None of this seems right. Trigger: woke up during procedure
Just had my first colonoscopy appointment, and it was a disaster. The short of it was they weren’t able to complete the procedure because the sedation wasn’t effective on me.
Longer version: this is just a routine colonoscopy, I am at that age. My doctor gave me a referral and I scheduled it. The GI department did not schedule any kind of consultation, I just got prep directions on the patient portal along with a routine “call us for any questions”. Not even a phone call to discuss the procedure with me.
When I got to the hospital this morning, things were moving very fast from the moment they took me back, including two different nurses talking to me and asking me questions at once. There were a few times that I had to pause and say “one at a time” or ask one of them to repeat themselves. It would have been frustrating under any circumstances but I had a massive headache from the dehydration, which made it even harder to deal with the rapid fire nature of all of this.
When they finally stopped barraging me with questions, I asked the IV nurse if I would be meeting the anesthesiologist. He asked why I wanted to know - he did not say “there isn’t one”, which will become relevant later. I said that I have woken up a few times under anesthesia in the past. He asked when, and then asked if I had records from this. I said “no I don’t have medical records from procedures 13 and 35 years ago here with me” in a joking tone. He continued with the questions and wanted to know about what drugs were used, and I said “there’s no way I would know that.” I also noted that no one has EVER fussed this much about this information, usually the anesthesiologist just says “good to know” and we move on.
They moved me into the procedure room, and the nurse in that room starts talking about the sedation they’ll use. He is the first person to say “you asked about an anesthesiologist - there isn’t one, this is only sedation”. I said ok, what does that mean? He just said “it’s milder”, he did not say there is a pretty big risk that you’ll wake up.
I actually don’t want to describe what happened next in too much detail, because I know a lot of people come here because the procedure makes them anxious, and I think what I experienced is exactly their worst fear. And honestly, this is an important preventative procedure and I don’t want to scare someone so much that they don’t do it. Maybe your takeaway should be that if you’re anxious, set up a consultation and ask them to explain the whole procedure including sedation vs. anesthesia, because what this all comes down to is that information would have made all the difference with me. I did wake up during the procedure, and it felt bad, let’s leave it there. Because of my reaction to the pain, the doctor abruptly ended the procedure and had them wheel me out of the exam room.
I was very upset. I wanted this to be over with, I don’t want to have to do all the prep all over again in a couple of months, but I also could not do this without being fully out. I was also, you know, on very strong drugs and trying to gather information about what the hell just happened when not in a great state to think clearly. The doctor came in and said they couldn’t complete this procedure without anesthesia, and that meant a different location so they could not complete it today. She then said “you didn’t tell us until you came here today that you would wake up” in an accusing tone. I countered that I didn’t know that I would wake up, that they didn’t tell me there would be no anesthesia, and that I don’t have the medical experience to know what conditions might lead to a patient waking up during a procedure. The blaming tone got worse and she said “the notes say you should call us for any questions” and I said “how am I supposed to ask questions that I do not know I need to ask?” I started taking her to task at this point, telling her that it feels very wrong that there was no consultation at all when now that I’ve been through this, it’s very clear that patients might have a range of needs and no one did anything to try and determine my needs in advance. She abruptly left, she clearly didn’t feel like she needed to answer for that. Her entire attitude felt like I was annoying her by accurately calling this negligent.
A very kind nurse came in and brought me water, and spent some time talking to me. She gave me something for my headache and she said “you’re right, you really had no way of knowing these things in advance, you’re not a medical professional.” I’m very grateful that she was kind to me and actually listened to me, and made a point of staying with me until I calmed down some. I do feel like she genuinely cared about relieving some of my distress. I also can’t get over the feeling that this department keeps her around so they can send in the nice nurse when people are calling the doctor out.
Have any of you experienced anything like this? Is it normal for just no one at all to talk to you about the procedure in advance, for no one to ask you questions about past experiences? The lack of communication and information gathering feels incredibly negligent.