Oh joy... a double scoping

[puzzlegal]

My first colonoscopy was both ends, too. And I did it without sedation. It’s fine. The endoscopy is actually a lot harder than the colonoscopy, at least for me, because it made me wretch. The colonoscopy was a little crampy, but that’s it. I had no pain at all frmo the colonoscopy, and a sore throat for a day from the endoscopy.

@Reeses_Monkey

As for GoLytely, get it as cold as possible and drink it with a straw to try to bypass as much of your tongue as possible. Then watch the Bill Engvall colonoscopy video. You’ll be laughing too hard to care about the colon prep effects.

@TheCuse

That’s what I did–used a straw. Was given that advice when I had my first colonoscopy four years ago. And I mixed in Ginger Ale soda.

Then I had to drink that stuff twice last year–the straw helped a lot. I drank the entire gallon each time in less than 2 hours.

I had GoLytely, and I HIGHLY recommend the straw method. Shove the straw WAAAY back in your mouth, past most of the tongue. Use a big straw, and drink it quickly, but don’t taste it more than you have to. I also used some gingerale in the mix. I was going to use all gingerale, which the doc okayed, but then I realized that if I drank a gallon of gingerale I would feel sick just from that. So I used about a quart of gingerale and the rest water.

I started drinking it at 7:30 in the evening, and I was done with needing the toilet by midnight, probably by 11PM, I don’t remember exactly. But my husband went out for the evening, and I started after he left and finished before he came home. I just holed up in the bathroom with my laptop and a novel.

Don’t wipe more than you have to – your bum will get raw. You can use some desitin or petroleum jelly, but “wipe less, just stay on the toilet where a wet bum is okay” is the best advice I can give you.

I did not have trouble with my bottom going there or returning. (And since I was awake, I drove myself home.) Although you will be gassy – they pump your intestines up with air so they can see, and it can take a while for it to all work its way out again. I tend not to get pain from gas, but if you are prone to that, be forewarned.

I was really good about following all the rules about what I couldn’t eat for the week before, and that may have helped. I was certainly very clean by the time they shoved the scope up me.

[mixdenny]

I can’t speak to the butt stuff but the anesthesia for the endoscope was a super fun time! Even though I had just survived a bad heart experience that should have done me in I was more worried when they said I needed the endoscope. I have very strong gag reflex and am terrified of choking or not being able to breathe. So the thought of a tube down my throat was quite upsetting.

I was assured it would not be noticed even though I would be able to hear things around me while I was under. It was simply amazing. I dreamed I was flying over a beautiful rural landscape. I was following the terrain as I swept up hills and sailed down the valleys looking at each farm. And yes, I could hear talking around me but not enough to understand what they were saying. Next thing I knew I was back in my room disappointed that my flight had ended.

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

@mixdenny

I was assured it would not be noticed even though I would be able to hear things around me while I was under. It was simply amazing. I dreamed I was flying over a beautiful rural landscape. I was following the terrain as I swept up hills and sailed down the valleys looking at each farm. And yes, I could hear talking around me but not enough to understand what they were saying. Next thing I knew I was back in my room disappointed that my flight had ended.

Wow. The only thing I ever got out of any anesthetic was a severe case of paranoia upon waking. I thought everyone was trying to kill me, and I was terrified.

I want some of the good stuff sometime. None of this bad trip BS.

[Sodalite]

Where was this thread back in April? I was extremely anemic (6.4), had to get two units of blood (8.1), and get the double to check for bleeding. I told them that GoLytely wouldn’t work for me. It had failed to do the job before but they insisted it was a “New and Improved” version. Used the straw method to get it down.

The anesthesiologist was being way too aggressive with the needle for the IV. She kept stabbing right through my pitiful little veins. Had chemo as a kid. She put one in the crook of my left elbow and I told her it was burning as soon she started it. She kept saying it was fine and slapping more tape on it. We go to start the procedure and they push the night-night meds. Nothing happens. Try again? Nothing. One more time? Still wide awake and my arm hurts because it’s hugely swollen with the fluids and meds that didn’t go into the vein. Do over! Right arm. First try, out like a light. Endo was OK. Found an hiatal hernia and a benign polyp. Colonoscopy failed because Golytely didn’t go heavily enough. I spent the rest of that day and most of the next sleeping off the double and then some anesthesia.

Colonoscopy take two. Suprep AND Golytely. No food for two days prior. Found a precancerous polyp so I get to go back in five years. Oh the joy!; the wonder of it all.

The week after the blood transfusion (04/01) I was up to 8.6. I started taking ferrous sulfate and we had high hopes that I was back on track. Tested again last week (06/10) and I had jumped all the way up to 8.7. So yesterday I had to go see hematology/oncology. Going to try iron infusions and pretty much ANYTHING else to avoid looking at my bone marrow. Might even swallow a camera pill to check the rest of my gut for a bleed or something.

[puzzlegal]

@mixdenny

I can’t speak to the butt stuff but the anesthesia for the endoscope was a super fun time! Even though I had just survived a bad heart experience that should have done me in I was more worried when they said I needed the endoscope. I have very strong gag reflex and am terrified of choking or not being able to breathe. So the thought of a tube down my throat was quite upsetting.

I was assured it would not be noticed even though I would be able to hear things around me while I was under. It was simply amazing. I dreamed I was flying over a beautiful rural landscape. I was following the terrain as I swept up hills and sailed down the valleys looking at each farm. And yes, I could hear talking around me but not enough to understand what they were saying. Next thing I knew I was back in my room disappointed that my flight had ended.

Jealous. I’ve been sedated twice. The first time I felt ill for the rest of the day, couldn’t sleep that night, and had recovered the next day except I was non-functional because I’d gotten no sleep. The second time I took something different. I experienced a bought of extreme depression, and wept most of the afternoon. I felt violated. I had PTSD symptoms and woke up in the middle of the night feeling paranoid for more than a week. i had to go on anti-depressants before I really recovered from that.

