Yesterday I had my third colonoscopy. Before leaving for the hospital, I put a very small mp3 player that also works as a digital voice recorder in my pants pocket. It was on and recording. I understand there may be legal issues with recording others but I wanted to know what was happening to my body when I was under sedation. At the hospital, I was led to a small curtained area and told to remove my clothes, put them in a bag and put on a hospital gown. The nurse placed my bag of clothes on the bottom of the rolling gurney that I was on. I was told that I would be administered Propofol and not feel a thing. I was rolled into the procedure room and had what I thought was a painless, uneventful colonoscopy.
After getting home and letting the last of the anesthesia wear off, I played the recording. I couldn’t believe what I heard. During the colonoscopy, I was screaming! I think I used every swear word I know. I was begging for the doctor to stop. A day latter, I have absolutely no recall of this screaming event.
To be fair, I did ask the nurse anesthetist to give me as little drug as possible. I’ve had nausea from anesthesia before and wanted to minimize it.
Did I cause my own pain by asking the nurse to go easy on the drugs or is this the norm?
I wish I hadn’t taken that recorder with me!