's turn. I assured her it was not a big deal and she grudgingly agreed to have it done. We were in our final days of living in Commiefornia. The house was sold, belongings packed in Pods and gone to storage. Her surgery was on the Friday before Easter. We were to turn over the keys on Monday and be on the road to a new life on Tuesday. Her surgery went well, she was discharged and we went home. The chief of gastroenterology had done the procedure and removed 2 polyps.
Saturday evening around 10pm we are sitting in our empty house watching videos on her laptop when she says she doesn’t feel well. She got up to go to the bathroom and collapsed about halfway there. She was able to grab a corner of the wall and just slide down onto the tile floor, out cold. I rushed over to her as she started coming around, telling me she was okay, just got up too fast. I kept her on the floor for a few minutes just to be sure. Pretty soon she says she needs to go to the bathroom. Bad, like right now. Before she could get up her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out again. Thats when I noticed she was laying in a growing puddle of blood. Not good. I called 911 and when the para medics showed up they were concerned. She was taken immediately to the local hospital. She was bleeding out through her colon and they didn’t know why. By now we had been in the ER for almost 2 hours. They gave her 3 bags of blood and 2 bags of saline if I remember right. The nurse was squeezing the bags to get it in her faster. She was bleeding into her colon until it was full (she was conscious during those periods) then her body would release the blood in a gush, her BP would plummet and she would pass out. That cycle continued until almost 2am when the surgeon finally arrived and she underwent emergency surgery. They found that during removal of one of the polyps the HMFIC of Gastroenterology had nicked a blood vessel just enough to weaken it. It eventually ruptured and damned near killed her. When she came out of surgery they explained all that to me. It was about 5am on Easter Sunday, 2019. We were effectively homeless during the pandemic and she needed 2 weeks bed rest. Lucky for us family stepped up and took care of us until she was finally released from doctor’s care and we could get the flock out of Commiefornia.
I wrote all this basically to explain why I would rather not have another colonoscopy. I’m pretty sure my wife won’t agree to having another one either! I think that experience gave us both PTSD.
Saturday evening around 10pm we are sitting in our empty house watching videos on her laptop when she says she doesn’t feel well. She got up to go to the bathroom and collapsed about halfway there. She was able to grab a corner of the wall and just slide down onto the tile floor, out cold. I rushed over to her as she started coming around, telling me she was okay, just got up too fast. I kept her on the floor for a few minutes just to be sure. Pretty soon she says she needs to go to the bathroom. Bad, like right now. Before she could get up her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out again. Thats when I noticed she was laying in a growing puddle of blood. Not good. I called 911 and when the para medics showed up they were concerned. She was taken immediately to the local hospital. She was bleeding out through her colon and they didn’t know why. By now we had been in the ER for almost 2 hours. They gave her 3 bags of blood and 2 bags of saline if I remember right. The nurse was squeezing the bags to get it in her faster. She was bleeding into her colon until it was full (she was conscious during those periods) then her body would release the blood in a gush, her BP would plummet and she would pass out. That cycle continued until almost 2am when the surgeon finally arrived and she underwent emergency surgery. They found that during removal of one of the polyps the HMFIC of Gastroenterology had nicked a blood vessel just enough to weaken it. It eventually ruptured and damned near killed her. When she came out of surgery they explained all that to me. It was about 5am on Easter Sunday, 2019. We were effectively homeless during the pandemic and she needed 2 weeks bed rest. Lucky for us family stepped up and took care of us until she was finally released from doctor’s care and we could get the flock out of Commiefornia.
I wrote all this basically to explain why I would rather not have another colonoscopy. I’m pretty sure my wife won’t agree to having another one either! I think that experience gave us both PTSD.
Regardless of how routine, how common, how 'easy'; it is SURGERY.
Sometimes things happen. Glad she is OK and being a bit wary is understandable. Complications are rare and ignoring the need for testing can be much worse than those complications.
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