10 year colonoscopy anxiety

hi everyone!! well, i have my 10 year colonoscopy tomorrow, and i'm scared. i think the reality of it just hit me. i had my first colonscopy in 2000, and was diagnosed at that time, but i've had uc since 1997 while in high school. i initially took sulfasalazine and asacol, but stopped taking it, b/c i didn't have insurance (i was a student at the time) i told my dr that i had to pay for everything out of pocket, and at the time, 1 month of asacol was >$130. i asked to be switched back to sulfasalazine which he refused. since i was feeling better, i decided to drop the issue and stopped seeing him as my gi. i haven't had any flairs like i did back in 2000 when i was first diagnosed, which i thought was a good thing. if i saw symptoms of a flair coming, i'd ask a dr to write me a prescription, which usually helped and prevented me from going through a full blown flair. well, im finally am done with school (did grad school after undergrad) and have a job, and insurance and started back seeing a gi. after seeing him, i'm officially scared. he reminded me that although i feel fine, there could be a lot of damage going on. and i'm such a worrier, i'm really thinking about the worse. i just want to get this over and done with. i'm at myself and sad at the same time. hopefully everything will go well.

thanks for the words of encouragement.

well, i'm still groggy, from the drugs. but, i was really scared yesterday and today. but, with the drugs they gave, i really don't have too much memory of the procedure. i remember continuouslly asking the dr what everything was on the screen, then falling back to sleep, which i feel soo embarressed about. i almost felt drunk, which is exactly what the nurse told me i'd feel like. i was a little upset though, b/c i asked my dr to tell me about his findings after the colonoscopy which he agreed. and while i was in the restroom, he decided he couldn't wait, and left. so, they had to page him, so that i could get my instructions. but, i was told i had mild colitis. so, i have a f/u appt in a week, b/c they're awaiting my biopsy results.

I love the drugs, and I never remember a thing about the procedure. Still doesn't make it worth the prep, but I console myself by remembering that while my chances of getting colon cancer are slightly higher than the general population, my chances of dying of colon cancer are much lower. Because I get scoped every two years, it would be caught early while it's highly curable.

so what meds did the doc prescribe for you?

Happy to hear it all went smoothly.

Hope all the biopsies come back unremarkable. Do get a copy of the biopsy results, however.

quincy

quincy- thanks for asking. i see you're a veteran member, so maybe you can provide insight into this though.my report says that "2 nodules were found, and that mucus,hyperemia and a granular appearance were found in the rectum, and varibablly from the transverse colon to the rectum? this sounds pretty bad to me, should i be concerned? i'm going to try not to worry myself too much, until i can talk to someone on monday, but i can't help it.

thanks for the thorough explanation, i really appreciate it. i tried to google it, but kept getting other stuff. he did biopsy the nodules, so i know he said it would take a week for the results to come back, so hopefully this week, those results will be available. thank you!!!