routine colonoscopy prep.

[marni]

On the third day of clear and and semisolid liquid diet I rediscover the joy of jello.

I definitely prefer chicken broth to beef.

Now the long night of bowel prep begins. I have my computer, book and a blanket in next to the toilet. Whee! I will be sol glad when this is over tomorrow.

Fortunately it is only once every five years. Just long enough to make the whole process new again each time.

[BikeDutchess]

Oh joy! I just scheduled mine for next month. Hang in there!

[snapdragen]

Yep. The prep is worse than the procedure itself, IMHO.

[salsabike]

Yep. The prep is worse than the procedure itself, IMHO.

Totally true, Snap.

Because I have a genetic error that significantly increases my risk of mortality from colon cancer, I get to have a colonoscopy every year or every two years...we haven't quite settled on which yet. Beaucoup de fun!

[ny biker]

Three days??

I will be turning 50 this year so was expecting to have one of these things. If I have to be on a liquid diet for three days I will have to spend three days in bed, I won't be able to function.

But then I have no one to drive me there and back, since I live alone and have no family in the area, so it may not happen anyway.

[snapdragen]

Totally true, Snap.

Because I have a genetic error that significantly increases my risk of mortality from colon cancer, I get to have a colonoscopy every year or every two years...we haven't quite settled on which yet. Beaucoup de fun!

Ugh. I have another friend who gets one yearly, he's considered high risk because of his family history.


Three days??

I will be turning 50 this year so was expecting to have one of these things. If I have to be on a liquid diet for three days I will have to spend three days in bed, I won't be able to function.

But then I have no one to drive me there and back, since I live alone and have no family in the area, so it may not happen anyway.

It might depend on the doctor. I only had to do one day of the liquid diet.

[Crankin]

I don't know anyone who has to be on a liquid diet for 3 days. I had to eat low fiber foods for 3 days, then like a half a day of jello type stuff and a few hours of liquid, along with the horrible stuff that is supposed to make you "go." That stuff didn't work that great on me. The procedure itself was nothing, but unlike my DH, I was awake through the whole thing! Feeling no pain, but awake. The doc gave me a tour of my GI system on the screen. He actually asked me if I had done the prep, as it was hard for him to se, but I had drank every last bit of the stuff.
I came home and ordered take out Indian food.

[shootingstar]

Coincidentally I had my lst one just a couple days after my 55th birthday earlier this year.

They squeezed me in for an appointment on determining right method and then, the actual screening the next day...which meant with 30 hrs. I had to stop eating, drink the prep crap and go to the toilet tons of time. I had no choice because dearie is the only person I knew who could take me home during a normal working day.

Patients are given photos of their colon. Mine is clean and pink. Wonderful. As usual they had problems inserting light anaesthesia needles in my veins....like trying to find my veins.

I think I lost 5 lbs. temporarily and drastically for prep. in a short period of time. :eek: I was medicated out during the procedure. Fine by me.

I don't need to get 2nd one until a decade later. Fine by me. :)

It certainly helps me to cycle often...for bowel motility.

[marni]

well as you say the prep is the worst. the event itself went fine, no polyps (that is why every 5 years).

I agree with the loss of ability to think. I have been trying to warp up my small Navajo frame loom for and upcoming weaving demo at a cotton gin festival and I spent three hours today trying to figure out how to do the final step and giving up- I have been doing one of these every three to four months so it's not like this is a new process.

the most aggravating part of the day was that after spending a couple of hours prefilling out all of there forms and permissions on line, after we had gotten there and signed in, another three forms to initial, they kept us waiting for an hour and a half, when we asked why they had had us come in so early they told us it was to fill out the registration forms- three initials and a signature! they didn't actually even start the procedure until 2:45 and I was home by 4:00 with a half hour commute each way accounted for,45 minutes of actual medical stuff. and five hours out of my husbands work day .

something is very wrong with this system .

Came home had a bran muffin, a coup of tea and am feeling completely whole again.

Re the prolonged clear liquid fast- the dr. says it makes the whole prep easier. Yeah right. The anaestheseologist was all set to panic over my low heart rate until I splained him about my training regimine.

thanks for the sympathies and good luck to all of you who are on the same journey.

[emily_in_nc]

It might depend on the doctor. I only had to do one day of the liquid diet.

+1

I had to eat a light, bland diet two days before, then the liquid started the day before the prep. It was not that bad. I did the prep over the weekend and had the procedure done on a Monday -- got a day off work, so I wasn't too upset! If you schedule it this way, it's best to do it at a time of the year when you wouldn't be riding on the weekend anyway...like in the dead of winter. :D

[pll]

Ah, the prep! I've had 3 already. No nuts, low fiber, the week before, liquid/clear diet the day of the prep. At some point each time I got really cold and shivering. If I had to do 3 days of a liquid, clear, diet, I would not make it alive. With one day of prep, the IV at the hospital feels great. Re heart rate and blood pressure, I trigger all the alarms!

Someone I know proved that the cautionary "don't take important decisions" after the procedure is true: the day after, she had to call a couple of shops to cancel orders she had made and could not remember what she had ordered. :rolleyes:

ny_biker: I've always taken a cab to the hospital (I feel absolutely anti-social after the prep) and had a friend pick me up after the procedure. The nurses can actually call someone when you are close to being released, just take a piece of paper with the name and phone.

