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You can be sedated for the colonscopy if you don't like the idea of being awake for it under a local. You normally get a dose of Propofol injected into you (like Michael Jackson) and you wake up feeling refreshed and slightly pissed off that the nurse dared to wake you up from your beautiful embracing slumber. The procedure really isn't as bad as you think it is going to be. The preparation for it is much worse (not painful, just unpleasant).

That's spot on. I've had a colonoscopy as a precaution after seeing blood in my poo (can't bring myself to use the word stool here). The preparation involves taking a very powerful laxative which cleans you out completely. You end up going to the toilet a lot passing what quickly becomes a clear liquid after a couple of trips. This goes on for hours and is unpleasant. But, hey, just unpleasant, nothing more.

The actual procedure does not take long (tens of minutes) and they gave you something to make you feel drowsy. I was fairly awake and enjoyed watching the inside of my body on the screen; others can just layback and do nothing.

On the upside the doctor wrote "Excellent bowel preparation" on my report afterwards so... Achievement Unlocked!

You must be British. Only a Brit could talk about poo like this.

Yes, I am.

It takes one to know one. :-)

Been there, literally. Can confirm the experience, although I didn't get any sedatives at all as some of them cause my blood pressure to drop rapidly. Actually I was just uncomfortable for the 10 minutes it took but it wasn't bad at all.

The worst part of it is getting home afterwards with the laxative side effects in recent memory. Also staring right at me was the sign in the taxi: "£20 soiling charge".

If you ever put this off a health check for fear of endoscopy, don't. It's really not that bad.

Also think about what you ate before panicking. Beets will color your stool as well.

Definitely good to keep in mind. Although from my own personal experience, actual blood in my stool was much more dramatic and very obvious compared to beets. Blood tends to come out much darker than you would expect. Mine was also very bloody - so I knew it wasn't coloring from food. But I don't know how close my experience is to other's

And that doesn't mean that I don't have a mild panic attack the day after I have beets!

Iron supplements will make stools black too. I almost fainted the first day I used them thinking the iron revealed something.

Yup, the prep is more certainly the worst part. I had to have a colonoscopy relatively recently (graphic details: suspected Crohn's, turned out I just had benign polyps), and without a doubt, consuming all that KleanPrep the day before was without a doubt one of the worst things I've ever had to do to my mouth and gut. Tried everything I could to mask the flavour, but nothing worked.

The most flattering description I can give to the flavour of KleanPrep is that it tastes like rancid cooking oil. And you have to drink a lot of it over the course of the day.

Still, the colonoscopy itself wasn't a problem at all. Aside from the discomfort of the idea of strangers fiddling with your nether regions, it's fine, and much better than the alternative of not knowing.

He was only 40 years old? That's extremely young for that disease. 50 is when they recommend your first colonoscopy. There is now a colonoscopy pillcam. Wonder if people should start in their 30's?

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2014/03/04/capsule...

Seeing someone robbed of a few decades of life is always heart wrenching.

I'm not even 40 and have to get an annual colonoscopy (down from semi-annual) because of an "incident" a couple years ago. By the time my friends start having to schedule their first, I'll have had 14 or 15. But I don't think trying to get people (men in particular) to start screening earlier will help. Polyps can form and mean nothing and that could lead to a lot of unnecessary medical procedures.

I can't speak for Alex's situation, but doctors I have spoken to about mine seem to be keen on looking for genetic markers. That may be a better way to determine who should start screening earlier.

See "American College of Gastroenterology Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer Screening 2008" pages 3 and 4: http://s3.gi.org/physicians/guidelines/CCSJournalPublication...

Summary: Usually age 50, but age 45 if you're African American. If you have a family history of the disease, then maybe screening at age 40, or 10 years younger than age at diagnosis of the youngest affected relative. With positive genetic tests for certain cancers, screening age may be 20.

Just out of interest, is that the only sign of colon/bowel cancer? Will you always have blood in your stool at some point?

No, but having blood in your stool is generally a sign that you need to see a doctor. The father of a friend of mine kept putting it off because (in his words), "he was embarrassed to talk about the topic to his doctor".

He had to have a large amount of his lower colon removed and two rounds of chemo. Luckily he survived.

No, a young girl I met had only backpain. When they finally found the cause for it, after many visits to different doctors, which found nothing or diagnosed the wrong thing (e.g growing pain) she was already in stage 4 which is not treatable.