"No subjective view was sought from me"

I was very nervous. I had found the bowel preparation necessary for the procedure difficult to tolerate.

The Unit is very new and spotlessly clean and bright. The reception and admitting nurse were very kind.

My blood pressure on admission was 211/75, because I was so anxious.

I was asked many questions including any allergies, which I responded to, listing all four. I was given a red wrist band to alert staff to the fact that I had allergies.

Everything ran very smoothly leading up to the procedure itself, and all the nursing staff were very kind and tried to reassure me.

Once in the procedure room I was introduced to the surgeon.

I told the surgeon that many years ago I had a barium enema and the radiologist had told me that I had  a lot of redundant colon and that he had had to use a lot more air than usual, for which he apologised. The surgeon did not seem to find this information helpful. In fact I felt that they were a little dismissive, which did not fill me with confidence.

I had opted for gas and air as an analgesic but had consented to IV sedation in case I found the procedure very uncomfortable.

I was briefly instructed in the use of the gas and air, and very soon into the procedure, I was encouraged to use it. I felt as if my head would blow off and lost all feeling of having any control, became disinhibited and very distressed because of the pain and the fear I experienced.

It took a long time for the surgeon to reach the caecum, partly because the colonoscope became twisted up and had to be retracted a considerable distance. I found this extremely painful and was therefore given some IV sedation, which helped for a time.

The surgeon told me that there was quite a large polyp which needed to be removed, but they said to their assistant that perhaps it should be done down the road because of its size. I said that I did not want to be put through all this again. They decided to do it at the time, and did so, but the polyp jumped out of the forceps and could not be found. More carbon dioxide was pumped into my bowel, causing more pain as the analgesia was wearing off by this time. The surgeon searched around and eventually found the thing and was able to capture it. They had said that I might need to have an enema if they couldn't find it, but luckily I was not subjected to this.

The reason I have gone into all this detail is:

I was handed a discharge note before discharge, which makes no mention at all of the polypectomy, and the discharge nurse was not able to explain why.

The discharge note states that I have no allergies.

The record under Procedure discomfort is Mild: More than two episodes of discomfort without distress. I strongly dispute this. I was not asked for a subjective view but if I had been asked I would have rated it as 8/10. I was extremely distressed and felt that something must be going wrong if the process was so painful. I do not understand how discomfort can be reliably recorded without asking the patient about their experience. The word discomfort underplays the true situation.

In summary:

The unit is wonderful.

The nursing staff were very kind throughout.

I was very anxious.

The pain relief I received was not helpful.

The procedure was very painful and frightening.

It took a long time and there were procedural difficulties.

The discharge note was inaccurate about allergies.

The discharge note failed to record the polypectomies.

The record of procedural discomfort was inaccurate and no subjective view was sought from me.