Colonoscopy

[khunken]

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has had a Colonoscopy in a Bangkok hospital. Preparation, type of pain reliever, overall treatment & price - all welcomed.

Thanks

[SantiSuk]

Search on "colonscopy", clicking on the 'Forums' radar button (search bar top right). This topic has been covered extensively in the past.

From memory people seem to have been charged around 12,000 baht at private hospitals if you can convince the hospital to do it as an outpatient. One days prep at home to evacuate your bowels, a couple of hours at the hospital pre med - local anesthetic to make you drowsy is fine in most peoples' experience; one hour procedure - not painful if you've had the local anesthetic, just occasional discomfort when they go round a bend; one hour tea and biscuits recovery then take it easy at home/hotel for the rest of the day.

If you stay in hospital overnight in advance then it might be 20,000 baht. There is aboslutely no medical need to stay overnight and not even the expensive Harley Street consultants in London will try that trick on you!

Cost to have it done privately in London as an outpatient is 60,000 baht plus!

Have had it twice and will have again next year - my consultant recommended every 5 years once a male reaches 5O. The procedure is easy-peasy - really nothing to worry about - and gives you a lot of reassurance when you get that Asian gastro-enteritis that the stomach pains are probably nothing more serious than that.

I find on my recent visit back to the UK that all older males are currently going through a voluntary bowel cancer screening program so I've just sent off my 3 poo samples. Must be a huge program and I guess they will ultimately give you a free NHS colonsocopy if your results are high risk (blood in the stool) - wish I had shares in colonoscopy kit manufacturers. Nice to see the NHS now taking male cancer problems as seriously as they do breast cancer.

[AyG]

Had it done twice. Once at Vejthani, once at Samitivej Srinakarin. The experiences were very different.

At Vejthani I had to eat only white or colourless food for three days, with the last day restricted to drinking only. (I drank a lot of cans of Sprite that day.) At Samitivej there were no diet restrictions at all.

At Vejthani I had light sedation and have hazy memories of the procedure. At Samitivej they put me out completely, so I remember nothing. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this. (Thai doctors in my experience aren't great on explaining things.) I was given the choice of my doctor anaesthetising me, or having an anaesthetist. It cost an extra 6,000 Baht for the anaesthetist, but in my opinion worth it - safer, and better control of sedation.

Vejthani used ordinary hospital gowns, so access to my behind was a little undignified. Samitivej used special gowns with a slit in the back, so my dignity was better preserved. (Not that one is very dignified with a camera stuck up one's back passage.)

At Vejthani the final bill was a shock - more than double the original estimate thanks to some extremely expensive small metal clips. At Samitivej I paid exactly what was agreed.

Drinking the laxative isn't particularly pleasant. However, if you mix the salts with iced water and keep it in the fridge it's marginally more bearable.

After the laxative, don't wipe with toilet paper or you'll be very, very sore. (You'll probably go to the toilet somewhere between 12 and 20 times, based upon my experiences.) Keep a good book by the loo.

Afterwards you can't drive for 24 hours and need someone to escort you home, but apart from that there are no after effects. (The first time it was 2-3 days before I had my next bowel movement. The second time it was later the same day. Not sure what's normal here.)

Both hospitals were poor at explaining the results. At Vejthani I was seen by a different doctor for the results who couldn't answer any of my questions. At Samitivej the doctor emailed me the lab results (totally incomprehensible) and gave no explanation. She did respond to my email questions, though.

I won't be going back to Vejthani, but would definitely use Samitivej Srinakarin again.