Special gastroenterologist for colonoscopy

There was a study done at the VA several years ago where they did colonoscopies with no sedation so that patients could drive themselves home (since some patients have trouble getting a driver and don't have a family member to do it). It is possible to do, but most people find it uncomfortable so my suspicion would be it is super uncommon to do one with no sedation or very little, at least in the US where most people don't expect to have to tolerate a lot of pain with a routine nonemergency procedure.  I would suspect it will be pretty uncomfortable to do without sedation and for the GI doctor, it could raise the risk of a complication (like perforation of the colon with the colonoscopy scope, which is generally uncommon but I imagine might be more common if the patient is not calm and still).  For example, if you (the patient) move around suddenly because of pain, that might cause trauma to your internal tissues or even the scope to poke through the colon - again, it's uncommon but probably may make the GI doc nervous.  The best way might be to do it with an dedicated anesthesiologist doing the sedation/monitoring, and have discussed your wants/needs about sedation with the anesthesiologist beforehand (such as in a preop clinic).  I'm not a GI doctor but I'm another type of physician and have given conscious sedation for various procedures - we often use small amounts of Versed along with small amounts of fentanyl, which is similar to morphine but more short acting.  I'm not sure if the GI doc is going to feel comfortable doing the sedation (if any) himself/herself along with a registered nurse, in these circumstances, though I think they often do so during routine colonoscopies.  Since your request is unusual and you have specific requests about what you want done, I would  recommend to try to meet with an anesthesia provider (anesthesiologist and/or a certified registered nurse anesthetist) before the day of the procedure.  Your primary doc might be able to refer you to a preop clinic to discuss your needs.  Alternately, you could go for a GI appointment (if you haven't yet met the doctor who is going to do the colonoscopy) and see if the GI doc has dealt with this specific type of request before - if so , he/she might have specific recommendations about how to approach this. I would just caution that you don't want to hamstring your medical providers too much (by making a long list of things that you prohibit, etc.), but discuss your concerns with them honestly, along with any past known drug allergies or intolerances, so that you can all have a plan beforehand. It sounds like you are planning to do this, which is great.  Another thing to consider is it may raise the cost of your procedure if there ends up being another person in the procedure (i.e. if the GI doc usually does the sedation himself but you needed or requested an anesthesiologist...).

My husband has had two colonoscopies without any sedation with Dr. Kurupath at East Bay Endoscopy, 5858 Horton Street, Suite 100, Emeryville.  He found the procedure perfectly tolerable. That said, you need to discuss the procedure and the pros and cons of sedation with the doctor.  I also wanted to forgo sedation for my colonoscopy, but Dr. Kurupath found the my colon was very twisty, and felt he could not continue without it.  Good luck!