Colonoscopy prep for constipat-eurs!?

[Lisa5326]

Hiya just a bit of a note for those that are constipated and tell our GI's AND have to get a colonoscopy...she put me on a two-day prep and wanted to warn y'all.

Day 0 (Sun) is eating regular food you can tolerate, which honestly wasn't up to par for me cause I ate a LOT the night before so I couldn't enjoy food this day. Boo.

Day 1 (Mon) is 1-2 gallons of clear liquids--broth, tea, white grape juice, apple juice, jell-o, black coffee, 7-up, Sprite, Fresca. I had 1 liter of mango acai tea from 10-1230pm a black coffee and some water till 3, then from 3-6pm I had a liter of apple juice (100%). Then I had some water the rest of the night. She wanted me to do a ducolax suppository but i didn't due to the fairly regular movement.

Day 2 (today) is lots of same liquids then I will start my Nu-Lytely at 3 or 4pm. So far I have had most of a liter of white grape juice.

My constipation help: about halfway through the first bottle of the FIRST day I begin to get moving, so instead of metamucil or miralax or milk of mag (why do they all start with M?) you can drink an a$$load of juice or tea and it will move ya.

My warning: I am not used to urgency at ALL! And after I began to move easily and continued to drink my tea/juice, the moving turned into a full sprint, which took me by complete, COMPLETE surprise. It is a LOUD gurgle and then you MUST quick clench your way quickly to the bathroom (like the prep). I am at work, I wasn't prepared, I AM prepared for this evening when I will be in the bathroom all night and know it, not today when I am at work with my liter bottle of grape juice. Just wanted to let those of us know that don't deal with diarrhea regularly and are put on two-day prep, clench those cheeks! Oh and last night at the end of day 1...pain, 6/10 felt like barbed wired gas, and farts that weren't only that...never trust a fart i guess!

I am hoping this will work out for me in the end as I start my prep today later cause I didn't eat food yesterday and am not today only liquid so maybe I will clean out much faster and wont have to drink the whole blessed prep!!

Wish me luck on this cause I hate prep and I will let you know how it turns out so maybe no matter what we could liquid diet it the day before so we don't have to drink all the gross stuff.

AND I'll let you know how my exam turns out too...I am HOPing they f'ing find SOMEthing this time ugh...i just think she doesn't believe me.

 

[Lisa5326]

Ok...so I began prep at 4:40 and I am drinking 8oz. every 10 mins...had my first bm, post-start, at 530...just chronicling for future preps.

UGH do I hate this...full, nauseous, clench, need calmoseptine, boo, hate lemon flavor. My dog is staring at me wondering why we aren't taking a long walk on this gorgeous day...sorry buddy.

Bleh.

 

[forum contributor]

You poor girl. You've been having to Frankenstein

 

[littleone]

ugh. and i thought the half lytly was bad. i am SO sorry!

i personally thought the miralax in the giant blue gatorade was the best, followed by the 2 little bottles of fleets. now neither of them are aparently accepted.

i did the pineapple and it was pretty bad. and about half way thru i was shoving green and clear lifesavers in my mouth like anything. i hate feeling yuckie..

let us now what he says tomorrow/today.

 

[shazamataz]

its no fun is it? the stuff I had be4 my colonoscopy in hospital tasted like condensed sea water with sugar in it.

After like the 3rd litre (several hours later) the nurse said 'Oh I can put some flavour in that for you'

Uh, it may have helped earlier! i was gagging on every mouthful and took way longer than recommended to drink it. I think the doctors should all have to do a prep so they know what its like eh?

 

[Skinny Dub]

OH those were the days... I tried drinking the fleets with sprite and wanted to vomit after ever chug and just couldn't do it. So I called the doc and they said try drinking with something stronger like coca cola. Turned out working much better hide the flavor instead of amplifying it. My friend had also suggested blue or purple Gatorade he said he couldn't taste it.

