During Your Colonoscopy
The sedative will make you feel relaxed and drowsy (some patients even fall asleep during the procedure). You will lie on your left side, facing the monitor that displays the images from inside your body. You will feel little or no discomfort, but you may feel like you need to move your bowels. Because air is used to open the colon and create better images, you may feel some minor cramping.
Your doctor will slowly guide the colonoscope through the entire length of the large intestine, which will take about a half-hour. He or she will view the inside of your large intestine on the television monitor, and use a tiny tool to take a biopsy, or tissue sample, of anything that looks out of the ordinary. In some cases, the doctor may remove a polyp. Removing the polyps, and/or taking a biopsy, causes no pain to the patient.
