Bring BiPap for colonoscopy???

I'm going for an endoscopy and colonoscopy on Tuesday at an outpatient surgery center. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 5 years ago - since then I have had several surgeries - knee, hand, GYN and several scopes and no one ever told me to bring my Bipap with me. I was always just given extra oxygen and made the anesthesiologist aware of the apnea but yesterday when they called to register me - the nurse asked if I had any respiratory problems - asthma, COPD, sleep apnea - I spoke up and said moderate sleep apnea - no asthma or COPD - she said bring your BiPap with you. Mind you - I am having conscious sedation - versed I suppose like the other times - I asked why since never before - she said - new rules. Anyone else take their machine with them for a colonoscopy?? I hate to drag it along - the scopes take less than 1/2 hr - I don't want the machine being dropped or mishandled. I asked if they would still do the scopes if I happen to forget it - she said yes - that happens, so I'm thinking my memory might be foggy that day. Can't wait to do that prep on Monday - not!!!

Our greatest risk is NOT during the scope or the surgery. It is in recovery. ESPECIALLY when "only" conscious sedation is used. Take your bi-level and show them how to apply your mask and turn it on. It takes awhile to come out from under the effects of Versed and Demeral or Alfentenlyl and there isn't someone there monitoring you every minute once you are moved out of the procedure room. Set it up yourself before you go in for the procedure so all they have to do is apply the mask and push the buttton.

Slinky wrote:Our greatest risk is NOT during the scope or the surgery. It is in recovery. ESPECIALLY when "only" conscious sedation is used. Take your bi-level and show them how to apply your mask and turn it on. It takes awhile to come out from under the effects of Versed and Demeral or Alfentenlyl and there isn't someone there monitoring you every minute once you are moved out of the procedure room. Set it up yourself before you go in for the procedure so all they have to do is apply the mask and push the buttton.

Good points, Slinky! However, I do come out of the versed and fentanyl very quickly with the dosages they give me for a colonoscopy (at least to the point of not falling asleep). I think it's at least partly because I can't wait to get out of there so I never fall asleep during recovery. However, when I had another kind of procedure with a biopsy, they gave me lots more meds and I had to lay in bed for 4 hours afterwards so that's a different situation and I felt that I should have brought my CPAP!

Mindy

Suit yourself, Mindy. Personally, I would take mine along and have it set up ready to use before they take me down to the procedure room and my family knows to put my mask on me and turn my VPAP on whether staff does so or not. I generally have my colonoscopies w/o sedation and just some Demerol for discomfort but I have agreed to Versed or Propofol a time or two. Personally, I HATE Versed, Propofol is so MUCH BETTER, you wake up clear-headed almost immediately. I always have nightmares for a night or two after any type of conscious sedation.

peljbl wrote:I'm going for an endoscopy and colonoscopy on Tuesday at an outpatient surgery center. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea about 5 years ago - since then I have had several surgeries - knee, hand, GYN and several scopes and no one ever told me to bring my Bipap with me. I was always just given extra oxygen and made the anesthesiologist aware of the apnea but yesterday when they called to register me - the nurse asked if I had any respiratory problems - asthma, COPD, sleep apnea - I spoke up and said moderate sleep apnea - no asthma or COPD - she said bring your BiPap with you. Mind you - I am having conscious sedation - versed I suppose like the other times - I asked why since never before - she said - new rules. Anyone else take their machine with them for a colonoscopy?? I hate to drag it along - the scopes take less than 1/2 hr - I don't want the machine being dropped or mishandled. I asked if they would still do the scopes if I happen to forget it - she said yes - that happens, so I'm thinking my memory might be foggy that day. Can't wait to do that prep on Monday - not!!!

Bring your BiPAP.

Health care professionals are not as knowledgable about sleep apnea as WE here at cpatalk.com are. It's getting better as more and more health care professionals (myself and my dear husband included) are diagnosed with sleep apnea, but many of the pre-op or pre-procedure checklists in use today are five or ten years old, and sleep apnea isn't one of the little boxes to check off. A 20-something nurse or brand new physician may not know to ask about it. Before my own sleep apnea diagnosis, I wouldn't have thought of it, and I'm in my 50s! Awareness will continue to increase, but for now, you're your own best advocate.

Bring the BiPAP in it's nicely padded carrying case. I can assure you that hospital staff (unlike airline baggage handlers) won't deliberately mistreat your equipment. Make sure your name is on the case as well as on your machine and humidifier, just in case it gets separated from you. Best case is you won't ever need it. But if you DO need it, you do need it. You don't want to lose more brain cells to oxygen desaturations, do you?

Ruby Vee, R. N.

