Colonoscopy in 5 hours!! Here is my bowel prep experience

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Colonoscopy in 5 hours!! Here is my bowel prep experience

Postby bbmz » 15 Aug 2017, 08:26

Hi all, I thought I'd make a write up of my experience with my first ever colonoscopy prep. It's 5:30 AM the day of my colonoscopy and I'm STILL pooping so I'm by no means done with the situation, so I will update as the day goes. Warning, I'll probably get kinda gross sometimes and actually explain what my poop was like, or how bad my ass hurts. So if that's gross I'd recommend maybe not reading this. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of us don't care about that anymore since looking at our poop is just part of our daily routine LOL!!!

I saw a gastrologist August 3rd, 2017 for complications with potential celiac disease (or IBS, I'll get to that in a second). I was diagnosed via blood work, around January of 2016, as celiac and immediately went on a gluten free diet. I never went ahead with the colonoscopy because I was a scared 18 year old and didn't feel the need for it as I was feeling much better on a gf diet.

Back to the present, I'm still getting sick even on a gf diet. Mind you, not as bad as the couple months leading up to the celiac blood test, but still. I can't function.

So I finally saw the gastrologist. Everything went well and I was scheduled for the colonoscopy and endoscopy, done at the same time, in December of 2017 BUT she put me on the emergency cancellation list because I was losing way too much weight too quick and was becoming malnourished. She sent me off on my way and as soon as I got home 30 minutes later, I got a call! August 15th, 2017. That's today!!! Whoa!

I have suffered with anal fissures in the past, and take great strides in reducing the amount of diarrhea I have so you guys can only imagine how much I dreaded the colon prep. I. Was. MORTIFIED! (Would I potentially retear??? Nooooo!) To the point I almost cancelled a few times in the 12 days leading up to the colonoscopy. I just sucked it up and tried to be a big girl, as my grandpa joked with me the couple days before my prep day, lol.

My prep was as follows: On a liquid diet day before exam, I had to take 2 dulcolax tablets at 12 PM followed by one satchet of pico salax dissolved in 250 ML of water then repeat pico salax 4 hours before appointment, which would be around 7 AM the next day. No red dyes, no soda, all the works, and stop all water 3 hours before procedure.

Yesterday was my prep day and oh boy, was that a trip. I stuck to the liquid diet but I would be lying if I didn't think about eating like, every hour or so. I'm weak, lol. I drank a TON of water and Gatorade. I had two big bowls of chicken broth but didn't really continue with that because I noticed it made my stomach feel a little acidic. Not sure what that was about but I was content just eating a little bit here and there of the green Jell-o I made for the rest of the day, yum!!!!

Ok, on to the hardest part: the laxatives....ugh. My stomach can be super sensitive, especially to laxatives, so I may have cheated a little bit with my dulcolax. Instead of taking two right away at 12 PM, I just took one. Just to see what it'd do. I told myself if it didn't work (which I doubt it wouldn't because laxatives are my kryptonite), I'd take the second one. To my surprise, 2 PM hit and I STILL didn't go. I was drinking a lot of liquids at this point because I was getting nervous so you can imagine how goddamn bloated I was. Around 2:30, I took the second dulcolax.

Around 4:15ish I STILL wasn't producing anything so I said "f**k it" and took the pico salax solution 45 minutes early. I was thinking of taking it earlier anyways because I wanted to get good sleep tonight and not have to be waking up every 30 minutes to poop, so in the end it wasn't a big deal.

I was nervous that it wouldn't work but sure enough, 15 minutes later I was.....let's just say, glued to the toilet :) . Not a fun time to be honest; made me feel quite miserable. I don't understand why they'd torture us by making us pee hot liquid out of our buttholes. Sorry for the graphic description but come on, not cool docs.

