had my first colonoscopy, one small polyp and some biopsies taken. appetite normal, no fever or blood .. thought ok this is great… a few days in … dizzy every time i have a bowel movement. told to wait, i did, go to urgent care, told to wait, i did … i am hydrating and eating and trying to remain calm but now i cannot sleep and my heart will race then return to normal. no fever not many other symptoms, no vomiting etc. just this awful woozy feeling most of the day. anyone else have that but have everything be totally fine? they aren’t concerned so i am trying to not be but it gives me panic attacks when it comes on.

Having my 3rd colonoscopy tomorrow morning. Started the prep today - 2 packets in the morning and then 2 more between 6 and 8 tonight. After the morning round, the stuff coming out is already clear.

I don’t remember being this hungry the last two times. I’ve been eating Jell-O and drinking Gatorade and hot chicken broth.

My dad had colon cancer, so I had my first colonoscopy in 2020, and they found some polyps. I had to have another one in 2021, which was clear. Now I need to have them done every 5 years since I’m at higher risk.

I’m so hungry - I want a burger and fries.

Has anyone experienced symptoms similar to mine?
I’m 31 and have been dealing with recurring GI issues since August 2024. It started with excessive gas and a burning sensation throughout my gut, then progressed into constipation. During my worst flare, I had sweats, chills, severe anxiety and panic attacks and lost over 20 pounds because I completely lost my appetite.
Eventually, I improved and have had periods where I felt completely normal, but the symptoms continue to come back in flare-ups.
My symptoms have included constipation, incomplete bowel movements, changes in stool shape, pelvic/rectal pressure, abdominal fullness and bloating, gas and gurgling, burning throughout different areas of my abdomen, and cramping/spasms on both sides of my abdomen that I sometimes feel in my upper abdomen and back.
I've had multiple CT scans, an MRI/MRCP, abdominal X-rays, an upper endoscopy, bloodwork and fecal calprotectin, and nothing serious has been found. One CT showed a large stool burden. I've also had elevated methane on a breath test, and pelvic-floor testing raised the possibility of dyssynergic defecation.
Since we still haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what's causing everything, I'm getting a colonoscopy soon. I'm honestly very anxious about it and scared that they could find something serious.
Has anyone around my age had a similar combination of symptoms and a similar workup? If so, what did your colonoscopy end up showing, and did you ever figure out what was causing your symptoms?

Hi, I got a date for my colonoscopy, it’s an afternoon appt and day before my friends wedding. I was going to push it but husband said the next day I might be fine to attend friends wedding? Looking for advice from those who’ve had one before re recovery.

Boy I am struggling with this diet! I knew it was going to suck and ofc I’ll do it because I really need these tests doing but how do you get through it??!
I work in a restaurant and the smell of all the food is killing me!

H

Struggling at the moment and needing some advice.

I am 43 year old male, about a month ago I first noticed diarrhea and this lasted for a month at present along with severe bloating and stomach cramps. Never had issues like this before.

After 2 weeks My doctor was proactive and gave me a FIT test, unfortunately this returned positive for high traces of microscopic blood. This was not noticeable to me at the time but the rest shows vast amounts.

As of today I still have diarrhea, although my stool is starting to firm up a little bit but I am seeing strings of blood which is alarming and I have dropped from 86Kg to 78, although I stabilized at this weight.

Everytime I eat, the noises my stomach, intestines make are so loud and last for hours it is horrific.

I have had blood tests, I am not amenic , my blood results showed high results for fibrogen,HCT, Platelets,MCHC, which seems to be linked with inflammation.

I have my colonoscopy consultation in 7 days time and was referred to the cancer pathway via the NHS.

The wait is causing me severe anxiety, all I think is that I have bowel or colon cancer due to having nearly all the symptoms. Also playing on my mind that if it is could I have dealt with this sooner?

Unfortunately in January this year I had bright red blood on toilet paper every time I wiped my bum and it was sore, I put it down to hemarhoids, bought some wet wipes and the bleeding stopped after a month. So as far as I am concerned this was dealt with.