Just hope that you don't have to do fallow up barium x-rays. Drinking that stuff is horrible. Think of watered down sand that looks like concrete mix and for every 8oz glass it was something like 5 pounds. The second glass they add something to the mixture to help it move threw faster that made me almost loss the first glass I drank. So they gave me some more of the first batch and said I would have to walk around for 3 hours to help it move threw in the doctors office wearing a johnny. :ytongue:

Hope everything goes well and let us know what they find If you are awake enough to remember what they tell you. I know I slept a few hours afterwords in the office they woke me up told me the results I soon forgot it all and went back to sleep. haha

 

[shazamataz]

I actually found the barium drink for my MRI not bad!

The stuff I got kinda tasted like bubblegum. No, it wasn't fun drinking three litres of the stuff in an hour and THEN two big cups of water, but I kinda enjoyed the beginning part as I was so darned HUNGRY from fasting for 12 hours and it helped fill me up!

And it tasted so much better than I was expecting after the colonoscopy prep that it made it all almost fun!

Peed like a trooper for hours afterwards though!

 

[Lisa5326]

I would love to read and respond but on my way out the door! Thanks for the comments.

So prep took much less time with the extra day of prep, but I have more stuff exiting this morning...bile turned solidish? Trying not to be worried about it.

But I became clear at about 830pm, 4 hours after start, which I thought was early, I drank one more of the wretched junk at the 10 min mark just to be sure. I stopped going as frequent at about 930pm (~30mins apart). Pain at 3 or 5 out of 10 most of the night. I drank ~8oz of water and a third of a liter of gatorade for the rest of the night and had to get up a couple of times in the night.

Anyways, I may be on later depending on a few things! Wish me luck and some...umm good news? Good news around here doesn't usually mean finding something but that is what I want. You guys rock.

 

[misscris]

Good luck Lisa! Let us know how it all goes. Hopefully you get some answers out of this one.

 

[kansas]

Good luck I hope the scope is thorough and you get the news you are looking for.

 

[imisspopcorn]

Good luck. Hope you had some nice dreams... Thats the best part of the ordeal.

 

[braveheart]

I am having a colonoscopy on friday.

Tomorrow I have to drink 4 liters of laxative.
http://www.labdominguez.com.ar/estudios_barex_en.php?estudio=1&horario=m:duh:

 

[gibby]

OH those were the days... I tried drinking the fleets with sprite and wanted to vomit after ever chug and just couldn't do it. So I called the doc and they said try drinking with something stronger like coca cola. Turned out working much better hide the flavor instead of amplifying it.

Ah fleet....my long lost friend, i was getting lost with all the USA prep stuff and that wee familiar name came up.. i used to put mine in strong fresh orange juice, or make it up with ice cold ribena cordial...fun times :smile:

 

[Lisa5326]

Well...the frustration continues and frankly I am a bit angry now.

I got there, barely waited in the waiting area, shivered in my gown for 2 hours though...oh well, better than 3 hours, right?
I am wheeled into this room where two people just glance at me without acknowledgement, busy themselves about the room, slinging the rather large tube around that will soon go up my bum. A woman begins to push something into my IV without so much as a hello and my eyes go weird and I start to violently cough, she goes, "oh that was benadryl". Ok, thanks for introducing yourself and telling me what the hell is going into my blood stream, cause I had some questions to ask. I was also told the RN would talk to me about being sedated and I could tell her that I get nauseous with sedation. Then she starts pushing something else into my arm and I have to ask her what else is going in, i'd like to know when I go under, when I am done talking.
I just felt like I was an animal, a number, not a person laying on a table trying to figure out what is going on in my body. I never saw my doctor, a female (which I will get to next), I talked to a male resident who kept saying 'we' and 'Dr. Z and I'.

