Ugh, do I REALLY have to schedule ANOTHER colonoscopy?

A healthy colon is unlikely to perforate. Isn’t there a Doper (who is now deceased) who experienced that, but IIRC he had an autoimmune GI disorder and that’s why it happened.

Well, finally scheduled it. First opening was…next August. I did Cologuard 3 years ago and the test didn’t reveal anything worrisome, so a delay like this probably isn’t an issue. Still, planning to call back once a month between now and then to see if there’s a cancellation that might let me move my appointment up.

I met a gastroenterologist at the neighborhood Holiday party yesterday. I’m excited that he’s okay doing unsedated endoscopies and colonoscopies. My current gastro is great, but there’s a good chance he’ll retire before my next endoscopy, and he’ll certainly retire before my next colonoscopy.

Might have mentioned part of this before, but I did my first colonoscopy back in 2020. I have a family history of colon cancer from both my mother and father’s side of the family, so I’m on the 5 year plan.

Last week, My mom had an abdominal CT scan and they found a 7cm mass in her colon and a 10cm mass in her liver. She’s having a follow up colonoscopy right now. Well, technically she’s waiting to be called back for IVs and such, but she should be under in about an hour. They should be removing some of the mass for biopsy, and we have an initial meeting with the Oncologist next Monday.
I’ll be calling my GI doc as soon as I know enough to tell him something, in case it changes my schedule.

Mom’s previous colonoscopy was also 2020.

Yay for you!!

Interesting about the long wait times. We’re in the DC metro area and have not experienced anything like that; I had my telemedicine call with my gastro a few days before Christmas, and mine is scheduled for Feb 12th; my husband his gastro yesterday, and his is on the Feb 19th. I joked they could have done both of us the same day, but… bathroom power might have been an issue. Doc offered me SuPrep this time but as its active ingredient is basically identical to SuTab, I declined; I’m going back to ClenPiq. He didn’t argue - he was right there when things got really ugly mid-procedure!

A friend (same age as I am) is having her first, next week. I was all set to chew her out for that, but she said she HAD been doing Cologard or whatever. But they wanted to get a baseline for her anyway. She did find there to be a bit of a wait. Maybe we’re just lucky to be in with a practice that has its own facility; the friend is having hers done at the hospital facility a couple miles away from our houses.

And the instructions are very, very different. She is allowed stuff like protein shakes and pudding the day before. And orange Gatorade. Me, not so much. And in general I’m happy to push docs on the rote prescription of stuff that makes an experience harder than it ought to be, but in my case I don’t since my stakes are so high. Plus, my tricks to avoid hangry-tude have worked fine - among other things, I eat a snack late on the Saturday night, then stay up late and sleep in on the Sunday - so I really have only a few hours before the real misery begins.

As a side note, I’m very glad I told the gastro about starting Ozempic - apparently they want you to not have taken that for a full 7 days before any elective procedure, as it delays stomach emptying (part of how it works for weight loss), and aspiration has proven to be an issue even if someone has followed the “fast after midnight” rule. So I’ve been pushing my weekly dose a little earlier each week, to move itfrom Wednesday to Sunday, then I’ll just skip it the night before the procedure. My friend is also on it, and they did not volunteer that info to her until she explicitly asked about it.

Yikes. Any news? Scary stuff :cry:

Yes, but it’s almost all bad. She has stage 4 colon cancer. BRAF v600e mutation in the tumor, which is kinda a worst-case prognosis - it’s aggressive. This has all grown since her 2020 scoping, which was clean. I’ve considered starting a thread.

The only good news is that the genetic testing doesn’t show an inheritable genetic condition in the tumor, so it doesn’t raise my risk profile as much. I was scheduled for my next colonoscopy in 2025 on the 5 year plan. Instead, I’m doing one February 21st of this year, and we’ll discuss future testing plans. (It’s the earliest I could do it without cancelling a long planned 3 week vacation, my father’s birthday, or one of my mom’s chemo appointments.)

I need to make an appointment for my first soon.

Hugs to you and yours, Digital. News like this is never easy to take.

Really, really sorry to hear that news. I hope the chemo knocks things back well enough to give her loads and loads of good time.

I’m glad it doesn’t appear to raise your risk that much, but absolutely worth bumping your own schedule up.

