Question about Colonoscopy Prep

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lookitsjen

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Jul 15, 2011
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Hey everyone,

So I have to go for a colonoscopy on Monday morning which means I have to prep this Sunday. I have to say I'm not scared of the actual procedure as they say they will completely knock me out, but I am terrified of taking the diarrhea drink of doom the night before. Can anybody out there who's had a colonoscopy give me an idea of what to expect as far as the prep goes. I've been pretty fortunate in the fact that I only have D once a day so the idea of having it for hours at a time is a little nerve racking for me. I just want to know am I really going to be confined to the toilet for hours on end or is that just an exaggeration? Any stories would be helpful just to give me an idea of what to expect would be greatly appreciated. thanks

-Jen
 
No, sorry to say it's not an exaggeration. You will feel like you are peeing out of your butt. It's the worst part of the whole shabang. But being prepared makes it easier to deal with - have wet wipes and plenty of butt-soothing cream at your disposal: i.e. Desitin or any of those diaper rash creams (I used Balmex b/c that's what we had at the time), and some on the forum are really fond of something called Calmoseptine, which I've never had the privilege of trying, LOL. Seriously, even if you have nice, soft toilet paper, after the prep kicks in, it won't take long for that stuff to feel like sandpaper. You want to plan NOTHING else for the evening b/c you will absolutely need to be near a bathroom. Once what is coming out is clear and yellowish, then that means you are all cleaned out. I took the pill prep, and started it around 5 PM and it kicked in around 8PM and I probably went easily 20 + times until around midnight. I managed to get in a few hours of sleep and woke up 2-3 times during the night. I was still going periodically up until the test, which thank goodness was first thing in the morning. I've also heard on here advice to go easy on your diet in the days leading up to the test and then there won't be as much to clean out, so maybe it wouldn't be as violent. It's no fun for sure, but you will survive. And breaking your fast after your scope is over is such a nice feeling!!! So plan a nice meal for yourself! HTH!
 
Thanks Mayflower,
Even though it's not what I wanted to hear I feel more at ease knowing what to expect. And thank you for the advice on the wipes and cream. I will make sure to stock up. =]
 
What Mayflower said is correct, you will have a solid understanding of the phrase "pee out your butt" when all is said and done! Prep is really not fun. I'm one of the ones May mentioned who swears by Calmoseptine - you can get it at Walgreens, they usually keep it behind the pharmacy counter so you'll probably have to ask for it, but it's wonderful stuff. When you're prepping, you're allowed clear liquids only - stuff like water, clear soda, jell-o (no red, and sometimes they frown upon purple and/or orange as well - check with your doctor to see what specifically is allowed). Clear broth is excellent too during prep, especially if you make a nice homemade broth. When I last did prep, we threw some chicken into the crock pot and let it simmer all day and I had the broth for dinner while I did my prep. It was nice and I'd highly recommend that. Oh, and what May said about flushable wet wipes is very good advice too, definitely stock up on those before the big day!

And yes, as May said, you'll want to be very near a bathroom the entire time. If you have a laptop computer or one of those little portable DVD players or something like a PSP or DS, those things are great for prepping. You'll want something to keep your mind occupied so that you don't think too much about what's going on "down there"! A good book, sudoku puzzles, anything like that is going to be good to keep on hand in the bathroom. You may want to bring a bucket into the bathroom too, as some of us do tend to vomit (often times the stuff you have to drink to prep is downright nasty - don't drink it too fast or it'll most likely all come back up again). Another word of advice - bring a blanket or a jacket into the bathroom with you. I always get chills when I have a lot of diarrhea and doing prep was no exception, and I've heard others say the same thing. Good luck! Prep really is the worst part. The procedure itself is like a lovely nap. You wake up feeling refreshed and then you get to eat! :)
 
I don't have much to add, everyone said everything pretty much. The prep really is the worst part! I've prepped twice, only had one, and it was really disappointing when the second one wasn't done after I had vomited/peed out my butt the entire night before. I had a prep that consisted of mineral oil and pills, and both times I vomited a lot.

After the test you might have some pain from the air they pump you with moving to escape. I passed gas the entire ride home because it hurt way too much to hold it in! Thank goodness my husband loves me. :lol2:

Good luck!
 
A really good ointment for the butt, "Flanders buttox" I've started using it 19 yrs ago when I had my first baby, used it on all three of my kids. And now, am using it on my own sore butt. The stuff is amazing.

That's all I can add to this conversation as I am still counting down my prep/colonoscopy days.

Nat
 
I don't even mind going to the toilet loads. It's the drinking it and the bloated crampy pains that get me. Just look at it as personality building lol.

On the plus side, once it's all out, it's a brilliant feeling knowing there's nothing inside you to come out. I didn't poop again from my last one till about 3 days after!
 
