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Comment by surfsvammel | Hacker News Reader

I do regular colonoscopies because of a condition. People are worried about the procedure, as I was my first times. Here are some things that I wish someone had told me:

- Taking the meds for cleaning out your system the day before is far worse than the procedure itself.

- Have a lollipop to stick in your mouth after Each time you take a shot of the laxatives. It helps with the vile taste of it.

- If you need relaxing meds or something for the pain and discomfort, they have good stuff handy when doing the procedure.

- It only ever hurts if your colon are in bad shape. Colonoscopy doesn’t hurt if you are healthy (and even if it does, they have meds for the pain).

- Don’t be embarrassed, the hospital staff do this all the time. They don’t really care about the things you are worried that they might care about.

- Wear loose fitting clothes that are easy to change in and out of when you go to the hospital.

- Try to relax.

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> It only ever hurts if your colon are in bad shape. Colonoscopy doesn’t hurt if you are healthy (and even if it does, they have meds for the pain).

I’m sure there will be a few people popping up to disagree with this and I think you kind of disagreed with yourself in that sentence anyway.

I got the all-clear in the end, and my guts are not in bad shape (don’t drink much, never smoked, eat healthy), and I’ve generally got a high pain threshold… but the procedure (only a flexi-sigmoidoscopy) hurt like hell and I wish I’d had some form of pain control beforehand.

> Don’t be embarrassed, the hospital staff do this all the time. They don’t really care about the things you are worried that they might care about.

Facts. My mom was an Endo nurse for 40 years, and it's true that they don't care. That said, the single most important thing you can do is just be a nice person. They see a lot of people at their worst, and a nice, kind person will put a smile on their faces.

O man I did one of these last week and I so wish I had known that lollipop trick then. The cleaning out of my system the day before really was the worst part for me.

Depending on where you are and what the doctor prescribes, you might also have several days before that, on which you are not allowed to eat many simple things like tomatos, because their skin could linger in you digestive system for a longer time and make seeing things more confusing or difficult. Then after not having eaten properly for a few days, you top it off with that day or two before the actual thing.

> Taking the meds for cleaning out your system the day before is far worse than the procedure itself.

It depends... in the US I just had to count backwards from 10 and fall asleep -- but I've tried being give a wooden stick to bite -- that was a different experience.

In Denmark they usually just use local drugs, no sleeping, but last time it was no big deal anyways :)

> It only ever hurts if your colon are in bad shape. Colonoscopy doesn’t hurt if you are healthy (and even if it does, they have meds for the pain).

Ha, the procedure itself was painless for me since I was out cold, but during the prep I distinctly remember thinking (between waves of cramps) "Damn, maybe I do have Crohn's..."

Was a total breeze for me for the same reason, except I felt great right before it because apparently one way to get IBS relief is to have nothing in your bowels at all.

Moviprep doesn't taste that bad. The results are more unpleasant than the taste.

Regarding pain, can confirm, it felt incredibly unpleasant for a short initial time but wasn't exactly painful.

For future colonoscopies, ask if you can do the Gatorade + MiraLAX prep. You can pick your flavor (but there are color restrictions) and it is way better than the other prep fluids.

Just don't plan on drinking that flavor of Gatorade again. The association with miralax etc will ruin it for you forever.

I didn't end up with a negative association at all.

M&Ms work better. Just take a mouthful, chew a bit, and swallow, and then take another mouthful.

No. This is not a good idea. You are not supposed to eat stuff. The whole point is to empty out your system. It would not be great to be half way through the procedure when they say: “oh. Here is a bunch of M&Ms, we can’t see anything. We need to redo this procedure in a week. And this time don’t eat stuff…”

(As well as making sure you don't have actual matter blocking the view, you also want to avoid staining the bowels with something that could be mistaken for blood; so also don't drink red stuff.)

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