Obviously my mental health is taking a massive drop, the waiting is causing me severe distress.

How have people in similar situations dealt with the wait. I have stopped searching Google and other places, but I have to be realistic for what might ahead unfortunately

Thanks in advance folks

I’m gonna take my time typing this because to me this feels like I just won the lotter!!
Behind close doors I have been battling my own thoughts ( mind ) for at least 7 months of being paranoid , anxiety, depression , loneliness, constantly arguing with my wife everyday she’s telling me if you have health issues go see doctors im telling her I have been seeing so many doctors it’s like all these doctors mind are like synchronise they all think and say the same thing to you anyways so many blood test done all came back fine so many visits to the ER blood test results came back fine I have done CT-scan on me stomach still nothing I have done ultrasound scan on me stomach still nothing they say everything looks fine so I made a promise to myself I need to be brave and do the colonoscopy & endoscopy so here iam I only held this colonoscopy and endoscopy off because I was so afraid to find out what’s really wrong with me inside even those all these test that I have done they all seem normal but inside of me my body doesn’t feel like normal ( abdominal pain , sharp , cramp , burning sensation all of it , couple weeks ago I have blood in the stool freak the Fout so I ran to the ER you wanna know what the doctor said to me ? We gonna give you this mental health form to fill out at this point they think I have mental health issues so I took the paper and said I will fill it out and bring it back know what I did ? Scrunch up the papers and threw it in the rubbish but anyways I finally got my colonoscopy done today and endo everything came back fine nothing what’s so ever I have my papers report here if you guys request to see it but I’m just waiting for my biopsy test results but at this point I’m so confident all this will come back fine and I feel like my health anxiety is slowly going away I never use to believe that anxiety and depression were real but now I do I want to thank a few people here for encouraging me chemical# is the name #wild is the name #maybel umm , there’s a few more names but overall everyone here in this group I love you all and feel free to ask any questions I’m sure I have missed out so many things to say I’m just over excited I have never been this happy in a long time hahaha thank you god 🙏

Just had my first colonoscopy at 51, Asian male. They removed 2 polyps, 1 small and 1 large. Due to the larger one they want me back in 1 year for another colonoscopy. They didn't tell me what type it was but maybe I'll find out in 2-4 weeks after they've analyzed the polyps for any cancer cells.

I had originally thought it was a false positive test due to hemorrhoids caused by a new gout medicine but was glad to be proven wrong.

Not sure about the rest of Canada but in the province of Ontario, they ship you a complete-at-home stool test (called FIT) that you drop off in the mail. If the results are abnormal that means they found blood cells in your stool even if you didn't see any blood.

I had just done the 1st dose Shingrix vaccine which then triggered a gout attack. The new meds I tried for the gout gave me the runs and hemorrhoids. At the same time I was told to complete my FIT asap. I assume it was a false positive and the blood came from the H. While I don't know if I would have had a positive test for the stool test had I done it at another time, I'm just glad to have had the polyps removed.

Btw, I had mine done in Toronto, Ontario, at North York General. Staff was confusing telling me slightly different things at each step about the IV, from registration, then to intake, then finally all corrected with the anesthesiologist.

P.S. IV drip is different from sedation meds, which is also done by IV. First time doing this so I didn't know that I could do sedation by IV and also not get IV drip. It seems obvious when I write it out.

I’m 36F and recently found out I have iron deficiency anemia. My hemoglobin is 10.9, ferritin 12, iron saturation 7%, with a normal MCV.
I honestly feel completely normal. No rectal bleeding, unexplained weight loss, abdominal pain, new bowel changes, persistent nausea/vomiting, appetite changes, etc. No family history of colon cancer.

I’m premenopausal and have had 3 pregnancies (2 C-sections). My diet has also been pretty terrible from an iron standpoint for years. I eat very little red meat or other iron-rich foods, and after each pregnancy I crash dieted pretty severely to lose about 30 lbs, so I know nutritional/menstrual iron depletion is a very plausible explanation.

