# 4 (four!!) Ducolax at once-colonoscopy prep-can that be safe?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 11, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353 "2018-11-11T13:49:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/41 "2018-11-15T17:42:13Z")
Poorly explained, sorry. I was on the 3 year plan-3 years, 3 years, then he gave me 5 years and finally 10 this last time. Nope, back to 3. Shit, literally. It’s a pain in the ass, again, literally. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/42 "2018-11-15T17:48:39Z")
About that. I don’t remember any of the actual procedure and when I woke up, I was in the recovery room. And I have to admit, I felt no pain in my rectum. And the weird thing was that I wasn’t particularly hungry the rest of the day. I expected I’d be starving. The only other oddity, and this was mentioned in the discharge instructions, is that it takes a couple of days to get back to regular bowel movements (because, according to the instructions, everything was emptied out). ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/43 "2018-11-15T18:39:09Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > And yeah, Ducolax is a full on laxative, not a stool softener. Dulcolax makes both laxatives and stool softeners. The prep instructions generally say to make sure you DON’T get the stool softener. Glad that you had it done. I had my first colonoscopy at the beginning of this year. They found a couple of polyps which they went ahead and removed. I’m on the three-year plan as well. Honestly, for all that people talk about how horrible the prep is, I didn’t find it that bad. It’s certainly inconvenient, but I’ve had worse medical procedures. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/44 "2018-11-15T18:59:36Z")
2nd Mamma Zappa’s advice: DO IT I had my first one at 42. And they removed pre-cancerous polyps. Had them every other year for the next eight years, then to the five year plan. The prep is a bitch, but nothing compared to colon cancer. I always reward myself by going and eating whatever I want once I"m done with the procedure. After three days of “white food” and a day of melted salty jello, I’m usually ready for something that crunches so I get a salad or something like that. But I bribe myself with visions of gingerbread pancakes and snausages. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/45 "2018-11-15T19:20:03Z")
Your first colonoscopy was at 42? That’s young. Most people start at fifty. And every other year after? That’s also frequent. Was there some reason you started that early and had them that often? Family history, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/46 "2018-11-16T00:16:35Z")
My BFF had his first one when he was in his early 30s, but he was having some persistent GI symptoms that weren’t yielding to treatment. He turned out to be lactose intolerant and had, per his words, a leaky gallbladder. In the meantime, his mother got, and ultimately died from, a rare form of colon cancer that usually has no symptoms until it’s too late, so he’s pretty diligent about it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/47 "2018-11-16T01:35:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Your first colonoscopy was at 42? That’s young. Most people start at fifty. And every other year after? That’s also frequent. Was there some reason you started that early and had them that often? Family history, perhaps? Plenty of people have colonoscopies before the age of 50, if they’re above-average risk for colonic disease, or if they’re having the colonoscopy not for screening purposes, but because of specific signs or symptoms. There are dozens, if not hundreds of scenarios which would cause me to order a colonoscopy on a patient well before the age of 50. And colonoscopy is not **required** for average risk people when they hit the age of 50, either. There are other screening tools for colon cancer besides colonoscopy. Colo-gard, which looks for the DNA of colon cancer cells in stool, is getting quite popular, but annual stool screening for blood is still often used as a screening tool. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/48 "2018-11-16T01:44:48Z")
You’re telling me _that_ now? You’re three days too late (I had my first one on Monday.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/49 "2018-11-16T02:07:05Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > You’re telling me _that_ now? You’re three days too late (I had my first one on Monday.) Did you ask about alternatives? If you don’t ask about what they want to give you, you’ll tend to always get what they want to give you. Not that colonoscopy is a bad thing; I finally had one at age 61 after using other screening methods for over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/50 "2018-11-16T02:10:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I was also reluctant to get the colonoscopy. (I’m 52 now and my primary care physician started nagging me about this a couple of years ago.) But I have to say that it wasn’t that bad. The toughest part was sticking to the clear liquids diet in the day prior to the procedure and even that wasn’t very hard. I don’t actually remember any of the procedure itself; the nurse told me to get on my left side, I did that and the next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room. > > In short, it’s not as bad as you imagine. One of the best features of my prep was that you actually were allowed a light breakfast the day before. IIRC, I was allowed one egg, a half piece of toast and a small bottle of Ensure. I had a friend that used to stay in a hotel near the hospital the night before the procedure. Partly because the trip to the hospital could be challenging the morning after the prep, and partly because it’s way easier to deal with the whole fasting/prep thing when you’re away from food and family. