I have always eaten pretty much immediately after the procedure - no more than 10 minutes after I am allowed to leave. I eat whatever I feel like- I wouldn’t order a steak dinner, but the last time, I had a Subway sandwich and the time before that was pizza.
I had my second procedure about six months ago and was surprised not to be particularly hungry after. I ate something; perhaps Indian food that I had delivered.
The place where my husband has had 7+ colonoscopies over the years and where I had mine 10 years ago (because of colitis) used to have a platter of cookies, pastries and muffins ready for patients after the procedure. They don’t do it anymore.
When i got home. Ordinary food. I had no restrictions on what to eat, and no issues eating. I had the colonoscopies without sedation, so i didn’t have to recover from sedation or anything.
I had lots of calories the day before. Mostly just sugar (in ginger ale, jello, and even in the Gatorade they told me to use for the prep). And i fast from time to time. So i never felt super hungry or deprived when i had a colonoscopy. But i did feel like solid food would be appealing, and that’s what i ate afterwards.
Once I started with the prep solution, I wasn’t really starving hungry during the prep phase. This was early in Thanksgiving week, though, and the endless segments on TV about what to make and eat were a little much.
My first colonoscopy was yesterday. Prep (a gallon of PEG solution) was kind of nasty stuff. Nice lemon scent when I uncapped the gallon jug with the powder in it, but there sure wasn’t much lemon flavor in the final liquid concoction. Managed to get it down without gagging at all, but it took some care.
No sedation, so I got to watch. They said they wouldn’t be able to give me general anesthesia after starting; if I found it painful, they would only be able to give me narcotic sedatives that wouldn’t render me unconscious. Things were a bit painful at a couple of points while they were maneuvering the probe, but just transient, so OK, no sedatives required at all. They found three polyps, now waiting for lab results to see what that means for the interval before the next 'scopy. Seeing what they saw on the monitor, I really have no idea how they navigate in there, other than just by gauging how much length of probe they’ve got inserted. I couldn’t easily tell from the view when the camera was going around the major bends of the colon. If you’ve ever read Working Cells or seen the anime, I kept imagining the cells in my colon being exposed to light for the first time ever, covering their eyes and screaming “OMG, turn off your fucking head lights!!!”
They had two polyp-slicing tools. One was a pair of mechanical jaws (“pac man on a stick”), the other was a wire snare. The snare looked to be challenging, as they had to get the orientation and position correct so that they could lower the loop over the polyp, and it seemed like they had kind of flaky control over the movements of the end of the probe. The jaws seemed to be more forgiving, allowing them to come at a polyp from pretty much angle and also allowing them to remove polyps that were too small/short for the snare to work.
With no sedation, there was no recovery time. That was kind of nice; once they removed my IV and disconnected me from the ECG monitor, I was able to get up right away, get dressed, and ease on down the road.
I was told they only see maybe one or two no-sedation colonoscopies a month. I don’t know how many they do at this facility in that amount of time, but knowing they operate 6 days a week, I assume it’s at least 24 a month (more if they have the staff and equipment to do more than one a day).
Had eggs and toast for lunch after I got home, no GI distress at all.
I won’t say I’m looking forward to the next colonoscopy, but now that I’ve gone through one, I’m considerably less apprehensive about it.
Was the IV “just in case?” I would think the best part of no sedation colonoscopy would be the lack of the IV.
Pretty sure, yes. If they had needed to administer Fentanyl or whatever else, I’m sure it would have been through that IV.
The IV itself wasn’t bad, but I swear to God they used Gorilla tape to secure it to my arm. That stuff really didn’t want to let go of my arm hair.
You’ve long since found this out by now - but they offer crackers etc. basically as soon as I’m sitting up (this last time, unfortunately, due to the stuff they gave me to reduce salivation, I choked on 'em!). In general, the instructions are “eat as you feel comfortable”.