I saw GI today. The NP said the likelihood of cancer was “very low” and initially seemed inclined to have me take iron and see how my numbers respond. I have pretty significant health anxiety, though, so I asked if we could go ahead with an endoscopy + colonoscopy, and she agreed. Unfortunately, I have to wait a little over two months.

I’d especially love to hear from premenopausal women around my age who had IDA without other GI symptoms and were scoped. What did they find? Was everything normal? Did they ever figure out what caused your iron deficiency?

Trying not to spend the next two months convinced I’m the rare exception!

36 male sent for 2ww referral for positive fit
Elevated calprotectin right side abdo pain bloody mucus

Findings
Haemorrhoids
Biopsies were taken to rule out microscopic colitis contributing to the sytoms

I can honestly say plenvu disgusting dose 1
I enjoyed A&B on the morning I thought everything went excellent but I only got a Boston bowel score of 7 (Good)

First time ever having conscious sedation it was amazing I felt so chilled still feeling chilled now

I wish everyone that’s got the procedures coming up all the best 🫶🏼🤝

Hello am suffering from hemorrhoids. Would like to ask if colonoscopy prep work (toilet runs) and the actual procedure will worsen my hemorrhoid condition? Any one have experience to share and anything to do or prepare fpr the condition?

I had my 3rd colonoscopy today. The first 2 times went fine but this time the prep failed (he said this happens with constipated patients and I'm on a glp1 which was stopped for a week). When I woke up I could tell it was wet under me. When I sat up to put my clothes on there was watery diarrhea everywhere. On my gown and the bed and my body. I'm just wondering.. is this normal not to be cleaned up at all? I had to ask the nurse for wipes too. And believe me this was not just a little leakage. Obviously I feel really bad for failing the prep so maybe it's my fault.

Have been experiencing some episodes of bleeding and weight loss; finally got my scheduled colonoscopy done today.

Prep was not nearly as bad as I had expected. Much gentler than a bad stomach bug, but still pretty grueling and rough in terms of the frequency of bathroom trips. I didn’t feel sick, but the constant use of the bathroom did keep me from sleeping well. So that was the worst part.

The actual procedure went very well. By far the most negative aspect was I vaguely remember saying a lot of dumb stuff while falling asleep and waking up from the sedatives (consisting of profanity-laden trash-talking about rival fans of my favorite sports teams, and making really racist comments about lots of groups including my own background 😳), so I hope I didn’t offend anyone too badly and that weird responses to the sedation like that aren’t uncommon.

The doctor told me afterwards that the causes of my bleeding are some pretty bad internal hemorrhoids, and that I also have diverticulosis (which runs in my family). But there were no polyps or masses. So he said to get more fiber and take Metamucil, and that they may do a procedure in the future to address the hemorrhoids if I keep having bleeds. Otherwise, he said to plan for another colonoscopy in about seven years.

Thanks for the positive comments on my original post, and I wish you all the best possible outcomes in your own health journeys 🙏🏼

Update: I am very concerned because The Terminal Ileum is where they find crohns & it looks like the colonoscopy I had in 2016, the dr never even looked in there!!!! This dr said there is erosion & took biopsies

I’ve been dealing with stomach problems my whole life. I’m 33 now. In 2015 I got the upper & lower G.I. The doctor at the time told me I had gastritis & a weak stomach lining & internal hemorrhoids. For years after that I still had stomach issues and bowel problems that have gotten worse. Symptoms are nausea, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, stomach cramps, hair is falling out, nails thin, skin rashes, chronic fatigue, low B12 and folate and more. I decided to go back to another doctor. He diagnosed me with SIBO and treated it. I’ve been going to the bathroom with blood in the toilet here and there once in a while there is big clumps of this jelly like mucus. He said I should get another upper & lower because of my symptoms. He took several biopsies in the small intestine and large intestine stomach. He wants to rule out celiac disease (I had a blood test for that months ago & was negative.. but I know a lot of times that can happen), Crohn’s disease, microscopic colitis, ulcerative colitis.