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/51 "2018-11-16T02:36:35Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > My friend… > > A friend of ours kept delaying it. He wound up having a foot of his colon removed. > > A neighbor of mine, who is (I think) slightly over 50 has stage 4 colon cancer. He’d been resistant as well. > > What it boils down to is the last sentence of [this posting](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18167605&postcount=30) > > . I’ve been on my neighbor J’s case for years to get it done. She is nearly 61 and has never had one. She thinks the test where you send a tiny smear on a stick to a lab through the mail is enough. Also, her friend across the street, an elderly lady, had complications from hers (she also had adhesions) that put her in the hospital for a week, so now J says no way will she ever get one herself. _sigh_ Then again, this is the same person who has a family history of breast cancer but can’t remember the last time she ever had a mammo. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/52 "2018-11-16T18:49:46Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > One of the best features of my prep was that you actually were allowed a light breakfast the day before. IIRC, I was allowed one egg, a half piece of toast and a small bottle of Ensure. > > I had a friend that used to stay in a hotel near the hospital the night before the procedure. Partly because the trip to the hospital could be challenging the morning after the prep, and partly because it’s way easier to deal with the whole fasting/prep thing when you’re away from food and family. Plus when you’re crapping like a goose, you’re stinking and messing up someone else’s bathroom rather than your own. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/53 "2018-11-17T01:19:36Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I’ve been on my neighbor J’s case for years to get it done. She is nearly 61 and has never had one. She thinks the test where you send a tiny smear on a stick to a lab through the mail is enough. Also, her friend across the street, an elderly lady, had complications from hers (she also had adhesions) that put her in the hospital for a week, so now J says no way will she ever get one herself. > _sigh_ > Then again, this is the same person who has a family history of breast cancer but can’t remember the last time she ever had a mammo. If she’s not otherwise at high risk, it appears that the fecal occult test can be an option. > **[Colorectal Cancer Guideline | How Often to Have Screening Tests](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/acs-recommendations.html)** > > Learn about colorectal cancer screening tests and at what age you should start them. Find out if you might be at high risk and may need a colonoscopy sooner. The newer, more sensitive one (Cologard?) is also an option. I thought that link was interesting in that they mention starting at age 45. I think the kids’ principal might have been caught if that ha happened (he was somewhere in his 40s). There may be some correlation between breast cancer and colon cancer risk - so the neighbor might possibly be considered higher risk, though I haven’t found a cite that strongly makes this case. So the neighbor might be at slightly increased risk, all else being equal, and it’s possible a doctor might tell her to go for the scope instead. Still, the fecal occult test is better than nothing. And yeah, complications CAN happen (as DavidM could attest :(). Me: I’m in an elevated risk category, so I get the full money on a fairly regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353/54 "2018-11-17T01:29:00Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > If she’s not otherwise at high risk, it appears that the fecal occult test can be an option. > [Colorectal Cancer Guideline | How Often to Have Screening Tests | American Cancer Society](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/acs-recommendations.html) > > The newer, more sensitive one (Cologard?) is also an option. > > I thought that link was interesting in that they mention starting at age 45. I think the kids’ principal might have been caught if that ha happened (he was somewhere in his 40s). > > There may be some correlation between breast cancer and colon cancer risk - so the neighbor might possibly be considered higher risk, though I haven’t found a cite that strongly makes this case. So the neighbor might be at slightly increased risk, all else being equal, and it’s possible a doctor might tell her to go for the scope instead. Still, the fecal occult test is better than nothing. > > And yeah, complications CAN happen (as DavidM could attest :(). > > Me: I’m in an elevated risk category, so I get the full money on a fairly regular basis. I’m at risk for both kinds of cancer because of both sides of the fam. I get regular screenings. J. Hardly ever goes to the doctor. I can only imagine what such a person would say if they ever checked her out and saw her record of virtually no exams. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-four-ducolax-at-once-colonoscopy-prep-can-that-be-safe/824353.md?page=2)