BTW, I got mine three weeks ago. Totally no sweat.
The prep, in my case:
[ul]
[li] Over-the-counter Miralax (not any of those Rx preps like GoLytely or Colyte, etc.) This is nearly totally tasteless, with perhaps a slight salty flavor. From what I can gather after reading other prep discussions, it’s those Rx preps that taste awful. The Miralax is completely bland.[/li][li] And on top of all that, I was allowed to mix it up with Gatorade. Actually, I drank about half of it with Gatorade and half plain with water.[/li][li] If you aren’t allowed to use Gatorade, you might be allowed to mix it with Crystal Light, which is a powered lemonade-flavoring. Ask you doc.[/li][li] Also, I took two Dulcolax tablets. Piled on top of all that Miralax, I don’t think you’d even notice this.[/li][li] Optional: If all the above didn’t get me totally clean, I was supposed to chug a whole bottle (10 oz or so) of – I think it was Magnesium Citrate. This is also OTC stuff you can get anywhere. In my case, after all the above, I was nearly cleaned out but not totally, so I chugged the Magnesium Citrate. This stuff IS somewhat vile, but not too terribly strong. I thought it tasted like sewage. (Think of the delightful scent you perceive when you walk downwind of a wastewater treatment plant.)[/li][li] Yes, you need to stay within 10 micrometers of a toilet during the entire prep. But other than the inconvenience of that, it’s no sweat. You will get jet-propelled diarrhea, but it’s not painful. (No abdominal cramps or anything like that.) Well, I’ve read horror-stories on-line about this, but I think the people who find it horribly painful are the people with existing bowel disorders. Best advice: Relax and lounge around your home in your underwear all evening.[/li][li] Once you’re cleaned out inside, the diarrhea mostly stops. If you have it timed right, you should be able to make the trip to the doctor’s office without needing to stop along the way. The instructions should tell you what time to get started.[/li][/ul]
Once you get past that, the procedure itself is no sweat. If you’re not familiar with this sort of thing, it might seem a bit scary – they stick an IV needle in your arm, then they ensconse you the proverbial “tubes and wires” – a breathing thingy in your nose, electrodes on your chest to monitor your heart, the clothespin-like clip on your finger, and who knows what else. That’s all standard stuff to monitor all your vital signs when they put you to sleep.
The next thing that happens is you find yourself laying in the recover room, and it’s all over.
They blow up your large intestine like a balloon, for their better viewing pleasure. Afterward, you may feel crampy because of that. In my case, I felt rather mildly cramped up, so it wasn’t too bad. You may spend the rest of the day half-asleep or dozing, while simultaneously farting out all that. Once that’s done, you should feel fine.
If they found any polyps to remove, they will advise you to watch for any pain, nausea, vomiting, or fever in the next several days. Any of these symptoms means it may have gotten infected. Presumably, this happen INfrequently, so you supposedly don’t need to worry much about it unless it happens.
The scariest thing is worrying about what horrible life-threatening maladies they MIGHT find up there. In my case, I had been seriously constipated for almost a month, so I was certain they would find an advanced cancerous tumor blocking it up, wherefore I would certainly die horribly in the next year or so.
In fact, they found and removed two tiny polyps and nothing more. As for that serious constipation, that was never solved, but it went away by itself in the next three weeks or so after the procedure.
:eek::mad: that time around.