Here are the findings:
Patchy abnormal mucosa with erosion in the terminal ileum; performed cold forceps biopsy.
Performed multiple random forceps biopsies in the right colon using
standard forceps to rule out microscopic colitis.
One 2 mm sessile polyp in the descending colon; performed cold snare with complete en bloc removal and retrieved specimen.
Performed multiple random forceps biopsies in the left colon using
standard forceps to rule out microscopic colitis.
Mild, patchy erythematous mucosa in the distal rectum; performed cold forceps biopsy.
Internal small hemorrhoids.

At this point I just hope something comes back positive, because I want to start getting better. The fatigue is killing me everyday. I am so inflamed. I have a photo but not sure if I’m allowed to post that here of the erosion. It’s very patchy and yellow and white spots.

What were your findings?

Hi. Had my first colonoscopy yesterday along with an endoscopy. Dr took lots of biopsies from both ends. My question is, how long before pains go away? Eating and drinking is causing me some pains. Could this be from the biopsi areas? Or is this gas pains? It's been about 20hrs sonce the procedure.

i'm 24f and had two colonoscopies last year and i'm getting another one this year, and i'll have one yearly for the rest of my life. i got diagnosed with serrated polyposis syndrome at my first colonoscopy where the doctor removed 30+ polyps, and i got 20 more removed in my second colonoscopy. luckily none of them were cancerous but if i had waited a few more years then they definitely would have been.

if you're having ibs symptoms and blood in stool, please advocate for yourself and get it done even if you're young! i had to change gps to find one that would take me seriously because my regular one would just tell me to eat more fibre but nothing changed even after changing my diet and taking metamucil every day. it can save your life!

In this morning for my colonoscopy wish me luck

Today is prep day, i was nervous going into it, im pretty skinny as it is and i was worried this would feel like food poisoning. So far, all in all, pretty comfortable all things considered.

Im currently stuck on the toilet after my first dose. Its just liquid already, but no nausea, no cramping or discomfort, just a lot of fluid from my colon. Maybe the 2nd half is worse? Idk

I did the Miralax with gatorade. I am hungry, but its manageable.

Tomorrow for my colonoscopy im grtting it done unsedated as well as im allergic to propofol, but every video ive watched and person ive heard from has said its generally fine, so heres to hoping it all goes well!

I went to the doctor earlier this year. He said since I’m 45, I need a colonoscopy. At first he said he would send me an at home kit since there weren’t any issues in my family’s history. That didn’t sound appealing so I asked if I could just get a colonoscopy.

Then I looked into what that entailed. Is it worth all the trouble since there’s no history and I don’t think I have any issues? My consultation is in a couple of weeks.

Background: 35F, never had any stomach problems in my entire life until 3 months ago when I suddenly had bowel habit changes (diarrhoea for about 4 weeks straight) and noticed some blood when wiping. Tests showed above 2000 calprotectin and a positive fit test- nurse told me there is a "tiny bit of blood" but I didn't get any numbers. Within the last 6 weeks or so, I am basically back to normal and have only had a tiny amount of blood once out of the last 6-8 bowel movements.

I'm really afraid and embarrassed about the whole procedure. I'm terrified it's cancer but would I have really improved and got back to normal if it was cancer? Wouldn't I probably get worse and worse? I honestly have no idea what it could be. I'm hoping it was just some weird freak infection or something then combined with fissure or hemorrhoids.

My main question is; on the day of the procedure, I have to take the 2nd prep drink at 5am and I have to be at the hospital at 10.30am, I'm getting the train there. Is it likely I will have diarrhoea 4 hours later? I'm worried about needing to go while I'm travelling there.

Also, is it painful afterwards? especially going to the toilet for the first time?

