Colonoscopy Prep!

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misscris

Joined
May 13, 2009
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I got the paperwork from the clinic for my colonoscopy finally. I mentioned before that he has me taking pills instead of drinking any tasty beverages. I'll type up what his instructions are ... anybody done this before or am I completely alone on this?

Take nine of the 17.2mg Senokot tablets and begin to drink Pedialyte or Gatorade. Then I have to take nine more of the Senokot tablets 5 hours later.

I've never heard of anybody taking ONLY pills to do the prep work before.

Hmm......

Also .. I'm not really into Gatorade or Pedialyte. The only times I ever did manage to take a sip of one was when it was a Red flavor of course. does anybody have any suggestions for flavors that are good or even something else that can be used that is similiar and tastes better??
 
I've had 5 colonoscopies, and they were different preps each time. Only once I had to take 4 pills, but still had to drink some yucky stuff. Never heard of the pill only prep.

If it has to be Gatorade (which I don't like either) the light purple colored Rain variety isn't too bad. Very light flavor, and not as salty as the other ones.
If it doesn't have to be gatorade, I drank white cranberry/peach juice once, or maybe lemonade or ginger ale would be okay.

When is it scheduled for?
 
My Butt Hurts said:
I've had 5 colonoscopies, and they were different preps each time. Only once I had to take 4 pills, but still had to drink some yucky stuff. Never heard of the pill only prep.
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I've never had a colonoscopy before, but I know several who have, and of course all of you Crohnnies. :) And so far I have never heard of doing all pills. I'm definitely OK with it though ... Id rather NOT drink nasty crap.

If it has to be Gatorade (which I don't like either) the light purple colored Rain variety isn't too bad. Very light flavor, and not as salty as the other ones.
If it doesn't have to be gatorade, I drank white cranberry/peach juice once, or maybe lemonade or ginger ale would be okay.
Click to expand...

I'll keep the light purple one in mind. It just has to be something along those lines for electrolytes and such. I like lemonade, and drink it all the time ... I wonder if that has enough in it though? Thanks for your suggestions.

When is it scheduled for?
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And you give other people shit for not paying attention? You must have 'accidentally' missed that thread I posted earlier .... right? haha It's schedule for the 24th. I should have made you find it yourself, stinker.
 
Never did only pills before, but my last one I used something called Pico-Salax. So I mixed it up, sat down, smelled it (couldn't smell anything), screwed up my face and took a sip. It was okay! I got through it in record time with no looks of disgust.
 
I've only had one c-scopy and had to drink 4 liters of tri-lyte, i chose some sort of berry flavor packet. I think I would like the pills much better...4 liters of anything (except maybe beer) is no fun.
 
yeah as far as non gatorade drinks, the snapple white tea is delicious.

maybe some propel? that has electrolytes in it i think and a lighter taste ive heard. ive never had any though
 
I do only pills now. I can't handle the drinks, and it became useless to try when I couldn't keep any of it down. I was the one who suggested it to the doc after hearing about it from someone else. I take 30 laxative pills starting the morning before, 5 every hour.
 
Only pills?

I would PAY to only take pills for my prep...i'm going to ask for those next time. GoLYTELY is what I have used in the past and it can't get any worse than that.
 
Golytely - ug, I feel for you and have luckily been able to stand firm with my DR by saying that I will not drink it - I spent a night dry heaving on the stuff.

Pico is like drinking water with a bit of flvour in it. I highly recommend it.

All that said, I'm usually empty by taking one Dulcolax!
 
LUCKY!!! I had to drink Movi-Prep.....just think of lemonade with about 5lbs of salt added YUCK!!!! What about drinking Sprite or something with it? I know I had to do the liquid diet 24hrs before & I could drink anything I wanted, it just could not be blue, red, or purple ;) Good luck luvie!
 
I flavored my Golytely with lemonade...it is exactly as you described. Lemonade with a ton of salt!

I also mixed it with Mountain Dew last time. I haven't been able to drink mountain dew since!
 
I've never heard of that kind of prep before. Pills only? Boy, if you really wanted to get back at someone...drop those in their drink. LOL. Sorry - poor humor I'm sure.

Good luck next week, misscris. Let us know how it goes.
 
I feel your pain misscris! I have never heard of pill only, but any way you do it isn't fun right?
My 2nd colonoscopy/endoscopy is for the 10th of next month. The first time, I had Picoprep and it made me throw up so much my colonoscopy nearly got called off because my blood pressure was low. This time I have anti-nausea pills and my GI has said I should try Moviprep instead as it might taste/stay down better. Anyone know if this is true?
 
Pill only is SO much better than that GoLytely garbage! Ha yeah Go Lightly my arse. (pun intended) :)

I had my prep on new years day so I watched the Winter Classic game while drinking my Boost and running frequently to le restroom. It was coming out both ends. Ich.

Good luck!
 
