The camera "pill."

Hi guys, I am having a colonoscopy, an endoscopy and then the doctor wants me to leave the hospital and go to her office and swallow the tiny little, at least she says it's tiny, camera pill that takes pictures of my stomach, intestines and colon for 8 hours all on the same day. Apparently I will have wires on my body, similar to the wires used for the electrocardiogram. Has anyone had an experience with the camera pill? I am curious to hear from anyone who has had an experience with the pill camera. Thanks in advance for the help.

Sounds like a terrible idea to have all this done on the same day. Be sure to read posts on HW about the pill becoming stuck - and then leading to surgery to get it out.

It might be smarter to do the colonoscopy and endoscopy on the same day, look at the results, and THEN decide whether a pill camera is: a) still necessary, after these two procedures and b) safe (no narrowing revealed by these procedures). 

After her colonoscopy, my daughter had some bleeding (from the biopsies), cramping, and gas - I can't imagine how she could have coped with any other procedure on the same day. 

Post Edited (njmom) : 4/23/2009 4:15:49 PM (GMT-6)

it seems like one would interfere with the other, but what do I know? the pill cam is easy and I didn't even have prep for it. I worked all day wired to the box. I guess it wouldn't work for me to do both, as I get very ill after scopes, so the pill wouldn't stay down. most people would be fine with it that way. let us know how it all goes.

I did the camera pill last year. I wouldn't call it small but it was easy to swallow. The wires aren't too bad, you forget about them rather quickly. The vest makes you look like a terrorist bomber so I wouldn't plan to go to the mall or any other public place. It would probably be very uncomfortable if you spend the day in the heat. Wear a loose fitting shirt and pants - don't wear a dress.

I wish I could have had the scopes and the pill the same day, it would have saved me a fortune in copays. My doc required a prep for the pill and with my hypoglycemia, every prep and clear liquid day is pure torture.

There is a danger of the pill getting stuck requiring surgery but this could be a good thing. At least you'd then know exactly where the blockage is so they won't have to guess. A lot of people have the test but very few have the pill get stuck.

Keep an eye out for the pill when you have bowel movements. If you find it, you'll know it passed through. If you don't see it in a few days, you are supposed to have an x-ray to make sure you passed it. I've had too much radiation so I checked very carefully for it. I swallowed it on a Thursday morning and I found it on Sunday evening even though I had D the whole time. Where it was hanging out for three days, I don't know.