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

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Mr. bot had this procedure last year. He stayed upstairs in the master bedroom for the full 24 hours Of Cleansing; so he was close to the ‘throne’. I stayed downstairs so he could have some privacy.

He had twilight sedation, and didn’t remember a thing. While he was in recovery, the doctor came out and showed me all the neat photos of the pleats and folds that comprise his colon. Nobody knows Mr. bot better than I. I’ve seen his ass-innards!

Mr. bot did say that the prep was worse than the procedure. So don’t sweat it. Once you get through The Cleansing; the procedure itself is forgettable.

22

Vodka is a clear liquid! Does that count?

:smiley:

23

Are popsicles (orange, not red) ok?

24

According to the nurse, most of the gas is air that they blow in to give them an unobstructed view. She kept saying, “it’s ok, it’s *the doctor’s *gas.” The idea of passing someone else’s gas amused me, but I was too groggy to giggle over it until after she’d left.

I was awake and watching the screen through the whole procedure. Don’t worry, though. With the drugs they give, even if you’re awake, you don’t care.

25

My 82 year old mother recently had to do the two day clean out fun-0-rama that you are going through.

Just as I walked in her front door at 8am to whisk her away for the roto-rooter appointment ( I cannot pronounce the techie word.) the doctor’s office called and cancelled.

She felt worse for the doctor for being sick. I would have yelled into the phone at the unsuspecting nurse, " What about me!!! I’ve spent two days pooping like there is no tomorrow!!!"
So, instead, we hit the nation’s largest Salvation Army and spent three hours there putzing around. THAT is how everyone should spend their roto-rooter appointments, IMHO.

26

Welcome to the club.

But to echo the consensus - the prep is unpleasant, but the procedure is nothing. Cola was included under “clear liquids” in my informational packet - go figure. I drank a lot of ice water.

Regards,
Shodan

27

I had one done 5 years ago. I think I drank mostly Propel® Water. I only had a one day prep, and it was NO FUN, but you will get through it. And like others said, the test is a snap. I don’t remember a thing after getting my IV. The IV, was another story…took 7 sticks!

Good luck.
I hope “everything comes out OK”.

Oh ya, one nice thing, for me anyway. After it was all said and done, I felt better than ever. I just felt light, and healthy. I sort of understood why people(celebrities) might do that whole colon cleansing thing, that was so popular a few years ago, and maybe still is?

28

Shodan, thanks for the link - some very amusing and comforting stuff there. OK, the magnesium citrate is now on board. Curiously, I had 2 diarrheas prior to any laxative today. Maybe due to the stool softeners? Or just the process of processsing clear liquids? Anyway, I have a potty chair from when I had my hip replacement, that’s at one end of the house and then a clear pathway to the 2 bathrooms. This may sound gross, but I plan on going “European style” and not throwing the TP down the toilet, instead I have plastic bags to collect the TP then out to the trash it goes. We have super low water pressure and it’s hard enough to get the toilet to flush with normal stuff in it, so fingers crossed that no plunging will have to be done.

I can’t decide between “Fake plastic Trees” by Radiohead or “Bolero” for my fart-along. Someone else’s gas, hehe, that makes me laugh. A room full of farting people (does everyone do the butt cheek life-up or else act like it’s someone else when they let it rip?), farting people farting other people’s gas. It’s like a Barbra Streisand song!

I’m goofy now. Must not watch fast food commercials on TV!

29

OK, I see someone else has linked to the Dave Barry column (a necessity, AFAIC).

I had weight loss surgery a couple of years ago. I needed to be “clean” for it.

For 24hours preceding, I was on a clear liquid diet. I “feasted” on chicken broth, beef broth, JellO, apple juice, white peach juice and ginger ale.

Then came the “bowel prep”. I forget exactly what the stuff was called. Citri-something-or-another. Tasted basically like flat 7-UP with about a ton of sugar and a ton of salt added.

I got it as cold as possible, and used a straw. I also had a glass of extra, extra cold Ginger Ale on hand. I would put the straw as far back on my tongue as possible, drink as much as I could in one gulp, follow with a swallow of ginger ale. Lather, rinse, repeat, til all the bowel prep crap was gone.

Using the straw allowed me to bypass the most obvious taste buds. Using the ginger ale to rinse allowed me to cleanse the taste buds that were hit anyway.

No disrespect to those who say “no fizzy drinks”, but this method worked for me, personally.

30

I had one done about eight years ago, and I’m scheduled for another at the end of the month.

I’ve been given “Phospho-Soda” to drink the evening before the procedure. That’s what I used last time, and it was very efficient in launching the “Space Shuttle Mode”. Definitely get some baby wipes to protect your poor ass from all the wiping!!

My instructions from the doctor say that colas and carbonated drinks are fine. Actually, they seem to be fine with everything as long as it doesn’t have dairy or pulp of any kind in it.

I’m one of the rare ones on whom the amnesia drugs didn’t work. It made things kind of dreamy, but I remember every detail. Even so, it wasn’t bad and well worth the peace of mind once you get a clean bill of health.

31

I’d be careful with the carbonated drinks. My wife had them before her colonoscopy and had unbearable gas pain after- even though the literature said they were fine.
I just stuck to drinking the stuff as it came and had no difficulty. Not pleasant but it had to be done. As my specialist explained- men over 50 are killed by bowel cancer or heart attacks.

32

For me the prep (involving the whole bottle of Miralax) was no big deal, except that I don’t enjoy drinking all that fluid (sports drinks).