The worst part for me was the burning... I had NO idea it would be that bad. I was in agony! Definitely get a cream! Also, make sure you drink A LOT of water as you go. I was trying, but my stinging a-hole distracted me and I ended up with a pounding headache from dehydration to top things off lol.
 
Honestly I didn't notice much difference between the prep diarrhea and the crohns diarrhea but that's me. But the beverage... now that's a tasty treat *gags just thinking about it*
 
I'm having a scope Monday too! For me the prep involves 2 pills, followed by Miralax with Gatorade (14 doses and 64 oz lol), then 2 more pills. So a fair amount to drink, but luckily it tastes fine :) Unlike for my first scope. That stuff was gross and I only got through half of it lol
 
Yea it seems to depend on the dr and type of scoping they are doing I have had two colonoscopys and both preps different the first prep was like josh's and was 1 day prep. My last was 3 day prep with the nasty thick sweat like drink and it was pineapple flavored, miralax and Gatorade and laxatives...
 
Also make sure you are "running clear" every time before you stop the prep (if you decide not to follow the instructions which I wouldn't recommend.

For my prep I was running clear 3 out of 4 times so decided to have half the last dose, and a whole load more brown bits came out.

As I had an afternoon appointment I had a bath before I left (once I had finally stopped needing the toilet), and that was really soothing, and reassuring that I was clean too.
 
Yeah, ditto on the peeing out your butt! I DEFINITELY recommend wipes (I like Cottonelle flushable, I think Charmin also makes them), they are a life saver. I actually use them every time I have D. I didn't get any fancy ointment, but I did use some vaseline. The most important thing is to be near a bathroom and have a book or something next to the toilet. My biggest mistake was that I had to sprint to the bathroom when the prep started kicking in, and I was in there for a looong time with nothing to read or do and it sucked. I ran out as soon as I could to grab a book but I wish I had thought ahead and put it next to the toilet!

good luck, you'll be fine, and it'll be over soon!
 
To me, the most important thing is to "prepare" for a couple of days before. It really helps me to eat soups, jello, stuff like that for a couple of days before. That way there is less in there (especially big stuff) to get out and I am not so nauseus.

The procedure is nothing. I call it my "nap and fart" ;)

Afterwards, I feel like someone poured acid into my gut from top to bottom. I burn and swell up like a balloon. I think it must be a reaction to the prep. I am very sensitive to laxatives and have always burned horribly after I have to take them. Ugh.

Recently, since I had gotten all stopped up by a nasty little stricture trying to form, I had to drink laxatives for a week. Then I had to do the prep for two days. The swelling is just going down and I am finally not burning inside. Feels kind of nice to be mostly empty, though!! LOL!!
 
Just thought I'd add my two pennorth. Like one or two other people, I found drinking the Moviprep far harder than the diarrhoea, which was just like an intense bout of diarrhoea (forty or fifty visits to the loo, I think) but not painful. I made sure to use plenty of baby bottom butter (an olive-oil based version of Vaseline) and that prevented pain.

Drinking Moviprep was like being hung-over and being forced to drink two litres of your own vomit, to a tight timescale to make things even harder. By the end I was bringing it back up. That was far harder than I could have imagined.

My tips would be maybe to have some drinking straws on hand. I think the Moviprep wouldn't have been as bad if I'd had a straw but I couldn't go to the shops to buy any for obvious reasons. Secondly, try not to breathe in as you drink it if it's the same awful sickly sweet lemony stuff that I had, as your sense of taste is heightened by your sense of smell. Once I got the knack of not breathing as I swallowed the stuff it helped a little.

I also think that maybe if I'd had some cordial it would have helped, as you were allowed to put cordial other than blackcurrant in. Again, I couldn't buy any because I couldn't have got to the shop and back.
 
haha Lizzie, I actually learned that technique about not breathing when I used to drink. I can't drink now, not even the most fruity non-alcoholic tasting drink because they make me so sick, but back in the day I liked to get drunk but couldn't stand the taste of alcohol so my friends told me to concentrate on breathing out my nose while i swallowed. Weird, but it worked. I will have to try that with the drink. Thanks for your advice!
 
I had absolutely no appetite for a good 4 or 5 days before my prep so it all turned out to be pretty easy, not much to come out! So easy in fact I wondered at one point if I was doing it wrong! Hardest bit is drinking that vile stuff!
 
good luck, the taste is definitely the worst I took it in the afternoon and evening and nothing happened!!! I thought i'd done something wrong as all the advice says you'll start going before you finish the 1st litre. I felt like a blown up balloon going to bed then about 6 hours later blast off, I went for a couple of hours then felt really good due to the clear out... I'm going for another one this thurs so no doubt i'll have a different story to tell by then...
 
