The clinic and, later, hospital I had my procedures do not allow patients to drive to or from the treatment center.
Having not eaten for 24 hours, several people, including me may not feel too good to drive. I am surprised your clinic allow you to drive in.
There were no restrictions on driving in for H, but he had to have his return driver present before they would do the procedure. I imagine that they would have to waive that requirement if a person needed a taxi or Uber for their return.
The place where both H and I had colonoscopies done would not allow someone to be driven home by an Uber or other professional driving service. The driver has to be at the center during the entire procedure, otherwise they will not perform the colonoscopy at all.
Where I went they said even with an Uber or taxi you needed to be discharged to an adult.
My GIās office does not have requirements for arrivals. You just give them the name and phone number of the person (18+) who is picking you up. I hadnāt eaten for 36 hours, but I had hydrated thoroughly, and had plenty of sugar and salt. While the night was miserable, I was not impaired.
I think that even the driving home restriction proves too high a hurdle for many people. Many Americans are unmarried and do not feel comfortable asking a friend to take off work, especially for a procedure they may prefer to keep private. I did like the answer to this letter writer:
Carolyn Hax, āHow is a solo adult supposed to get home?ā
My husbandās work schedule and the gastroenterologistās schedule is such that if I needed an appointment on a day when he could drive me and wait for me, I would have given up in frustration. My kids would have done it if asked, but Iām glad that was my decision.
I think they should allow ride share, taxi, and public transport if they are going to have this restriction, especially for arriving. For getting home, if releasing you to a stranger is a problem with the sedation, then they should have rooms for longer recovery until the legal minimum time has passed.
Our clinics are very clear: no taxi or rideshare or public transportation, and the driver must check in with the patient. Same for any procedure requiring more than a local anesthesia.
This is the air blanket that I had last month before surgery. I liked it much better than those warm cotton blankets because it stays warm. Cotton blankets get cool pretty fast.
They did ask me if I had any loose or chipped teeth before my endoscopy and I said no. They didnāt look.
I was diagnosed with colon cancer after my first routine colonoscopyā¦ I had just turned 51 a few days beforeā¦ it was a very small spot on a flat polyp (although I had a handful of other polyps, as well)ā¦ was just supposed to be surgery, but a very small deposit was found in a lymph node during pathology so I needed three months of chemo - which was unexpected since it was visually so smallā¦ and this was all during the early days of Covid, so I was incredibly lucky that I hadnāt waited another couple of weeks to schedule the procedureā¦ had been dreading it for months. I had no symptoms and was completely shocked. I now go every year (which sucks) and always have new polyps but luckily benignā¦ donāt put it offā¦ now I need to stop putting off my shingles vaccineā¦
After the second shingles vax, I felt under the weather for a day, but it was nothing compared to a colonoscopy. There should be a medal awarded to those who must endure colonoscopy every year. I am glad you are okay!
As an added incentive, there is preliminary evidence suggesting that the shingles vax may lower your chance of Alzheimerās.
Iāll take a triple dose then! Shingles vax was no biggie for me, much easier than the colonoscopies. @CALMom221 so glad they found yours while it was small.
Yayādentist just polished the rough edges off chipped tooth and suggested I let the GI know so he can be more careful in future. It was much simpler than I feared.
Seems like such rules only add to the hesitancy and logistical hassles for doing colonoscopy, since that can require an additional person to take time off work (or child / elder care responsibilities).
As far as I know, this requirement is not imposed for other types of procedures, like surgery.
Completely agree. Another issue I had with the clinic was that they called between 3pm and 5pm the day before to tell you your report time. Thankfully my time ended up being first thing in the morning. When it was my husbandās turn, they called him at 3pm Thursday and told him to report at 2pm Friday 
. Last time he had eaten was 8pm Wednesday night, so it was a long wait on a liquid only diet.
We both gave pointed feedback after the procedure about waiting so long to contact patients about report times. They should call 48 hours before, not the day before. As we noted in our comments, people have to arrange transportation, and have that person there for the procedure. Itās unreasonable for them to call you between 3pm and 5pm the day before given everything you have to deal with for the procedure.
Thankfully weāre both cleared for 10 years. Hopefully by then they will have improved their practices. Other than those issues, the doctors and nurses in the clinic itself were wonderful. Itās a shame the scheduling / administrative side is so poor.
Not just that - there are a lot of people who donāt have anyone at all nearby who they can ask to drive them. How are they supposed to take care of their medical needs if they canāt use a rideshare or taxi service?
Or public transportation or walking homeā¦
Some people may live in cities and use public transportation and not have a car, and their friends and family are similar. How would they fulfill the āmust bring a driver to wait through the visit and take you home by carā requirement?
Our med center just requires you to get to it and then be picked up. Your driver can just leave you at front drop off. After the procedure, theyāll call your ride that youāve informed them of shortly before youāre ready to leave, wheel you out in a wheelchair and wait until your ride comes and you get in the vehicle.
If you donāt have a ride, you have to hire an approved medical transport so they can be sure you get safely into your residence. This costs a bit more than normal raid hailing or sharing services
Have to hire a medical transport service. They obviously donāt need to be present during the procedure- they know when to show up. This applies to any procedure where the patient gets knocked out, medical or dental in my neck of the woods.
I have been the ride for a friend as well, so it doesnāt have to be a relative. I took my friend out to eat a nice meal before taking her home ( with her consent, of course). She was hungry and touched I took her to a nice place I liked that she had never been to.
Iām pretty sure you arenāt allowed to let you walk home because they donāt want you to fall and possibly sue them. My S was very stubborn after he had sedation and lurched away from me and out of my grasp in restaurant parking lot and got an abrasion from falling on the asphalt.
