I had my first colonoscopy at age 50,in 1998.
The guidelines from my doctor at the time were to have one every 5 or 10 years, at the maximum.
Then i got Kaiser Medical insurance from work with a sizable co-pay. You heard their commercial about "thrive". Well, after 10 years, Kaiser said "yes it is our policy to have colonoscopies every 10 years, but we only authorized a mailed fecal sample bag for you." That went on for 4 years of 'no colonoscopy authorized by Kaiser' and sending me another mailed fecal sample bag, which is not the same thing as a colonoscopy visual exam of your shorter large intestine and i did not use. Kaiser trying to get off cheap, again !!
I am a Vietnam veteran and signed up for V.A. medical insurance. The V.A. knew i had served in the Navy, but did not know my discharge status, was it Honorable or Dishonorable !! Yikes, even the V.A. can not keep its records of veterans straight !! It took months of paperwork, but i finally got my V.A. card and the appointment for a colonoscopy, after 14 years.
The non-V.A. colonoscopy clinic in Menlo Park said "You know that this is going to be a painful procedure, so we recommend someone drive you and you accept the general anesthesia." But i told them my first and only colonoscopy treatment in 1998 at 50 years of age was only mildly discomforting. What was so painful about the procedure? They would not tell me but kept insisting on me taking the general anesthesia, but i wanted to be awake, especially if it was that painful and obviously done improperly. The Menlo Park clinic surprised me and said "we don't want you as an awake patient. appointment cancelled."
So i got an appointment at the V.A. itself in Palo Alto. My home preparation directions were to abstain from solid food for 2 days before the colonoscopy procedure, not even clam chowder or turkey noodle soup. No aspirin or vitamins for a week before the exam. OK. I had been taking lots of Costco generic metamucil to clean out my small and large intestines.
Then the day before i was to drink this plastic gallon jug of special salts with warm water, "at 2pm", a glass every 10 minutes, to suck the water out of my body and flush my long small intestines and short large intestines. I started drinking and started to get gut cramps. SEVERE GUT CRAMPS, very Very painful !! No one warned me about these very painful , 7/10 level, bloated abdomen, gut cramps!
Then the massive water flush of diarrhea started! Cramps and a quart of watery each time diarrhea, mostly clear and with little or no feces. The pain of the cramps got so bad i was almost crying for 6 LONG HOURS! Why had no nurse or doctor warned me about these 'home preparation', long painful cramps as i lay on the couch or sat on the toilet !? I wasn't even at the hospital yet, and the pain was killing me.
I had finished the "GoLYTELY Peg-3350 and electrolytes, 4 liters" and was next to drink a glass bottle of 10 fluid ounces of Magnesium Citrate, and drink more water. But i was in so much pain i called the V.A. advice nurse,so patient and helpful, and asked "Why did the Metamucil home prep. at 50 and procedure then not hurt, and now i can barely get thru half the home preparation because it is so very painful with 6 hours of very painful gut cramping and diarrhea?" She assured me that this was the 'gold standard of care, nowadays' and that everybody did it this way. Maybe i should consider going under/asleep with general anesthesia once i got to the hospital the next day? I told her to cancel my appointment, as i could not do Another different bottle of medical salts and More water, as the pain of the at 'home preparation' was just way too much. Then she said maybe they could just do an enema before the colonoscopy and avoid any more at home preparation pain. What a great idea!; An enema at the V.A. hospital in Palo Alto and none of this gut cramps for 6 hours, a guy almost in tears!! Maybe next time,,,
BEWARE: modern medicine does not care about the patient's pain, obviously!!. Especially if they continue to insist on this long and very painful at home preparation that includes 2 very long days without any solid food, ("drink sodas"!!), no aspirin or pain meds!!(right,,,), drinking 2 medical salt solutions and gallons of water, and at least 6+ LONG HOURS OF VERY PAINFUL GUT CRAMPS THEY DO NOT TELL YOU ABOUT, oh and explosive diarrhea for 3 days, so they night before the examination don't expect to get much sleep. You might feel dizzy and weak from the lack of nutrients and dehydration the morning of the exam.
