# Horrible After Effects Colonoscopy/Endoscopy



## nmloffredo

Good Day,

I am hoping that I can have some advice/suggestions from someone on here on a present issue I am having.

On Thursday morning, I had an endoscopy/colonoscopy. I drank the vile 64 oz of laxative and cleaned myself out good the day before. The test went fine and all test results were normal, in fact, I felt so good afterwards, that my husband bought me a cheeseburger and turtle sundae and I wolfed it down right a couple hours after I was done. I slept most of the day and generally felt good.

The next day, Friday, I went to work and felt fine. Friday night, I had a sub sandwich and went to a social gathering where I had 4 beers (I had read that it is ok to drink after 24 hours of the sedation has passed). Well, ever since I had the beers, I developed horrible stomach burning, gurgling and some dizziness. I really didn't think they would cause me any problems, especially since I drank them slowly over a period of time and didn't drink on an empty stomach.

Yesterday, Saturday, I ate nothing. I couldn't imagine putting any food in my mouth because I was so nauseous. I just drank water and a coke to help me burp for some relief. I had one normal bowel movement, followed an hour later by one episode of diarrhea. I called the doctor halfway through the day and he said because I have IBS my sensitive system was irritated and it probably brought on a flare. Also, he mentioned they had taken several biopsies for testing just to make sure, even though they didn't see anything suspicious so that could cause sensitivity as well.

Woke up today, Sunday, and still have the burning sensation in my stomach! This is getting so frustrating! I forced myself to eat a yogurt, I figured I could use the good bacteria.

Did anyone go thorough something similar to this after their testing? Does the doctors response sound reasonable? Or did I just cause myself gastritis after drink a few beers the day after my testing? I have a full week of work ahead of me and I don't know how I can deal with working while I feel this rotten. I know several people who have had these test and they were back to their normal self the day after and here I am on day 3 feeling yucky still.

Any insight/advice would be well appreciated.

Thank you.


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## Kathleen M.

Being cleaned out then pumped full of air and the scope run through can make the GI system a bit sensitive, so IBSers often don't bounce back to 100% totally fine as quickly.

I don't know that the beer would cause long term ongoing problems, but alcohol is an irritant. Your body does change with every new thing it has to detox (like the sedation) so could have processed the alcohol differently in the few days afterward.

Sometimes not eating anything doesn't tend to make your stomach acid less problematic, so I would at least eat something every 3 hours or so even if it is just a little bit and avoid gastric irritants like soda, alcohol, spicy foods, acidic foods. When I have had gastritis from a few weeks of NSAIDS for an injury I find not eating for too long makes the symptoms a lot worse.

You could see if an antacid makes you feel more comfortable.


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## IndianRopeTrick

Wow...beers. I haven't touched those in a while and I never will. They just harm me. It seems that you need to eat "easy" to digest food. For me, rice and some gravy with veggies like carrot, turnip, cauliflower or broccoli (yes). That also means no meat, no cheese (I don't eat that anyway), no sour cream, no mayo and very little oil. Spicy and chilli food is a no-no. Coffee and tea is poison. Cola makes me feel ok at times, but I have very little. I try to avoid that too.

I think I am in a similar situation here, though not even 10% as bad as yours. I never had acidity for a LONG time until I started having tea to stay alert at work. I once had 2-3 beers out of temptation and the effect was similar to yours. I felt groggy and miserable for almost three days. Things got a bit better after that. Hope you get better too


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## nmloffredo

Thanks for the feedback! I am going to pick up some Gaviscon to take while I am dealing with this. I take Prevacid PPI daily and have for almost 15 years but that doesn't even touch the burning. Hopefully time, easy to digest foods and antiacids will ease my tummy!


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## LilyWillow

I just had a horrible reaction to my Colonoscopy/Upper Endoscopy. I had finally have the first normal days in 4 months when I had to begin my prep for the test. Just like you I was fine for throught the prep considering what it is. Felt fine going in for the test. Developed a migraine while at the hospital most likely from not eating. Got home ate soup took my migraine meds and went into a tail spin. Eating function seemed to break. Awful stomach and chest pain, didn't want any food at all. Hurt every time I tried to eat. Anxiety went to the roof. This lasted over a week. one the 8th day of it I finally too anxiety rescue meds. I really don't want to take meds that alter my brain. I still haven't fully recovered from the test and I wish I had never done it as the results were all normal.


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## ibs52

I was diagnosed with IBS about 35 years ago and have been careful to work with my diet to avoid feeling ill. All of these years, everytime I had a digestive upset I just figured it was the IBS and something that I must've eaten or stress in my life that caused the problems.

Well, two days ago I went through a colonoscopy & endoscopy and now am having some real pain. The colonoscopy came out fine, no polyps, no disease, no irritation anywhere. The colonoscopy was a routine one as I hadn't had one in 10 years.

Last month, I showed positive on one of the bloodtests for celiac disease, so that's why the endocoscopy was performed. In my stomach, the doc said there is "irritation". I saw the photos he took and it looks like my stomach has a red rash or even the measles!

They've sent the biopsies out for testing. He also took 4-6 biopsies from my small intestine area looking for celiac, or at least a gluten sensitivity. The doc is also checking my stomach "irritation" for H. Pylori. The results should be in by next week.

My current problem is a feeling of terrible indigestion on the left side of my stomach, at the bottom of my ribcage. I've been careful about what I've eaten since Thursday's procedures but I feel worse today than I did the day after the procedures! At least on Friday I could feel the air still trapped in there and knew why I still had pain.

I will admit that I didn't take the prep (NuLytely) according to the directions. I just could not get all of that stuff down quickly in the time-limit they gave me, so I sipped it from 12:30-6pm the day before my procedures. At 4am the morning of the exam, I drank three more 8 oz glasses down (quickly) as I was afraid I wasn't all the way cleaned out.

Do you think it's possible that the prep caused gastritis? Would I still be suffering from it two days later?


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## BQ

Prep can be quite irritating... How are you feeling today?


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## ibs52

Thank you, BQ.

I am still on semi-soft foods, and staying away from gluten. I get a gnawing in my stomach when I'm hungry. When I eat, it seems to calm down but am still taking it slowly in getting back to eating solids.

I'm hoping to find out the results of my biopsies late this afternoon or by tomorrow afternoon. The last time I asked for test results from my gastro's office (after my bloodtest for celiac), I made three calls over two weeks with no success. I finally had my primary doc's nurse call and get the results for me. I was outraged when I saw that I tested positive on half of the celiac test and they hadn't yet gotten me those results. Grrrr!

I'm now wondering if I do, in fact, have H.Pylori bacteria rather than celiac. Maybe I got a positive celiac test but it was a false-positive?

I will update once I hear the results.


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