Thanks everybody. At the moment I'm feeling pretty lucky that I have to do ONLY pills. But I just hadn't heard of it before. The only thing I was even debating was finding something to drink for the electolytes besides Gatorade. I saw Kelli said Propel, and if that's true thank god. I like some of the Propel flavors. I will have to research. But quickly I assume ... running out of time. hehe :)
 
I've heard of it before, it's often used in regular colonoscopies, ie: people without GI issues, just in need of inspection. My step dad only had to take pills as well, they're not as thorough at times in cleaning the tract out, so many GI's prefer to avoid them, as IBD scoping is complex and one of my GI's also told me that the pills are actually harder on the tract than the liquid prepping is, though I can't speak of any reasoning behind that possibility, maybe about how the pills force your body to purge water out? The drink I know helps flush the tract as it goes, it draws water out from the tissue...not just a diuretic effect like a pill.

I have one this Wednesday and I'm supposed to do Miralax and Gatorade along with Citrate of Magnesia...yet again another variation in prep, this will be my 4th.

How the hell do you people not like Gatorade, maybe it's an age thing, most older people I know dislike it, all my generation (most of them) grew up on it, it's healthier than soda, provided you're at least somewhat active and don't drink a gallon a day while sitting around. (it's great stuff for athletes, I could live off it)
 
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is it really healther than soda??
it has just as much sugar as most sodas i think.
do you cut it with water like it was designed to?

mmMmm i agree though, i love it too. my fave flavor was Cool Blue...i think it was called. it was the electric blue color, not the light one. i dont think they make it any more.
ah so yummy.
 
I used the pills, and they are not too bad. I had to drink a large volume of water, but I am sure that is easier than some questionably flavored liquid.

I should probably have this done again, but I am kind of reluctant to make an appointment.

Dan
 
ive never heard of the pills before!!!im glad u posted so next time i have to have a colonoscopy i can ask for the pills!! i had to drink a whole 64oz thing of apple juice in like an hour mixed with the mirilax stuff i think, but i used to love the stuff now when i even look at it i get a sick feeling lol! i hope everything goes well for you tho!good luck!
 
21 grams of sugar per 12 oz of Gatorade, most soda has about double that (Mountain Dew is nearly 50 grams), or so...It also has just sucrose (table sugar) instead of High Fructose Corn syrup, and hydrates because it has potassium and a little sodium in it. There's also no acidic additives in Gatorade, unlike the phosphoric acids in soda. But even orange juice is unhealthy in larger quantities if you're just sitting around all day. Gatorade actually has less sugar than most juices, for that matter, but I'm hoping that people aren't chugging it down by the gallon whilst being sedentary. If someone likes Gatorade, they should drink it in accordance with their caloric expenditure, meaning the more active you are, the more you're able to drink (applies to one's diet as well)...

Katie do you like Propel, it's lighter than Gatorade?
 
huh. good to know.
interesting point that ANYthing is unhealthy if you chug it by the gallon and are sedentary. never thought of it that way before.
 
i saw a thing on food detectives that said you could die from drinking too muchh water, it like swells up the cells and they pop, and it kills you. but that was like althlete amounts when they chug a butt load, lol!
 
I drink water, ginger ale, gatorade, jello and bouillon, tea while doing my prep. I can remember almost being sick when I went into a Safeway grocery store as the smell of the plastic bags highly reminded me of my horrible prep.
 
yes you can have too much water too, hyponatremia is usually the result, in which sodium levels drop because you unbalance the salt in your body by consuming too much water. Generally it's thought to be closer to 2 gallons a day that would have you reach that, but that can vary. Basically you intake water faster than you can excrete it.

I don't know if it'd be acceptable, but Vitamin Water was okay when I tried some a while back, I'm not sure what's in it anymore, may have changed. The problem is it's probably full of vitamins, and 64 ounces may be overboard.
 
yea! thats what they were saying on the show, about the salt and all that blocking electrolites or w/e it was cool tho. and ive tryed the vitamin water but i like the sobe life water better^.^is gooood lol
 
Woo... clear liquid diet YEAH!... its amazing how much you want food when you can't have it.

I start dulcolax at 4 PM, Gatorade (Frost) with miralax at 6 PM, and another 32 oz bottle of gatorade (Lemon-lime) at 3 AM... yeah supposedly I'm not allowed to sleep :)
 
katiesue1506 said:
Woo... clear liquid diet YEAH!... its amazing how much you want food when you can't have it.

I start dulcolax at 4 PM, Gatorade (Frost) with miralax at 6 PM, and another 32 oz bottle of gatorade (Lemon-lime) at 3 AM... yeah supposedly I'm not allowed to sleep :)
Click to expand...

I understand fully. I'm hungry. :( I'm starting the prep right about now. eheh I take 18 pills and gatorade now and then at 6pm I take another 18 pills. *sigh*
 
I did my Citrate of Magnesia just a bit ago, nothing yet. At least it didn't taste that bad, kind of lemony with tiny bit of carbonation-type texture.

I know it's coming, the calm before the storm. I was enjoying a break in bathroom trips. Today is about nostalgia.
 
Me too katiesue. took my first dose of pills at one .... still no poopie. :) haha And I feel like it's the calm before the storm as well. Maybe we aren't pooping yet becuase we both had mexican food last night as our "last meal" and so we already pooped it out. :) haha j/k
 
haha .. I'm finding it entertaining that we are posting how long it takes for our Laxatives to take effect and when we poo. hehe
 
I pooped right when I started taking the pills... but it wasn't from the laxatives. Still waiting for it to kick in ....
 
