PROCEDURES - Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Expectations

Be sure to review your medications with your doctor prior to the procedure. Do not take aspirin, motrin, ibuprofen, advil, naproxen, naprasyn, aleve, plavix or Coumadin for five days prior to the procedure unless directed by your doctor.

Preparation

A few days before your procedure, you will need to buy two "Fleet" enemas from your local pharmacy. These will be used to help clean (or "prep") the colon prior to the procedure.

The day of your procedure, you should use both these enemas. The first one should be used two hours before your appointment time and the second one should be used one hour before your appointment time.

Upon your arrival to the office, you will be led into one of the exam rooms. After reviewing the risks and benefits of the procedure, you will sign the informed consent form. You will then change into a gown.

After you have changed, you will lie down on your left side. The scope will be gently inserted into the rectum. Your doctor will put some air into the colon through the scope to help see things more clearly. This air may make you feel bloated. During the exam your doctor may take a biopsy of the colon. Since the biopsy forceps are so small, you will not feel the biopsy being taken. Depending on what your doctor finds, you may have other treatments. For example, some patients with hemorrhoids will have these treated during the procedure.

The procedure takes approximately 5-15 minutes. Since you are not sedated, you recover quite quickly. You will review the findings with your doctor in the office and you can then go home.