Planning to do the future ones awake. The upper GI is a bitch, because I gag. The colonoscopy is no big deal, just a little crampy as they shove it it. The recovery if you don’t get sedated basically consists of cleaning up in the bathroom, and getting dressed. Easy peasey.

Anyway, I’m an outlier. Most people seem to enjoy the sedation. And the procedure itself is really no big deal.

[Ruken]

“Hi, I’m here for the 10:30a spit-roast? Here’s my insurance card.”

[bump]

@Senegoid

Okay, Google helped me out here. It’s called Crystal Light, although similar products exist in other brands too. It comes in many flavors. You would definitely want to avoid any of the darker flavors. Stick with lemonade flavor.

Crystal Light has been around forever- since the 1980s, I think. But yeah, the lemonade flavor is the best tasting variant.

[TreacherousCretin]

@puzzlegal

Jealous. I’ve been sedated twice. The first time I felt ill for the rest of the day, couldn’t sleep that night, and had recovered the next day except I was non-functional because I’d gotten no sleep. The second time I took something different. I experienced a bought of extreme depression, and wept most of the afternoon. I felt violated. I had PTSD symptoms and woke up in the middle of the night feeling paranoid for more than a week. i had to go on anti-depressants before I really recovered from that.

Planning to do the future ones awake. The upper GI is a bitch, because I gag. The colonoscopy is no big deal, just a little crampy as they shove it it. The recovery if you don’t get sedated basically consists of cleaning up in the bathroom, and getting dressed. Easy peasey.

Anyway, I’m an outlier. Most people seem to enjoy the sedation. And the procedure itself is really no big deal.

Agreed. The prep is still an ordeal (albeit lesser than it used to be), but the procedure is EZPZ. A couple of times the doctor has let me watch the screen with them. One of them even answered my groggy questions (“What’s that yellow thing?”).* Fascinating as hell to have a live, wormseye view of deep inside your own body.

• She said it was a tiny glob of future fecal matter, brown coloring yet to be added (by bilirubin, IIRC).

[Mama_Zappa]

I’m sure y’all were waiting for me to show up… frequent flyer here (7, er, “under my belt” as it were).

For the OP: if it isn’t too late, ask about PrepoPik (picosulfate; called PicoPrep in other countries). 1 smallish cup (5 ounces?) for each of the split-dose rounds, that taste like bad lemonade. I’d done the “handful of pills” and they do worry about kidney issues though my doc said he’d only seen an issue once, when the patient was inadequately hydrated.

The happy juice has always done the job nicely for me. Normally they do the IV in the right arm since you are on your left side; this last time they had to do it in my left arm as I’d just had surgery on the right. One time I became vaguely aware of “something” happening mid-procedure, but nothing bothersome.

I’m due for my next one some time in the next 12ish months; I’m on an every-3-years schedule now. I will have a bidet toilet seat in the master bathroom by then - as this last time, the “ring of fire” woke me up in recovery, truly harshing my post-Propofol mellow

[Space_Vegetable]

I’ve been getting colonoscopies every few years for the past 40 years, and drinking the prep is so much less unpleasant nowadays. My last two used Miralax dissolved in Gatorade, plus some Dulcolax tablets. Better than Suprep, which was better than Halflytely, which was better than whatever they had in the 1980s (I believe it involved drinking a small inland sea).

I haven’t tried the pill-only prep (my doc didn’t think it was safe enough), nor Prepopik.Though it seems that’s been discontinued, at least in the US, and its maker replaced that powder version with a similar but ready-to-drink version called Clenpiq.

[Mama_Zappa]

Yoiks on the discontinued PrepoPik. I wonder what happened???

[Mama_Zappa]

Zombie prep!

Just had my 8th scope, yesterday, with the replacement for PrepoPik - now called ClenPiq or ClenPik or something like that. It’s premixed, and rather syrupy, and I do not recommend anyone trying to drink it without alternating swigs with something strong-tasting. Nominally “cranberry” flavor though you couldn’t prove it by me. And it said not to refrigerate, which just made it extra yummy. I told my husband, and housemate, who were standing by snickering, that it was neither better, nor worse, than its predecessor, but would never be mistaken for a tasty enjoyable beverage.

Lessons learned this time:

1. An 8 AM procedure time, necessitating a 3 AM Drano session, was actually not that bad with a liltte pre-planning. I did the first half a bit early - 2 PM the day before - and when that wore off about 6 PM I went right to bed - slept until 2 AM. I had a vague idea that I might snooze some more after that was done - but by then it was 5 AM and no point in an hour-long nap. Oh, and traffic was great, due to the time of day.
2. The bidet seat was a big, big help. We’d put a heated one in the master bath. As a result, the “ring of fire” phenomenon was reduced to a “Huh, slightly sore for a moment”, and my post-Propofol wakeup was not so unpleasant, except for…
3. the fact that I forgot to turn off my regular weekday alarms on my phone. I came to hearing a mix of 3 different alarm tones. Whoops! At least if they were worried about my recording the proceedings, they can now rest assured that the recording wouldn’t have caught anything!

Was hoping to announce that “8 is enough” after this one. Well, no, I wasn’t really EXPECTING that, but… I’ve now been promoted to every 2 years, unless the one in 2023 is fantastic. Bleh. Beats the alternative, though.

[QuickSilver]

@pythonzzz

I’ve got a load of Crystal Light lemonade powder to add to the prep swill, along with straight-up lime juice and diet Vernor’s ginger ale to help kill the taste.

An ounce and a half of gin or tequila and I think you’re really on to something.