What to Expect Within 24 Hours of Your First Colonoscopy
You might hear a lot about how to prepare for your first colonoscopy, but what does recovery look like? Here, we’ll walk you through the steps of what you can expect.
Here’s What You Should Know Before Your Colonoscopy
A colonoscopy is an excellent diagnostic technique we use to evaluate the health of your colon and to identify any issues that might need to be addressed. We understand that this painless procedure may seem a bit daunting when you don’t know how to prepare or what to expect, but we can help ease your worries.
Dr. Ewelukwa is our expert board-certified physician on staff who specializes in internal medicine and gastroenterology. At Imperial Digestive Health Specialists, PLLC in Katy, Texas, we may recommend a colonoscopy for various reasons — whether you have concerning issues or simply because you’re 45 or older.
What a colonoscopy can detect
A colonoscopy is an outpatient, painless procedure that allows us to screen you for colon cancer or other issues by looking at the interior lining of your colon.
We recommend that you have this common test performed if you have symptoms, including:
- Blood in your stool
- Bleeding from your rectum
- Pus or mucus in your stool
- Long-lasting diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
When you make an appointment with our team, it’s important that you talk openly about any issues you might be having to help us get to the root cause.
How the procedure works
Once your anesthetic takes effect, we insert a long, flexible colonoscope into your rectum. It has a tiny camera on the end of it that casts video images of the entire inside of your colon.
If we find polyps, we’re able to evaluate their location, size, and shape. We can also remove them and take other tissue samples for testing.
Dr. Ewelukwa consults with you about your results soon after your procedure.
What to expect
There are a few steps involved with your colonoscopy that include:
Before
Preparation for your colonoscopy is one of the most important steps to your procedure. You need to have a clean colon for us to see clearly. We provide specific instructions that include drinking a clear diet and using certain laxatives the day before. The process empties your bowels, which allows your colonoscopy procedure to be highly effective.
During
You don’t need to feel apprehensive about getting a colonoscopy. The procedure is fairly quick and completely painless, and you won’t remember any of it. It only takes about 20-30 minutes while you’re sedated.
After
Once we complete your procedure, we monitor you in the recovery room while you become fully awake, which takes about 30 minutes. Once you’re cleared to leave, be sure to have a friend or family member ready to drive you home for safety reasons while your sedative continues to wear off.
Side effects after your procedure may include feeling bloated for a few hours, which should ease with passing gas, and you may pass very small amounts of blood, which is normal, too.
It’s possible to feel a bit tired from the medication, but you should be able to get back to your usual routine within a day.
If you have questions about having a colonoscopy, or if you’d like to schedule a screening, reach out to our friendly office staff at 281-305-0423. For convenience, you can also click here to check appointment availability. Or, you can text us at 832-639-5725.
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