Mid procedure I wake up to severe pain and me yelling "Ow!", and I leaned up and there was a man, I am guessing the resident, at my bum area, not a female, doing something to me, yanking and not listening to me, so I yell 'ow' louder and ask why I am awake. Now it feels like a dream when it flashes into my head. I am in and out of 'sleep' until i wake up completely and see a nurse who is giving me a packet of info, telling me she can't answer any of my questions and no my doctor is not going to come talk to me and yes I am just going to have to wait to talk to her until my appt in f'ing November!

Aren't they supposed to tell you if YOUR doctor doesn't do your procedure?! And why wouldn't they come talk to me afterwards? They didn't even talk to my friend, who was my ride. This has never happened to me before.

My WONDERFUL packet of information, in place of my doctor (who may have not even been in the building) coming to talk to me, tells me everything looks great, no sign of crohn's or colitis and yes they took biopsies and call to get the results in a week. Thanks.

I am angry that I wasn't treated like a human. I am angry that my doctor didn't do my procedure and no one told me. I am angry that I didn't get to ask questions afterwards and instead I got handed some pieces of paper. I am angry that I have to wait 2 months to see her again to see what the next step is. And will probably have to wait 2-3 more months before something else is done. I am angry that she doesn't even seem to take me seriously anyways.

I wonder if I should give up this trail of clues and wait till my symptoms get much worse. I am very disheartened with this whole medical profession, I am sure those of you on here are good med workers as you have been on both sides quite a bit.

braveheart my thoughts are with you, I hope you have a quick night of drinking that horrible stuff! And a 'good' colonoscopy tomorrow, let us know how it turns out, I'm sorry that my story doesn't help to ease your mind.

Yeah the dr's should have to drink the 4 liters of junk, unflavored! AND barium tastes like dessert compared to Go-lytely, in my opinion.

Thank you all for your thoughts and care. I really appreciate it. I wanted to have better news to share, but I don't.

 

[littleone]

lisa,

try to find a dr who will care more and, order a capsule endo. the colonoscopy may not have gone up far enough and the capsule can see all the way thru the small intestine.

 

[shazamataz]

Lisa, that sounds like a terrible experience!!!! really sorry to hear about that.

The others are right about the ileum. Sometimes, I gather, the colonoscopy can get into the terminal ileum, and sometimes not. Since that is where a LOT of Crohns starts, they really need to look at that part.

Definately you need to take some sort of action here - good luck with that!

 

[Lisa5326]

This is exactly what I wanted to talk to her about after it was all done yesterday, yes, I agree completely.

The ileum is where I may have some slimming, or wall thickening, seen in the barium follow-thru thingy I had in march/april. She just hasn't started listening to me yet, or won't ever listen, or doesn't like being told what to do or is too busy to deal with all her patients. This follows from the same vein that the 'flesh in stool' thread outcome or non-outcome ended up as. Where i was told to come in immediately and once I got there she had NO idea what i was there for, was scanning my files once she got in there.

Anyways, yep, for sure bringing this up in november. Thanks Shaz, littleone for your thoughts. How do WE know best is what I would like to know? We aren't trained. I wish we could just order tests ourselves, Shantel. Like if we are willing to pay for them, well I suppose there is the whole insurance thing...ugh, right.

Trying to be calm and wait but I don't like waiting I am not normally patient. To bad I normally am a patient. Never realized they were spelled the same, maybe they are trying to tell us something. WHOA!! I feel like I just had an epiphany.

Did you know that 60% of debt in the US is medical based? I wonder how much this bunk )) colonoscopy is going to cost me, I know for SURE I won't have to pay for an anesthesiologist, cause there definitely wasn't one there! Just an awesome nurse, can't remember her name...do you guys remember me mentioning it?