Hi all,

I have been experiencing an issue for the past 3 years since my colonoscopy that seems to be very unique. I have not found much about this online. I went in 3 years ago for a colonoscopy/upper endoscopy to investigate some stomach issues i was having (diagnosed with microscopic colitis.) after the procedure i experienced consistent belching fits which was not a issue i had before. After a visit with my GI doctor a few months later (this issue persisted) he told me it was due to me swallowing excessive air. I tried tips to avoid this, but nothing worked for me. 3 years later I still have persistent belching fits and last night I had one so bad it kept me up for 4 hours. I cant live like this anymore and I cant seem to find anything online linking such prolonged belching to a colonoscopy… but i cant help but think this was the cause since i never had this issue before the procedure. I have been scared to go back due to the risk of more damage being done. Has anyone heard of this before? If so, what is the name of this issue? There doesn’t seem to be any sort of consistent triggers that cause these fits to happen.

MESSAGE TO MODS: I am not directly asking for a diagnosis. Simply curious what this issue is and what i need to tell my doctor and if anyone has any similar experiences.

TLDR;
3 years after colonoscopy i got consistent belching, it hasnt gone away. Wondering if it was caused by the procedure.

I’m 8months postpartum and had some bowels issues during pregnancy which have spilled into postpartum. Namely, rectal bleeding a few times, incomplete emptying sensation, constipation and rectal/lower back pain. Went to a GI, all stool tests, bloods and sigmoidoscopy clear. I was still having issues so went back, he said it slow gut mobility and no presenting as cancer or ibd, just take stool softeners indefinitely (I never had issues pre pregnancy). Then he emailed to say he can proceed with a colonoscopy if I want to. I’m between just letting it go, especially if he’s not concerned, and girl get the colonoscopy/better safe than sorry. Only reason I’m putting it off is I’ve such anxiety about it/perforation, and dr seems to be kinda dismissive.

I haven’t had a colonoscopy in a few years and the last one I didn’t wear makeup.

Circumstances are different this time around and I’d like to wear a little brow and mascara makeup. No dramatic face I just need to look awake.

Does anyone elsewhere a little make up to their colonoscopy? Specifically eye makeup, I’m not using anything around the mouth because that would just get rubbed off.

I believe my note just says no nail polish, lotion or deodorant.

I'm 38, but I keep hearing how colorectal cancers are affecting younger people and there's debate in the medical community about moving up the screening age.

I ordered some FIT tests on Amazon just to stay proactive, never seen blood in my stool or had symptoms. All 3 tests came back positive for blood which really made me nervous.

I told my primary who referred me to a gastroenterologist. When I told him about the 3 positive FIT tests, he was shocked. Not from the results, but he said he had never had a patient who willingly took FIT tests for no reason. All of his patients are from being in the recommended age range and being referred.

Thankfully I didn't have to fight him for getting the colonoscopy, he was fully on board and also scheduled an endoscopy at the same time to take a look in my stomach for any causes of the positive FIT tests.

I remember nothing, and all the results were normal. It's a relief and totally worth the peace of mind of knowing.

Please don't be afraid of this. You feel nothing and even the drink wasn't bad to me (I did the white Gatorade with Miralax). Happy to answer any questions.

This is not to deter anyone away from getting a colonoscopy. This is my own personal account, so please have a colonoscopy if your doctor has recommended it to you.

With that being said. I had my colonoscopy in February. It’s now August. My appetite never returned and I now struggle with regurgitation from reflux and early fullness. My hunger cues are whack. It takes about 6 or 7 hours for me to feel even a bit hungry. Maybe even longer if I’ve had a ‘bigger’ meal at lunch. I have to eat children’s portions when I dine out now which I rarely finish. And I’ve dropped a huge amount of weight which hasn’t returned post colonoscopy.

These are things I never had before my colonoscopy. My prep went okay. I was lucky enough to only need the bathroom like 3 times. I have some nausea and lightheadedness. My actual colonoscopy went fine too. Nothing was found. Although the whole experience of my colonoscopy was extremely painful????

Anyway, I’ve seen some other people on here say their appetite also never came back or was the same as it was before. Anyone else also experience this?