Replies

The absolute worst part was the day before, drinking that gak and then crapping like a goose.

Ten years ago I drank the crap. This year I took pills and just drank a lot of water. It wasn't bad at all. Also, the doctor really snowed me so after the ten seconds it took to lose consciousness I wasn't aware of anything for the next two hours. It was great. I remember the last time watching the monitor throughout the procedure and asking things like, "So, do you ever see anything during one of these exams and say, "Oh, CRAP!""

The doctor this time probably read the notes from last time and decided to significantly up the amount of Versed.

Watch out for that Versed stuff. It is an amnesia drug and a significant number of poeple have more than temporary memory problems from its use. The 'effective dose differs widely' for different people is the problem. When I go for oral surgery or a colonoscpoy, I always tell the attendings that I do not want any Versed or any other amnesia drug. The procedure is vertually painless, merely a discomfort during the scoping. If you eat bland for a day or two after having the tunnelv iewed, even the local of polyps removed is nothing uncomfortable.

One side effect of no Versed is remembering faint clips of conversation between the doctor and the attending nurses as the procedure unfolds. It is amusing, or at least the comments from my doctor were amusing ... the scope is on a long tube which goes all the way around your colon tract, all the way to the location of the appendix (looking at someone, that is up and around the right side of their tummy, across to the descending otherside of the tummy; appendix local is lowewr left, looking at someone). Doctors have various nicknames for the little polyps they encounter during the tunnel view. My doctor calls them 'peekers'.

John, I have recurring bouts with diverticulitis (about every two or three years, I will eat things I shouldn't, and get the stomach ache, bad stomache ache). Because of that, my doctor wants me in for a tunnel view every five years. When I turn seventy, he says the procedure needs to be done every two years, and after eighty, every year.

On a side note, JOhn, are you familiar with 'high colonics'?

About VERSED ~ it's great stuff. Alas, there's a small group of less than 1% of the population for whom it's not so great. They don't metabolize it ~ so it gets absorbed into body fat where it comes out and puts them under over and over and over.

Then, if you are 60 years of age or older, you need about 1/4 the normal dose.

Otherwise, this stuff is like the world's most popular sedative and has almost no side effects.