 

[imisspopcorn]

Hi Lisa

I don't know your situation but are you in a position where you can look for another doctor to get a second opinion? Do you like your doctor? Or was this just a one time bad incident. There was a horrible scandal here in Las vegas with a group of GI docs that ran a endoscopy center. It was rather like a an assembly line clinic...(there ended up being a Hep C outbreak) Your experience is shocking to me. Its wrong.Definitely complain.
I think it's pretty sad that my Vet treats me and my animals better than people are treated by hospital staff. I'm an RN and you should have felt at ease and never should have been awake unless you wanted to be.
My first two colonoscopies the doctors were not able to advance the scope into the ileum, but I had wall thickening on CT scan and narrowing on the small bowel follow through from the barium swallow. They were able to dx me from those findings as well as the fact that I responded to the Prednisone. My recent colonoscopy my doctor was able to see into the ileum because I have had a recent resection. HE COULD SEE THE DISEASE!!
You are not imagining your symptoms there is some narrowing there. Something is not right. Don't give up!!

 

[Lisa5326]

Hi Lisa

I don't know your situation but are you in a position where you can look for another doctor to get a second opinion? Do you like your doctor? Or was this just a one time bad incident. There was a horrible scandal here in Las vegas with a group of GI docs that ran a endoscopy center. It was rather like a an assembly line clinic...(there ended up being a Hep C outbreak) Your experience is shocking to me. Its wrong.Definitely complain.
I think it's pretty sad that my Vet treats me and my animals better than people are treated by hospital staff. I'm an RN and you should have felt at ease and never should have been awake unless you wanted to be.
My first two colonoscopies the doctors were not able to advance the scope into the ileum, but I had wall thickening on CT scan and narrowing on the small bowel follow through from the barium swallow. They were able to dx me from those findings as well as the fact that I responded to the Prednisone. My recent colonoscopy my doctor was able to see into the ileum because I have had a recent resection. HE COULD SEE THE DISEASE!!
You are not imagining your symptoms there is some narrowing there. Something is not right. Don't give up!!

Thanks imisspopcorn.
This is my third GI, it is one I switched to because she specializes in colitis (was diagnosed with this after 1st colonoscopy's biopsy results were returned) and crohn's and works for a renowned medical school hospital, so I thought I was getting the best...not so sure now...
After hearing your LV story makes me feel a bit freaked. How does one complain about a hospital in order to be taken seriously? Do I complain about the doctor to the doctor or to the hosp? Or about the hosp to the hosp or to the doctor...? I suppose I should check online on their website to see if they have some sort of review system in place.
What you say about vets is sooo true! My dog is treated like a king, which I love, but it doesn't make sense that we don't get treated better.
She just seems too busy or doesn't have good bedside manner or something...but after thinking this was the best in my area, where do I go now? My second GI did colonoscopy only and got bad reviews online so I didn't mind moving on. My first GI SWORE it was appendicitis so didn't even look at me. Just don't know.

 

[imisspopcorn]

Its hard to complain to your doctor because you don't want to burn any bridges. I think you should mention that you didn't know that she would not be the person doing the procedure. A lot of hospitals send out surveys now or even call on the phone to see how your stay/procedure went. As far as the hospital itself, the only thing that comes to mind right now is possibly complaining to the JCAHO. It stands for the Joint Commision Accreditation of Healthcare. Hospitals covet this title because without it they cannot get medicare reimbursement. I'm sure the hospital must have some kind of consumer satisfaction representative that you could speak to.

The stuff that happened here in LV was a private clinic and it ended being handled by the local health department and State Medical Board. (I didn't mean to scare you with that info. I almost didn't mention before. In a hospital setting The standards are a lot higher and there is more over sight). Have you checked CCFA website to check for doctors in your area that are members? That might be an option?

 

[imisspopcorn]

Haven't seen you around lately Lisa. I hope you are doing Okay!

 

[PERDITA]

Feeling queasy hearing all your stories about disguisting concoqtions to clear you out for colonoscopy - I have had two so far and both times found for every mouthful I got down another one came up - last time gave up completely and when got to hospital next morning told nurse that hadnt managed to drink hardly any and she said dont worry they will suck it out with a hoover!!! Am due to have another colonoscopy and the one down the throat as well soon , isnt there a tablet you can take or loads of laxatives so that you dont have to drink the vile stuff?