Clear liquid diet, one gallon of laxative, colonoscopy - TMI

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tomorrow I start a 2 days bowel cleanse in preparation for a colonoscopy on Friday. I am not at all worried about the procedure, as I will have IV sedation and believe that I will neither feel or remember much of the experience itself. The prep is what I fear. Because I have been constipated for about 6 weeks now, the MD ordered a 2 day prep. First day - clear liquids, stool softener in AM and PM, one bottle of magnesium citrate in the afternoon followed by explosive diarrhea.
Second day - clear liquids, mix 1 gallon of distilled water with NuLytely and start drinking 8 ounces every 20 minutes until it is half gone (followed by - you guessed it - explosive diarrhea). Friday morning - 5 hours prior to procedure, so that makes it about 3:30 AM, drink remainder of NuLytely solution which should cause explosive clear diarrhea.

Any helpful hints? Keep the NuLytely cold, or have it at room temp? Use a straw to make the fluid hit the back of my mouth? Can I drink coke, or is that not considered a “clear fluid”? I know I can’t have anything red, blue or purple. I have eaten very lightly for 2 days now to prepare, but I don’t think it matters because no matter what I do, EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA (band name) is bound to happen.

Please don’t write and tell me that all you had to do for the prep was take 40 pills. I don’t think I can stand it. Why some doctors do it one way and others do it another way is beyond me. My doctor is old school and must believe in torture.
Og help me.

2

I’m assuming NuLytely is the same as GoLytely, which a former gastro made me do. I don’t like to drink a lot of fluid at once, so that was hard for me. While a straw might keep less of it from hitting your tongue, it will take longer to drink it. You really need to chug or you’ll chicken out halfway through the 8 ounces and it will end up being more of a struggle to drink the whole thing. DEFINITELY KEEP IT COLD!

On my clear liquid day, I was drinking water, lemon Gatorade, and chicken broth.

Good luck,

Nutty Bunny (Ulcerative Colitis for 20 years and I have yearly colonoscopies–mine is October 27th)

3

Do NOT drink carbonated beverages–you will be very uncomfortable from the gas they form.

Clear liquids do not include cola. They do include ginger ale and lemon-lime drinks, but again, forgo the fizzy stuff. Also do not drink alcohol.
Stay close to a bathroom. You might want to get a “peri-bottle” to squirt yourself clean or lubricated TP, as all the wiping you will do will make your bum sore.
Do not skimp on the bowel prep. There is NOTHING worse than going through all that and then not being “clean enough” for them to visualize anything. Because then you get to do it all again…
Good luck. You most likely won’t remember anything of the procedure (why would you want to?). You may have quite a bit of gas afterwards, just FYI.

4

Due to many months of constipation, I recently got put on the Colonoscopy Prep procedure just to clear out my system. 1 week later, they decided that, yeah, maybe I ought to have a colonoscopy anyhow. So I got to do the prep twice in a week.

Boy howdy, that was fun.

Anyhow - I was on HalfLytely both times. YES, keep it cold! And, if they give you a flavor packet, use it - don’t stint. The first one, I tried to just put a little of the flavor stuff in… way vile.

I kept a glass of water next to the sink where I was drinking my brew - I’d rinse my mouth out and spit before I breathed. That helped a lot.

Also - the prep is pretty darn harsh. Make sure you have a bathroom dedicated to you alone, and that you are dressed warmly, and that the bathroom is warm. I froze the first time, even though it was July - my body was just too wracked.

Have a bed (warm) near the bathroom to crash into. The prep exhausted me. Realize that if you feel like you might fart - you won’t. You’ll explode. No farts unless you are on the toilet, until you are totally settled.

Clear liquid days - apple juice, gatorade, water. I can’t remember if soda is on the list, or coffee, but it must be because I dodn’t have a caffeine headache the day before. They’ll give you all that info with the prep solution.

Oh - the magnesium citrate did nothing for me. Neither did the stool softeners. The prep solution though…

The only thing I remember from the procedure itself was semi-waking in pain. I said “ow”, they said “oops” and it was lights out again. I don’t really remember any pain.

The solution instead of the pills is because the solution gets you REALLY clean - the scope doctor was quite pleased. That way, they don’t have to do a do-over!

(Oh, and I made the scope doctor laugh - I wore a tee-shirt that had a bunch of dogs following a poodle with the word “pooperazzi”. I think that is why he sent me home with a picture of the world as seen from the inside of my rectum.)

eta: Oh, yeah - and don’t be surprised at the ungodly color of the liquid that jsut keeps emanating from you - it is supposed to be glowing yellow.

5

Wow, what a wonderful array of experiences!

Thanks for all the input. Another question - I have flavor packets for the prep, they come in lemon-lime, pineapple, cherry and orange. I love the taste of pineapple so much, and I don’t want to ruin that so pineapple is out. I imagine that cherry turns it red? So it’s down to orange or lemon-lime.

Any suggestions, pro or con?

6

I really don’t think the flavor packets color the solution, that would be contrary to the point of the clear liquids thing.
Also, make sure you bought the mag cit in lemon-lime, and not the red one.