I made the mistake of stopping at a Mongolian barbecue place, once (where I found out that the gut really got excited over its first hot meal). Whoopsie.
Kudos on making it without sedation! For me, that propofol is the best part, but you’re not me, LOL. And yeah, likely “just in case”, like if they do need to knock you out, or if something goes wrong they’ve got a line in place to administer fluids, or whatever. It’s my second least favorite part of the process, but no lovely lovely propofol without it, so… 
I’ve recently found out that I’ve got the bad variety of the BRCA1 gene, and my gastro confirmed that this DOES increase my risks for colon cancer. Phooey. So I’m likely to remain an annual patient, if not more often.
@Digital_is_the_new_Analog - sorry to hear your mom is having such a rough time. “removing the main tumor typically doesn’t improve prognosis,” - may well be true (since it’s already spread), but debulking the tumor can improve comfort etc. for some patients. Which basically they’ve now done. I’m glad that she’s now able to eat real food - NG tubes are… not a lot of fun, from what I hear. I hope she’s feeling a little better at least now that she can eat.
I feel your pain. For those who haven’t had one, the laxative bathroom scene in “Dumb and Dumber” is essentially a documentary on the prep, except that it goes on for 6 hours.
I’d love a better option.
I’m hard pressed to think of another way to clear out your GI tract besides blasting it out your back door the way God intended, but it seems like there are better choices out there for the laxative that gets things moving.
Looking at SUTAB, I wonder why they don’t prescribe this instead of the gallon of nastiness (PEG) that I had to drink? With SUTAB, you still have to drink 48 ounces of water at each stage, but at least it’s just plain old water instead of salty-gooey water, and only 48 ounces instead of the 64 ounces I had to drink. I would much rather have done that.
The clinic I went to had an alternative low volume prep of Pico Silax. You mix the powder with 8 oz of whatever clear liquid you want followed by 1.5L of liquid of choice, repeated for a second dose after 4 hours. Much easier than drinking a gallon of PEG.
Yes, i had to have an IV last time i did a no-sedation colonoscopy, too. “Just in case”. But while i didn’t enjoy being poked, it’s not a big deal. The best part of a no-sedation colonoscopy is being totally fine as soon as it’s done, and being able to drive home and otherwise get on with your life, instead of basically being sick all day. The second best part is getting to watch.
Makes sense. To me getting poked is a little more than “not a big deal,” but of course something I buck up and handle when necessary. Also, the propofol doesn’t bother me. Although I can’t drive, I feel fine pretty quickly. I wouldn’t mind watching, however. Plus, I always fear what I might say during sedation.
When I asked for Sutab, they didn’t think my insurance covered it. I didn’t care- I was willing to pay full price. Turned out it was covered.
Huh. A little googling shows that without insurance, SUTAB can be $136 or more, whereas NuLytely (the stuff I got) sells for about $30. So I guess I understand why I ended up with the cheap stuff.
No generic version of SUTAB…yet. That’ll change one day, then the price will drop, and then maybe more insurance policies will be willing to cover it (and if not, $30 will be affordable for most folks).
If you’re willing to try Suprep rather than Sutab (I think they’re similar; one in tablet form and the other in liquid form), generic Suprep might be available for about $30-40.
In Nebraska I can get Suprep generic for $33. Sutab is $132. Both via GoodRx.
Though how is it possible for the insurance company to cover the cost of the colonoscopy but not the medication needed for the prep?
There was a discussion upthread about Sutab. I would never use it again. I think the time it takes the pills to dissolve is too variable from patient to patient. It also has a high failure rate according to a friend who works in a gastroenterologist’s office, leading her office to stop using it entirely.
I also had a relative who had a colonoscopy last year after having had 6-8 of them in the past, and for the first time ever their prep (which used Sutab) was deemed inadequate and they had to stop the procedure and reschedule.
I used Suprep for my first colonoscopy, and intend to request that again the next time I get one.