[Crankin]

Wow, an asethesiologist? I guess you were really out. Also a way to jack up the price.
I had a nurse give me an IV... Valium and something else. I wouldn't have had the colonoscopy if I had been under a general anesthetic, which scares me to death. I've only had one surgery (emergency) where I've had to have that and if I have any say, it will never happen again. I know 3 people who died from anesthetic.

[Crankin]

Yup, DH called me when he was done with his, from the recovery room. He had no memory of that or anything, when the nurse called and said to come get him.

[emily_in_nc]

I completely slept through mine but it was not general anesthesia. Whatever it was, I had no memory between lying down on my side on the table and then waking up when it was all over. I only wish I could do the same for all dental procedures...even cleanings!

My DH was awake for his two colonoscopies and was able to watch, though he was groggy. We went to different docs, so it's entirely possible they used different levels or types of anesthesia, or people just react differently to basically the same "cocktail".

I've had general anesthesia three times for different surgeries and have no problems with it, but it certainly isn't necessary nor typically used for colonoscopies.

[pll]

It's not really anesthesia for colonoscopies or EGDs, but drugs that induce 'conscious sedation': versed, propofol... You are able to respond to commands, but typically don't have a memory of it. As it wears off, you can fool the doctors, too. A doctor thought I was fully conscious and had a conversation with me after a procedure; I have no memory of that conversation. For the EGD, I had a local anesthetic sprayed down my throat right before the sedation kicked in.

[salsabike]

Three days??

I will be turning 50 this year so was expecting to have one of these things. If I have to be on a liquid diet for three days I will have to spend three days in bed, I won't be able to function.

But then I have no one to drive me there and back, since I live alone and have no family in the area, so it may not happen anyway.

Hey, ny biker---the prep is usually bland diet for two days and liquid for one. And not to be TOO much of a proselytizer, but can you make a deal with a friend or co-worker to drive you, and trade some service for it? As one with a big old multi-generational family history of colon cancer, I am one who can testify pretty passionately to the importance of getting your first one done.

[Grits]

Hey, ny biker---the prep is usually bland diet for two days and liquid for one. And not to be TOO much of a proselytizer, but can you make a deal with a friend or co-worker to drive you, and trade some service for it? As one with a big old multi-generational family history of colon cancer, I am one who can testify pretty passionately to the importance of getting your first one done.

+ a million on what salsa bike said. Try to find someone to give you a ride -or take a cab. If you live really far from the doctor's office, then find a hotel close by. Another idea, ask the doctor's office what other patients with that problem do. Maybe they know of a shuttle service or a place close by you could stay. My 58 year old SIL (with not officially diagnosed Aspergers) refused to go to any kind of a doctor for her whole adult life until she recently had an intestinal blockage and emergency surgery that turned out to be Stage 4 colon cancer with a very poor prognosis. The doctor said it had probably been growing for 10 years. All of her siblings have had polyps removed during colonoscopies and so have avoided what she is going through now. This is not something to mess around with. (I AM being a proselytizer!)

[marni]

well its all over and I came out clear so I am good for another five years. An indication of how low my brain content was after 5 days of bland low fiber food and then three days of a liquid fast is that one the day of the procedure while trying to occupy my mind until it was time to go, I tried to figure out how to sew a warp and had made for a Navajo weaving onto the weaving beams. I sat up stairs for two hours reading the directions and trying to follow them with no success. Today I went upstairs after my bike ride and whipped it out without referring to directions, in less than 30 minutes.

Two items of note. This is the first time ever that I have had an IV that didn't leave horrendous swelling and bruising. Not a mark to be seen, even just after surgery. And this is the first time I have ever had a doctor ( and actually it was the sleep dr.) ask me about my low heart rate instead of immediately assuming that I was brachyocardic and in dire danger of "starving my circle of willis". Or at least that is what I think they always say. ( my normal resting pulse rate/ heartbeat is 45-48 bpm and that day it was 149) so I explained to him that it was a bit elevated because of anxiety, and then explained my training routine. All he had to say was "well there's your thank you from your heart, you're going to sleep now." and boy howdy did I.

[azfiddle]

Glad it's all good

[ny biker]

+ a million on what salsa bike said. Try to find someone to give you a ride -or take a cab. If you live really far from the doctor's office, then find a hotel close by. Another idea, ask the doctor's office what other patients with that problem do. Maybe they know of a shuttle service or a place close by you could stay. My 58 year old SIL (with not officially diagnosed Aspergers) refused to go to any kind of a doctor for her whole adult life until she recently had an intestinal blockage and emergency surgery that turned out to be Stage 4 colon cancer with a very poor prognosis. The doctor said it had probably been growing for 10 years. All of her siblings have had polyps removed during colonoscopies and so have avoided what she is going through now. This is not something to mess around with. (I AM being a proselytizer!)

I appreciate your concern, but doctors don't let you go home alone in a cab, and there is no one within 300 miles who would take vacation time from their jobs to drive me anywhere.

I'm glad everything went well, Marni.

[shootingstar]

This is a tough one, NY biker. That's why I grabbed the opportunity when I was to go in for the colonoscopy the very next day after my medical prelim. interview visit. Someone cancelled...so I actually took a sick day off (Our collective agreement is that we get 90% pay not 100% pay for a sick day. I told my employer blatantly why I was off so suddenly the next day) because dearie was around to take me to and from the hospital during a work day. Otherwise it would have been another few months wait. Fortunately my boss understood since she's around my age and has Crohn's disease.

I could if desperate, call upon a distant friend locally and maybe hung around at the hospital at the cafeteria with a laptop, book etc. until she finished work to pick me up. How about that option?