Then again, I had not been constipated for six weeks.

What I sincerely hope is that insurance companies don’t stop paying for colonoscopies and push you into the much cheaper “virtual” colonoscopies instead. In that case you’d have the same bowel prep, followed by an imaging procedure in which you get air blown up your butt, with no sedation, and the promise that if a polyp or mass turns up on the films you have to go through the colonoscopy anyway to get it biopsied/removed.

33

I had one several years ago so I don’t remember the name of the stuff I used but I know it was only something like 2, 8oz. glasses or something of salty stuff, NOT a gallon of nasty tasting stuff. I think it was lemon-flavored but that didn’t matter; the salt was overwhelming.

I had heard so many horrible stories that the day before I was to do the liquid diet I ate light. Fruit, veggies, salad, maybe either chicken or fish but no heavy meat, etc. The liquid diet day I had water and juices, broth and jello. I didn’t have any “explosions” and slept through the night–exactly the oppositive of what I had heard.

I woke up in the middle of the procedure, my eyes still closed. Had a bad crampy feeling (frankly, nothing new to us ladies) and heard someone moaning and realized it was me. Heard the doc say that it was almost over but I fell back asleep and woke up in recovery.

Not too bad. The worst of it for me was worrying about who was going to be able to pick me up, etc. since it was a regular working day for everyone.

34

Half way through the gallon and some bloating and clear diarrhea has occurred, but nothing too bad. I have to get up at 3 AM and drink the other half of the gallon laxative, so hopefully I can grab a few hours of sleep tonight.

I’m going to wear my FDNY t-shirt that says “Stay back 200 ft.” on the back of it.
Hehe. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

35

Half way through the gallon and some bloating and clear diarrhea has occurred, but nothing too bad. I have to get up at 3 AM and drink the other half of the gallon laxative, so hopefully I can grab a few hours of sleep tonight.

I’m going to wear my FDNY t-shirt that says “Stay back 200 ft.” on the back of it.
Hehe. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Sorry if this posts twice, my computer seems to be Constipated. Hehe. I’m silly, must be all those great electrolytes fleeing my system like a bat out of hell.

36

I had my first colonoscopy (a screening) Tuesday.
Since constipation isn’t a problem for me, I got the “easy” prep, which involved no food after Sunday evening, four Dulcolax tablets and a bottle of Mirilax mixed with 64 ounces of Gatorade. The prep was unpleasant, but not awful, not much but Gatorade coming thru after the first half hour. The fasting was the worst part since I’m a six-meals-a-day guy normally.
The procedure itself was easy, the staff friendly, relaxing and matter-of-fact about everything. There was a lot of waiting involved…I was all ready to go in a bed with IV in place for about two hours and they didn’t bother to tell my wife we were just waiting, so she was pretty freaked by the time they told her I was out. I do remember feeling a little uncomfortable pressure at one point, maybe when they did the “inflation”. Passing the air afterward wasn’t as embarrasing as I’d expected it to be. I’m real private about stuff like that, but I suppose the sedation helps take away some inhibitions.
The worst part for me was finding out I have a cecal ulcer. They biopsied it and I won’t know the results til the 17th. The doc says it’s likely from an infection, but could be cancer, too, so I’m pretty scared. I went in expecting to wake up to “Everything looks fine, see you in five years” and got scary news instead.
Wish me luck.

37

Good luck Sky King. The doctor was probably covering his bases so don’t get hung up about it.

38

Thank you for the encouragement, Cicero. What will be, will be, I guess.
The important thing is that, if I hadn’t had the procedure, that ulcer would still be there, malignant or not, working up to some bad outcome for me. I now can treat it, and maybe save my life.

I guess the whole point of this thread is, “Get it done, it ain’t that bad.”

39

I wish you luck. I think you can handle it. Sounds like whatever it is, they found it quickly, which is damn good news. All of this stuff is treatable and responds well regardless of what it is, if you catch it early. I think you have.

Best of all, you’ve done a service for the rest of us who may not have had one yet. Go do it today!:smack:

40

Rerun + update:

"12-19-2006, 06:30 PM #14

Ignatz
Member Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,538
Location:

My first colonoscopy procedure, following bloody stools and a quick sigmoidoscopy, was painless and they fortunately snipped and removed two precancerous polyps. I was conscious enough at the end of it to watch the 'scope’s view of the last couple of feet of my colon on the wall monitor. It looked just like Katie Couric’s, BTW. [She televised hers a couple of years ago 2006 or so]. They even gave me color photos of the two polyps, pre-removal.

But when I went home and went to bed that night, I awoke to the most painful abdomen that I had ever had. I could not even bend to get off the bed to go to the bathroom, but I did, eventually, make that move.

(There was an earlier posting of my first one but it’s long gone.)

Prior to the second one, I told the (different) endodontist about that and he felt that that had probably been caused by the air that is blown into the colon to expand it. No pain or polyps resulted from the second or third oscopies. The last one, though, involved a self-administered enema as part of the purging. That was interesting, never having had one before that I remember.

I’ll have no problem about having future scopings when the need or schedule arises. The first one probably saved my life 11 years ago."

That was then. This is now. I go in on the 15th (2 days after my birthday) for the pre-op video instructions and then for the 5-year upcheck on the 21st.

All of mine have been just the prior-evening laxatives. On the last one, they prescribed Gatorade and a powder lax, then, the self-administered enema. Anyone else had to do the enema, too? And, oh, one nurse said the worst pre-procedure food to avoid is chopped collards. Fear not.