Thanks. I’ve been out of the country on a long planned vacation. Thankfully, with wifi and Google Fi, I was able to keep in touch, and my sister is local and took care of things without me. I Just got back and am catching up.

They changed Mom’s protocol to a newer drug based on reactions she was having at her second session, and the updated genetic test results. And they are changing her to a weekly instead of biweekly schedule.

I scheduled my own colonoscopy for what was supposed to be an off week, but also put it late enough in the week so it wouldn’t interfere if something changed. Yay planning ahead!

Wishing all the best to your mom. Chemo is brutal stuff.

My own procedure is next Monday. I’ve stocked up on a lot of juice and gourmet sodas that I normally never get, gelatin (pineapple and unflavored, to mix with juice). Got 3 bags of pineapple gummy bears also. The only supplies I need now are 3 quarts of pho broth, and a spare package of adult diapers - I figure that having extras available will guarantee I don’t need 'em.

Formal prep steps begin Friday, with cessation of anything with fiber, AND cessation of the stuff to manage my bile acid diarrhea.

Back in 2018, I had a scope scheduled - then I found out that I needed emergency wrist surgery. I postponed, for 3 reasons: 1) The logistics of dealing with… THAT… with one arm in a sling. 2) Sedation, after recent use of narcotic pain relief, might have posed problems (or not; I wasn’t ever on a high dose). 3) The concept of a constipating medication + colonoscopy prep led to some amusing and terrifying images involving high explosives.

Cholestyramine, amirite? Yeah, you don’t want any of that in your innards when you have a scope.

Ooooooh yeah. I have told several doctors that they will pry that stuff out of my cold, dead hands - it has made SUCH a difference for me. Before I started on that, without going into too much detail there were times I joked about calling the gastro and saying “Hey, got a cancellation? 'cause I’m all ready for a scope today!”.

Stopping it for a few days can be… regrettable. It’ll be interesting to see how that meshes with the residual digestive slowdow from my Ozempic.

I picked up most of my supplies, even though I have another week before my scope.
My prep looks like the same as last time. It was pretty easy for me then. I set up a little table in the bathroom for my laptop and TV.
Monday at 5pm, 4oz Milk of Magnesia
Tuesday is clear liquids only. I have gatorade and chicken broth handy.
At 1pm I take 4 Dulcolax laxative tablets with 8oz water.
At 2pm mix 238 gram MiraLAX Powder with gatorade. Shake until dissolved. Drink 8 oz every 30-45 min until gone.
Nothing by mouth after midnight.
Show up at 9:30 Wed for 10:30 procedure.

Interesting that they are not doing the split-dose version with you (half the night before, half about 5-6 hours before). Maybe the Milk of Magnesia + stiff dose of Dulcolax are supposed to handle all of that. My husband’s prep is next weekend; he has SuPrep (and no Dulcolax)

I’ve taken the Dulcolax; will likely start on the ClenPiq in about 2 hours. Then I get to repeat it around 2 AM (I’ll likely start at 1, given my history).

Finished the ClenPiq just before 6. It kicked in within an hour, which is faster than usual. Definitely less violent than SuTab was!!!

Things had… cleared out within an hour. But as I told my husband, it did what it needed to do, now I wish it would quit doing what it doesn’t need to do! It actually did stop after a bit over 3 hours, but I sure wish there was an antagonist for the stuff!

I’ll get up around 1:30 to do round 2.

I’ve definitely been drinking enough. Emptied 3 16-ounce glasses and two 12-ounce mugs. I’ll do similar in a couple hours - I want to slam that down a fast as I can to improve the odds of my stomach emptying in time.

The ClenPiq is nasty. Imagine cranberry scented household cleaner. Not that I’ve ever smelled that, nor tasted household cleaner of any sort, but that’s about what I imagine it would be like. Only 6 ounces, at least.

I’ve never had to wake up in the middle of the night to do that. That sounds horrible.

My own fault - I scheduled the procedure for 7:30. Until last year, I always tried for late morning to avoid the wakeup, but it was nice being done so early.

It’s the basically the same protocol we followed four years ago, so he’s consistent. Actually I don’t think I did the Milk of Magnesia last time. I remember the Dulcolax and MiraLAX. If I recall correctly, I had a few hours of clean out, and then things quieted down.

I’ve gone through this twice and the thing I noticed is not being particularly hungry the day before, despite the limited diet.