So yeah, I pretty much stayed glued to the toilet from 4:30ish to about 8:30ish where it seemed to slow down. At this point I was going maybe every 35 minutes, as opposed to every 10. My butt was KILLING me around the 10:30 mark so I decided to take a nice warm shower. After that I was pretty good until about 12:30 where I kept getting woken up by my bowels screaming "Gotta go!!!! Fast!!!!!," and then having to get out of my comfortable bed.
It continued like this until about 2:30ish AM where I then had a stern talking to my bowels and asked it to PLEASE let me get some sleep. Which it reluctantly agreed. But not for long.

I woke up about an hour ago, 5 AM, and back to the bathroom I went. So much for taking the pico salax early to get good sleep..... Except this time it's URGENT and a little crampy. Not sure what's up but I don't like it. I'm sitting on the bathroom floor as I type this because I don't want to accidentally poop my pj pants, lol. The pooping from 4:30 PM-2:30 AM never felt urgent or uncomfortable, it just sucked and hurt my ass. This on the other hand, is VERY urgent and I almost didn't make it. Strange.

I am supposed to take another pico salax at 7 AM but I think I'm going to skip it, to be honest. I was running clear since about 6 PM last night with a little tiny chunk every once in a while and it's the same this morning. Given the urgency of my bowel movements at the moment, I think I'll just chug back a bunch of water before 8 AM and let the last bit of last night's pico salax wear off.

I know I know, I'm not following the rules. But I honestly think I'm good. I don't want to subject myself to more diarrhea if I don't have to, thank you.

So far, my ass is grass, if ya know what I mean, but no anal fissure. Thank god. The trick I've been using is, dab (don't wipe!!) RIGHT AWAY with wet toilet paper and reapply baby rash cream. I stay away from baby wipes because they have burned me in the past. A nice damp toilet paper is fine enough if it's just to dab clean. And it's not like there's much anyways since its just clear (greenish. Bile?) liquid coming out. I am using a cream from Brazil, as my family is from there, that I've sworn by my whole life and it's honestly a life saver. Makes it so I don't really have to think about my ring of fire unless I'm on the toilet. Thanks, friend. I'll usually go ahead and wash the area in alternating warm and cold water after a few trips. I hate to feel dirty down there and it helped soothe it a bit. Yay!

Well, that was long. I'm sorry but thank you for sticking around if you got this far! It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, except this morning. It's kinda killing the process for me, lol. I'd never willingly do it again though.....but I know I may have to a few years from now, sigh.

As for the actual procedure, I could care LESS. I'm soooo not worried about it, as I'll be given some nice drugs. The doctor said I'll be able to hear them and turn if I have to but apparently 95% of the people don't even remember and it's like blacking out and that sounds amazing. I don't want to remember that at all, lol. I had a sigmoidoscopy last month and was completely awake for that and it was bad, but not as bad as I worked it up to be. So any chance for me to get pumped up with drugs is a god send tbh! I'm so excited to sleep for a bit and not remember anything :)) and then going home and eating a big turkey sandwich :)))) and then sleeping! :)))) God, that sounds amazing. I'm perked up just thinking about it.

Alright, it's 6:10 AM now. My appointment is at 11:00 and I have to be there 30 minutes early. I just want this to pass quickly so I can come home and eat!!!! I really hope I get answers from this today, I'm tired of suffering in the dark.

Thanks again for all who have read this far. It's kind of therapeutic to have this all written out, so if anyone is worried about their colonoscopy, feel free to share below! I'll tell you a joke to make you feel better and then give you a virtual hug
bbmz
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Re: Colonoscopy in 5 hours!! Here is my bowel prep experienc

Postby Mypoorbutt » 15 Aug 2017, 09:52

Well done you for getting through the prep you are so much braver than me.
I have 2 colonoscopies a year for my crohns and I cheat big time on the prep I starve for 3 days then take 1 dulco then have half the prep and it's still sodding horrendous
I agree there has to be a better way than unending trips to the toilet for explosive volcanic BMs
Happy you haven't got a new fissure from the prep.
The procedure is easy compared to the prep and I hope they find what is causing your problems
Good luck
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