Not much to add here, but I did have a slightly different experience with the prep than most people have said. I had no nausea or vomiting (thank god!) and very little cramping. I spaced out the glasses or go-lytely I had to drink so I didn't get too bloated. It took about two hours after my first glass before the diarrhea started. I had already been having pretty bad diarrhea, so it wasn't much of a shock to the system. I did go ALOT and by the end of it I was spraying clear water out of my butt like a horse's urine stream. My stomach got huge, I cramped up a bit (exactly like the regular "diarrhea stomach ache") but it wasn't the worst thing I've gone through. The actual drink does taste absolutely disgusting. I was allowed to add powdered crystal light to mine, but depending on what brand you have to drink, it might not help. Go-lytely is very, very salty, and the sweet crystal light just made it taste like strawberry kiwi piss. Even though I literally added like 20 packs. Lemon juice might work better, or something that tastes good with salt. I hope your prep goes a smoothly as possible (haha, smoothly) and you don't have too much pain or any vomiting. Good luck with the scope, I hope you get the results your hoping for, whatever they might be =)
 
I don't have much to add, except that in my pack I had a low residue diet outline which I followed for a couple of days. Good luck!
 
So update:
I failed my prep. Got one liter of the concoction down and vomited the entire thing back up, no bm so doctor refused to do procedure. So fed up that my current GI refuses to listen to me when i say i can't do certain medications rectally and I can't get better and gain any weight back until i get medicated and i feel helpless. I am 5'8, used to weigh 150 pounds and looked slender, but healthy. Now i weigh 115 pounds and look and feel completely emaciated. i feel like i can feel my body eating it's own muscle. Checked into the hospital today to have them treat me for pain and get some nutrients in me and turns out they have a new GI that will give me a cleansing concoction straight through my throat [which she says will be uncomfortable but not painful] so that i don'thave to drink it and then i will get a colonoscopy on wednesday with full general anesthesia. then after that she wants to treat me for an abscess and after that start me on Remicade. hoping for the best with this doctor since the other one was too busy with his head stuck up his ass.
 
Sorry to hear that :( But good news is that from this one unpleasant experience you got a much better sounding doctor to get a whole lot of much better experiences! :) Best of luck!
 
I was in agony trying to drink that gross chalky prep I kept throwing it back up also... but somehow I managed to get enough down barely. But of course by the time it kicked in of course it went the same as everyone else... it's not fun of course but just remember why your doing it and it seems like a reasonable sacrifice. At least we are all really use to being in the bathroom often already?

Hope you get your answers soon! GL
 
Sorry to hear it didn't work out, but I can understand why you only managed one litre. At that stage I wondered if I could possibly manage the other litre, but luckily my vomiting wasn't anywhere near as severe as yours so I kept most of the stuff down.

Full general anaesthesia for the procedure sounds utter bliss, though!
 
I was given picolax drink and it hardly even worked, had a bit of diorreah n that was it.
The whole colonoscopy procedure is nothing, the first one i got i was awake and it was pretty bad but when your asleep its nothing
 
My last prep for a colonoscopy went the same way...don't worry that stuff is really hard to take! I projectile vomited mine in the hospital, got about half a litre down after that, then started vomiting blood. I was in the hospital and they told me to stop drinking it, to switch to water (which is how I prepped for my first colonoscopy and did fine)....then the next morning they see the liquid next to my bed and yelled at me for not drinking it, then refused to do the colonoscopy. I gave up and went home!

I have a pill cam in two weeks, I feel your pain! It will all be ok! :)
 
The last scope I had was the easiest in terms of getting the liquid down. My dr said to eat no solids for two days. On second day I took two ex lax and drank two bottles of mag citrate. That was it. Not fun but a heck of a lot better than move prep or go lightly which I cannot keep down. I think I took reglan for nausea before starting it all.
 
Hi,

Sadly I cannot say much, but I am curious as well about this prep because where I am from they have a special diet three days prior to the colonoscopy and just inject a gallon of water into your intestine the morning of the procedure so you pee out the stool basically and not have to worry about pain or a weird tasting fluid.. :/

kisses, aya
 
Hii,

Into the rectum. The nurse or GI takes this small tank that has a long tube, adds a gallon of plain water which is then filled into your rectum and it cleans out your intestines completely. You end up going to the bathroom for a while, but not much since you are supposed to have a special diet given by the GI before hand that should have practically cleared out the bowels anyway.

kisses, Aya
 
joshw2011 said:
I'm having a scope Monday too! For me the prep involves 2 pills, followed by Miralax with Gatorade (14 doses and 64 oz lol), then 2 more pills. So a fair amount to drink, but luckily it tastes fine :) Unlike for my first scope. That stuff was gross and I only got through half of it lol
Click to expand...

Hiya, I'm new here, just diagnosed a few days ago. I was curious, what are the pills? The stuff they gave was just nasty and it bloated me so badly, it took 6 hours just to get it all down. I started prep at 3:00 and drank the last of the stuff at midnight. Pills would be so much better. At least I didn't puke, I was afraid of that.

Thanks,
Suzanne
 
I get that darn dehydrated migraine once the meds they give me for the scope are out of my system, so be aware, sounds like a few of us do.
 

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