3 ms·

Sounds like you had doctors performing the procedure who have gotten sloppy because most of their patients are too sedated to tell that the procedure is being d

Sounds like you had doctors performing the procedure who have gotten sloppy because most of their patients are too sedated to tell that the procedure is being done incorrectly and unsafely. As you know perfectly well, the colon doesn't have that many sensations available to it. I've watched a biopsy being taken and been able to feel nothing (which is itself uncomfortably surreal). I suspect discomfort mostly comes from the doctor forcing the scope around bends rather than guiding it. Again, it's not supposed to be comfortable but when done properly the discomfort should mostly be localized to the rectum and the usual sensation of pressure/urge for bowel movement that accompanies any insertion. If we didn't have the major butt stuff taboo in our society, it would be most efficient for rectal insertion aficionados to be recruited during training of physicians for this procedure, as they could reliably inform the physician whether the procedure was causing safe or unsafe discomfort. I am gratified to hear yet another anecdote of doctors themselves choosing to go with no sedation, which matches the research I did when I chose to start requesting that way myself. Maybe you should also be concerned with the disparity in how that request was initially met, between a "fellow doctor" and "stupid patient what does he know, let's sedate him anyways". And get a better gastroenterologist.

techdragon 4y ago
I’d like to thank both of you and the GP for posting this. As someone getting older, it’s important to know things like requesting no sedation is even an option. I’m much more concerned about damage deeper in than any potential discomfort “at the exit” … I’ve eaten some questionable food in my life and experienced a surprisingly diverse set of gastrointestinal sensations as a result… and the very idea of a doctor being sloppy with the technique pushing something backwards past those “corners, due to the majority of patients being sedated and not noticing, is genuinely giving me more mental discomfort than any sensation my guts ever had. Thank you both for the frank and valuable comments. Also I think you have an interesting point about the “volunteers”/“recruits” thing. I suspect it’s less of a taboo about butt stuff and more that the procedure has some small risk of a potentially very serious complications (bowel perforation is serious business) and therefore should never be done on a person unless necessary… which is a noble idea but it does have potential repercussions like the current scenario where lack of non-sedated patient feedback leads to sloppy technique which arguably increases the risks of bowel perforation… sort of creates a vicious cycle that doesn’t help minimise patient risk. I’m also finding it amusing trying to think about how they could thread the ethical needle on this if they ever tried such a thing. Any obvious sexual paraphilia that involves wanting to get the procedure done is sort of going to make the medial consent forms a little hard to rely on due to it being perilously close to knowingly performing a sexual act on them. Ive had a pretty good chuckle pondering legalese variations of “you swear that you are ok with having long objects inserted into your rectum and this is in no way a sexual fetish”.

techdragon 4y ago

I’d like to thank both of you and the GP for posting this. As someone getting older, it’s important to know things like requesting no sedation is even an option. I’m much more concerned about damage deeper in than any potential discomfort “at the exit” … I’ve eaten some questionable food in my life and experienced a surprisingly diverse set of gastrointestinal sensations as a result… and the very idea of a doctor being sloppy with the technique pushing something backwards past those “corners, due to the majority of patients being sedated and not noticing, is genuinely giving me more mental discomfort than any sensation my guts ever had. Thank you both for the frank and valuable comments. Also I think you have an interesting point about the “volunteers”/“recruits” thing. I suspect it’s less of a taboo about butt stuff and more that the procedure has some small risk of a potentially very serious complications (bowel perforation is serious business) and therefore should never be done on a person unless necessary… which is a noble idea but it does have potential repercussions like the current scenario where lack of non-sedated patient feedback leads to sloppy technique which arguably increases the risks of bowel perforation… sort of creates a vicious cycle that doesn’t help minimise patient risk. I’m also finding it amusing trying to think about how they could thread the ethical needle on this if they ever tried such a thing. Any obvious sexual paraphilia that involves wanting to get the procedure done is sort of going to make the medial consent forms a little hard to rely on due to it being perilously close to knowingly performing a sexual act on them. Ive had a pretty good chuckle pondering legalese variations of “you swear that you are ok with having long objects inserted into your rectum and this is in no way a sexual fetish”.