# Colonoscopy prep not working



## RZman

My colonoscopy is at 7am tomorrow.  I took my prep 5 hours ago and nothing has happened.  I've had a dozen colonoscopies in the past and never had this issue.  I'm supposed to do another prep at 2am.... yuck!   Anyone else experience this?  Any advise (other than to call my doctor)?


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## valleysangel92

I had this happen to me before,  I was told to take the next prep as normal since crohns sometimes slows things up. Sometimes the extra prep is needed to get things shifting.  I would say call a doctor/IBD nurse though just incase.  Make sure you are drinking plenty,  especially if it's a prep that doesn't need you to drink much of it since those rely on you drinking lots of extra fluids to make them work.


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## lizbeth

I had the same problem with picolax, probably for the reason valleysAngel said but after 11 hours it worked and did what it had to in time, good luck with yours and I hope the scope is okay, all the best. :ghug:


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## Cat-a-Tonic

I'm probably a little late to this thread, but out of curiosity - RZman, what prep did you use?  Lizbeth mentioned picolax - that same prep is called Prepopik in the US.  That's the one I used for my colonoscopy a few weeks ago, and it didn't properly clean me out either.  I had to take a bunch of Dulcolax tablets in order to try to get myself cleaned out.  That did work, but I wish the Prepopik had worked the way it was supposed to.


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## UnXmas

I've had long delays with Picolax; I'd taken a first dose in the morning of the day before, diarrhoea didn't start until early hours of the following morning. The test was still fine though. I'm so glad I never have to do those preps anymore!


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## mickey

perhaps drink some warm to hot water?  The heat may help move things along...


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## bettyboop12

I agree, lots of water... Think I had to have a litre of water with my preps in total.  This I remember taking first one and nothing happened until I started moving around. May be coincidence but could be worth a try!  Good luck.


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## Ihurt

Definitely drink lots of water( I drank like 3 liters). I used the prep called Suprep. It worked on me right away, I mean I was in the toilet within 20 minutes of drinking that stuff, but I also chugged down a ton of water with it. That is what helped move things I believe. Oh,, I was suppose to drink my second one at like 2 am. I did it at 9 pm though. Good thing too because I did not finish pooping until an hour before I had to leave for the hospital!  Now I know to always do the prep earlier than they say. There was no way I could have drank that stuff at 2am and then be ready to leave my house at 6 am!


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## hawkeye

I haven't had great results with pico silax either but I have a couple of strictures so that tends to hold stuff back.


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