Colonoscopy Experience

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Allow me to share with you my journey on my recent Colonoscopy experience last week of June 25, 2010 at UP-PGH. Why do I have to undergo this kind of medical procedure? On the late month of March, I often experience prolong constipation and feel sudden change on my bowel movement. Until on the mid month of May during the busiest time of my schedule, I saw a thin blood stain on my stool. When I pressed the lower part of my anus I saw fresh blood on my hand, this was when I tried to check if there is an open wound on it.

What are the symptoms of bowel problem? Symptoms of bowel problems are often very non-specific and the same symptoms can be caused by a number of different conditions some relatively minor and some potentially life threatening. And praise God that mine is not the later one. Common symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, constipation and diarrhea, a change in bowel habits, bleeding and unexplained weight loss.

I’m a person whom would always tried to go for self-medication first. As I post on one of my blog article here, I preferred to go veggie diet which successfully helps me to lessen my frequent constipation. But as saying goes "If problem persist..consult your doctors",  it is still best to consult a specialist if things didn’t work-out right according to your expectation. I still suffering bowel problem most of the time. So I have myself check by a Gastroenterologist at Philippine General Hospital as this was a home for specialist on gastrointestinal problem. When the doctor hears all my complaint, he advised me to undergo colonoscopy procedure since colon cancer cell is active on our genes. My grandfather died of its disease.

The preparation for the test is the most crucial part on doing this kind of test and not the pain that you will experience during the actual procedure. If you’re working, I suggest you should take a day’s leave prior to the medical test in order to prepare yourself. Make sure that you have family or friends to accompany you in the hospital. This is not a problem to me since my older sister will undergo the same test too. Lucky enough for me because she’s a nurse and she’s the one asking for all the medical details and I just followed the instructions she has given me. The hardest part of this preparation is the intake of 2 bottles of castor oil and be on the restroom every single hour of the day. On the last day of preparation is the water therapy, no food intake at all or else all your sacrifices will turn into waste.

During procedure, the first round of anesthesia wasn’t enough as my sister-in law told me that I was shouting for pain and given her instruction to stop the procedure. So my doctor decided to add another dosage of anesthesia. By the way I have a low pain tolerance. You will probably feel some unpleasantness and your stomach area may be slightly painful so make yourself comfortable. The procedure usually took 30 minutes it depends if they found something indifferent on your colon that need further time to study its appearance but I already fall asleep then. It’s true that you can’t remember anything of the procedure and when I wake-up I felt wasted. Remember that your body has had a bit of a shock so you must begin to eat and drink gradually after medical procedure. The colonoscopy procedure will cost you P8,000-9,000 for Pay ward at UP-PGH and will only cost you 500-1,000  when you are on Charity ward (exclusive of medicine fee of less than P1,000 on both wards). So you have a choice, anyway you will be lying on the same bed and will be assisted by the same group of medical personnel whether you're on Private ward or Charity ward. Everything went on my side as my diagnosis resulted to negative, I had redundant colon and anal fissure cause of force release of stool, and find a few polyps but specialist said there's nothing to worry about it. Need a lots of water intake and High fiber diet, meaning more veggies! God is so good.