I think how zonked out your are by the Versed depends at least partially on how used your body is to Benzodiazepines in general. Versed (generic name Midazolam) is a Benzo.
I was totally out (5mg. Versed) in what felt like a milisecond- and had my cpap and a friend along for the (admittedly short) recovery. Would repeat it the same way. That was a colonoscpy only.

O.

Wow. Thanks for this advice. I go for my next regular colonoscopy in March, and I would have never thought to bring my CPAP for that procedure. Now I will!

I was told I didn't need to bring mine - to the VA where my machine was issued. I brought it anyway, along with typed instructions for gf, nurse, or whoever, along with machine settings, mask make/model etc. Imagine if you are sleeping (or unable to respond) - who knows more about your therapy than YOU?

I too had the Versed - what I noticed was both times, I had NO back/neck pain the remainder of the day. My doc won't prescribe it for me <sad face>.

I lost 7# during the prep - not something I look forward too.

They have to S-L-O-W-L-Y administer Versed to me via IV. The one time they tried to give me a full bolus of 5 mg at once I flipped out and got HOSTILE. It took three staff and the gastro to hold me down so they could safely withdraw the scope and even down in the family waiting room they could hear me threatening to kill every one of the staff who came near me!!! I still feel the hackles on the back of my neck rise when I run into that CRNA who administered that dose so fast! I'd still like to smack her!

Gumby,
Thank your doc for not prescribing it.
Versed does terrible things to your memory. Because it is so short acting it is also starts causing withdrawal symptoms between dosed, you end up needing more and more for something the works less and less - except for the harm it does, which gets worse and worse. That feeling of "wow, nothing hurts" is wonderful (I noticed that too). But I doubt becoming a zombie which most docs can't differentiate from a person with Alzheimer's is worth it.

Nothing wrong in a therapeutic dose for a procedure. But terrible for long term use.

I know, because I know a physician who prescribed it for himself for decades -- in growing doses -- and by now his memory is shot, and almost the only thing he cares about is his next dose of Versed - which he can't be trusted to take on his own, because he neither remembers taking it, nor receiving it. Don't even think of Versed.

Slinky wrote:They have to S-L-O-W-L-Y administer Versed to me via IV. The one time they tried to give me a full bolus of 5 mg at once I flipped out and got HOSTILE. It took three staff and the gastro to hold me down so they could safely withdraw the scope and even down in the family waiting room they could hear me threatening to kill every one of the staff who came near me!!! I still feel the hackles on the back of my neck rise when I run into that CRNA who administered that dose so fast! I'd still like to smack her!

Sheesh, Slinky! That's a paradoxical reaction that happens to some -- must have terrified all of you. I'm glad to know that it can be avoided if they administer the drug slowly....
O.
O.

He is a good doc. He did mention how addictive it is.

lmao @ the Invinsible Slinky.... all of what 4'10" 105# ?? Kicking names and taking azz??? lmao

Edit: Bless her heart

I've done it twice, both times without anesthesia. The pain is considerably less than a bout of diarrhea. If you've ever had a high colonic, it's about like that for pain. It's actually pretty fascinating to watch on the screen, too.

My doctor wasn't real pleased with my being awake the first time - probably from previous bad experiences. Because I was awake, I saw how he also gets impatient with people whose bowels don't empty on his schedule. It showed as angry impatience in his face during the procedure. For him, it basically meant at least one less procedure accomplished that day. From my point of view, it felt like objectification at its simplest level. I was a procedure, not a person. I suspect a lot of procedural specialists prefer to have their patients anesthetized partly because they have little or no bedside manner, and partly because a fully-awake patient can change the dynamics of the procedure in ways that they don't want to have to deal with or can slow the process. For instance, lame jokes some patients probably use to cover (and unknowingly emphasize) their own embarrassment during the procedure, or the inevitable patient who freaks out, 'Get that thing out of me now!' You can't just pull that thing out in a jiffy, or you could rip something. Perhaps objectification is justified to some extent. Barring psychological aspects of such a procedure for both doctor and patient alike, from a strictly medical standpoint, anesthesia is unnecessary for a patient who can deal with the weirdness or are uncomfortable being put under for medical reasons.

If you don't have to do anesthesia, you won't need xpap at all, though the anesthesiologist said she was familiar with xpap if I needed to be put under. I had polyps the first time, but no polyps at the three-year check, so I don't have to go back for five years.

I can't say I was terrified at the time. But I sure was hopping mad!! And stayed angry w/my gastro too for a long time. Like I say I still run into that CRNA when I was volunteering at the hospital and I still have to fight the urge to smack her!!

105 lbs I wish, Gumby, I'm up to 127 and NOT happy about it! AND you are short - by about 6 inches.

DreamDriver, you are totally right. It does take longer, more patience, more SKILL, to do a colonoscopy w/o sedation. The docs count on your not remembering their ramming that scope thru and hurrying on to the next procedure.