7

Wow. GoLytely has come a long way. The last time I had to drink it as my prep, there was NO flavor. That was about 15 or so years ago. Since then it’s been the magnesium sulfate. Last year and this year, it’s Miralax. There’s absolutely no taste or…::shudder::… texture, but it seemed like I was drinking it all night. And I don’t think it cleaned me out as much as the other stuff. I remember they had to hoover me out during the procedure as they went through. I’m the type that’s in and out during. I’ll look up at the screen and think, “Hey there’s my colon” and go right back to La La Land.

8

Bummer about having to go through the cleanout process! I remember when my son had to do that at the age of 16. SUCKED!!! He didn’t use the chemical you are mentioning, but the process was the same. 2 days of spending LOTS of time on the toilet. His advice:

  1. Have a magazine or game (Sudoku book, or crossword/word search) in the bathroom to “pass the time” while you pass the … well you know. :wink:

  2. DO NOT DRINK CARBONATED BEVERAGES!!! Our doc said absolutely no. The medicine you are taking becomes carbonated with the stomach acids (I think), and that will make you bloat like crazy and feel REALLY bad.

  3. Do not go to work/school. Just watch all the Judge shows on TV and try to relax.

He was quite constipated also… for weeks and weeks on end. Don’t be surprised if nothing happens in the first 4-5 hours. We called the doc by late afternoon after doing the Myralax every 2 hours, and nothing had happened. She stepped up the meds, and it finally worked.

MY personal experience is that the magnesium Citrate, tastes yummy (I am sick!) and BOY does it work well!

Good luck with the 'oscopy, and try to relax. Stresssing will only make things worse!

9

You will experience the diarrhea beyond anything you can ever remember occurring before, unless you’ve had food poisoning. With the food poisoning I figured out to sit on the toilet and puke in the sink at the same time. By the way everybody waiting in the waiting area will be needing to use the one bathroom.

Ask for a personal copy of the pictures so you can bring them out when you’re with somebody that shows you stuff you don’t want to see. They gave me an 8x10 color photo. I haven’t had to bring it out yet.

10

That reminded me… We also have a 8x10 glossy photo of something I would rather NEVER see. Don’t eat green jello. Just don’t.

11

Just confirming that you should keep the liquid cold. No colas.

I had a colonoscopy wide awake, unsedated, and I watched my innards on a monitor. Had I known I could be knocked out, I would have gone for it.

12

Og no help. Too much doo-doo.

Seriously, it will be mostly embarassing, and I hope not painful. Some medications I have to take for another condition tend to make me constipated, but I wasn’t miserable when I had to go through this. Drink water and juices. Don’t go with hot liquids, or colas.

As for the procedure itself, if they use the same sedative they use on most people you will literally remember nothing at all. You will not remember starting to lose consciousness. You will barely remember being on the table. Furthermore, you may get home and not remember how you got there! But the freakiest thing will be this hole between getting the sedative and waking up, in which you will have absolutely nothing. The sedative they use affects your short-term memory. Joy!

13

Fancy that - mine is still up on the fridge! :smiley:

Miralax does very little for me, too - but at least it isn’t vile!

14

did any of you have issues afterwards? Back in 95 i did the liquiprep kit that hat the citrus stuff [and i dont care, it does NOT taste just like sprite!] and 4 little red pills … I was told just to do the mag citrate and not the little pills.

So I did. I was getting the first appointment monday morning, so did it over the weekend.

I was still crapping my brains out until thursday. I was so dehydrated thursday afternoon when I showed up for my pre-operation bloodwork and festivities that it took 14 sticks to get enough blood out of me to match me, and they decided they had better give me a little quality time with an IV. [and I never realized how painful it is to have someone spelunking for veins in ones feet]

15

My advice: don’t take sleeping pills while doing your bowel prep.

16

I have run across a GI doc or two that have said that it’s okay to mix the prep with vodka. Just something you may want to ask your doctor about if you think it might make the whole thing go down easier.

17

My best advice to you is to read Dave Barry’s take on colonoscopy:

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/427603.html

This will make you feel much better about the whole thing. Seriously (or should I say, I Am Not Making This Up?)!

18

My hubby recently had one and he recommends Gatorade, Gatorade, Gatorade. You lose so much electrolytes when you’re getting cleaned out. And also, as someone else has said, keep the solution you have to drink COLD.

Good luck!

19

I had it done last year. The procedure was a snap. The day before was horrible.

The solution (I forget what it was called) is the consistency of motor oil, and yes, there will be explosive diarrhea. My sphincter was in so much pain by the morning of the operation it felt like a burning ring of fire (cue Johnny Cash). If I had thought of it I would have used a peri bottle from the beginning.

I was shitting from about 2 p.m. until about 3 a.m., then the procedure began at about 8 a.m. I didn’t sleep all night because I had to keep running to the hopper, where I would scream in pain.

Good luck!

20

I drank a lot of Gatorade too, both for the electrolytes and because I couldn’t afford to lose any more weight. To be honest, I won’t be drinking Gatorade again until the next one–I ended up having to stay on clear liquids an additional day for my surgery so I was without any meaningful calories for four days. That was a lot of Gatorade.