I Had a Sigmoidoscopy
Well after reading the other stories on here I had mixed feelings about my upcoming sigmoidoscopy which was last friday, I wasn't sure whether it would hurt or not but either way I was not looking forward to it. Anyway on the day I was petrified and not helped by the 3 day starvation diet in preperation for an enema! I arrived at the hospital and was given an enema by a nurse and told to try and hold it in for 5 mins, no chance I said and quickly legged to it the nearest loo to empty my stomach - that was an unpleasant experience in itself and surely I thought the sigmoidoscopy could not hurt anymore than that! How wrong I was!! I was led down to the surgical room and positioned on the bed ready for the tube to be inserted, now I must say that the doctor that did it and the nurses that tried to comfort me were lovely but I'm afraid to say it was the most painful experience I have ever had so far. First of all the doctor inserted his finger which wasn't pleasant and then the tube followed, I was in agony and was writhing around in pain and begging them to stop. Looking back now I must say that the pains probably were just really bad gas pains from the air they were pumping in at the time but because I couldn't do anything to stop the pain then it was unbearable. I was offered sedation to try to calm me down but had to turn it down as my partner had his leaving do that night and I didn't want to spoil things for him ( he told me off for refusing of course and I shall never refuse again). Anyway they managed to get the tube in 40cm and then they said they would withdraw and take some biopsies on the way out as it was causing me so much distress. What they said to me was that everything looked pink and healthy but it seemed to be very sensitive! My consultant said to me afterwards that pending normal biopsy results then I have IBS so that could be why my colon was so sensitive at the time. After they had finished I was wheeled up to a recovery room and had really bad wind which is to be expected and for the rest of that evening when I went to the toilet I passed a small amount of blood and clear fluid which I guess was from the trauma and biopsy and remaining lubrication/enema. I'm sorry to leave a horror story but it really was very painful and unpleasant and if you can have sedation then I would absolutly recommend that you do.