...I find myself intrigued by this thread. I'm anxiously awaiting to hear the arrival of poo as I would the birth of a new baby, LOL!
 
HA!

This prep is SO much easier than the other gallon of go-lytley.

The Frost gatorade doesn't taste too bad really.

Poo #2: 6:56 pm EST
 
tv = torture. all those commercials I always ignored and now I'm finding myself licking my lips and making pouty faces at the same time at the food commercials. hungry hungry hippo I am. hehe :)
 
misscris said:
tv = torture. all those commercials I always ignored and now I'm finding myself licking my lips and making pouty faces at the same time at the food commercials. hungry hungry hippo I am. hehe :)
Click to expand...

I know the feeling, on my last one I had to do the prep the night before so I went to work that day, though I had to fast. Sure enough my boss comes in and reminds us that the company was buying us lunch that day and of course I forgot all about it! So I was surrounded by all the delicious smelling food and I couldn't even have a tiny bite!

It was agony!
 
I've gone about 6 times so far. Got my chicken broth and gatorade ready to go.

Oh, it's kicking again. Awww!
 
A great way to pass the time is to look up colonoscopy on youtube. There were a few that were hilarious and watching the doctors talked about it was kinda re-assuring to.

There was one guy that recorded himself for the entire process, nothing graphic, and it was really funny and re-assuring!
 
Yay!! I'm at the point where I'll have to stop counting.... too many too frequently. I'm not crampy though or anything. I'm impressed with this prep.
 
omg all THREE of you today??
thats amazing!

LMAO at katie "6:56 EST" hahaha
like "time of death___"
 
kello82 said:
omg all THREE of you today??
thats amazing!

LMAO at katie "6:56 EST" hahaha
like "time of death___"
Click to expand...


Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
(flatline noise)
Dr. Kello comes in, looks into Katie's toilet.... I won't finish the rest.
Use your imagination, people!!! :eek:
 
Nope. Sorry Katiesue. I just had to take 18 pills at a time twice. Now I just have to wait for the pooping.
 
This thread is hilarious :) Hope your rears are holding up! Here's to squeaky clean colons and the awesome meal when you're all done! :beerchug:
 
sorry Katiesue. Hopefully you get some good sleep. I'm a little concerned that I haven't pooped all that much. Hmm.... that's just my luck. Watch me get there and find out it didn't work good enough and they have to reschedule and I get to do it all over again. heh
 
I've pooped 2 times since taking the meds, and once right before I started them. Haven't eaten anything in about 27 hours .. so maybe thats part of it?
 
Onetime I went without a good clean out and told them, but my doctor said she wanted to see anyway since I had cleaned out a little bit. Apparently I was on the verge of cleaning out the rest of the way and they were able to do it for me while I was under. I don't know the details of how they did it and don't really want to, but if you don't clean out well, maybe they can still do it anyway if you are borderline?
 
They say you're still awake for it, but you don't remember anything from it... can you imagine having that convo w/the dr. and nurses? Yikes...
 
Great. with my luck I'll end up asking my GI out while he's got his scope up my butt! Won't that be embarrassing the next time I go in. hahah

Hmm... with my luck, he'd probably say yes while I was still out of it and I'd never know and miss the opportunity anyway. :) haha
 
I'll give you a shiny buffalo nickle if you do that, Cris!!!!!

Are you getting excited? Only an hour and a half til you have to be there...
 
ohh... a shiny one?!?!?!?! Now that's tempting!

See, this just confrims my thoughts that it should be law that all Doctors should be ugly. Makes everything so much easier. Damn good lucking doctors!! You never know what will come out of my mouth. I'm a lot like you Santos ... In fact I've even said the same thing you did. When you were talking about being easy and you said dont' tell your husband. Yeah, I saw stuff like that all the time, but I have no husband. :) haha

Oh ..and I don't have to be there for another 4 hours. Get on the right time zone Ris! :)
 
Oh, I am just soooooooooooo sorry, Cris!!!! I confused my time zones.
No shiny buffalo nickel for you now!!! Bein a jerk and stuff...
 
Ohhh...... I can't stay mad LOL

Here ya go:

buffalo_nickel_back.jpg
 
I'm back, I'm fine, I'm hungry, my gf was late to work because of Chicago traffic, and I'm exhausted and cranky. I'll update later in my other status thread. Prep was apparently good enough, and no issues arose. Best of luck to the rest.
 
Im back too, everything went fine. I'm supposed to start Humira and Imuran at the same time asap. I have pics of my colon... rectum is pretty pink, everything else is trashed.
 
Holy cow Katie, Humira? NICE! I hope it works as quickly for you as it did for me! (6 days) but I hope it works longer. (4 months) Sorry your Remi quit =(
 
I did a combination Dulcolax/Miralax prep before my surgery last week. Before I had always done Fleet's or GoLytely. I won't be going back. Miralax mixed with apple juice tastes a whole lot like apple juice and not at all like anything else.
 

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