Today's
the hardest day, when it comes to your colonoscopy. Prep Day. The
premise is simple - your colon needs to be clean and clear for the doctor to
adequately and clearly see what's going on in your pooper, so you have to
spend 36 hours or so dealing with hunger to allow this to happen.
Very important, and well worth it (isn't your life worth 36 hours of
hunger? Mine is!).
Now, I will say that I'm fascinated by the variety of colonoscopy prep methods around the world - each doctor seems to have a different method, and it seems to be dofferent based on age groups, which I find very intriguing. I've heard that some folks only have to fast for 12 hours (lucky dogs). I have also hear of other folks that have been on a liquid diet for upwards of five days prior to the procedure (no thanks!). Mine seems pretty middle-of-the-road. No solid foods the day prior to the colonoscopy, only clear liquids. Coffee, tea, soda, jello, broth (chicken or beef), water, etc. It's not too bad - the only other real restriction is that what you ingest can be any color other than red or purple, as they can color parts of the color and hide nasties in there.
***Do you know how DIFFICULT it is to find pre-packaged jello in a color other than red?!?!*** I digress.
Anyways, today's prep consists of the aforementioned liquid diet, then the actual "prep" begins at 3pm. Four Dulcolax (which is a laxative pill that helps move things along) down the hatch. At 5pm, I mix 238 grams of Miralax (a powder laxative that can be mixed into any drink and leaves no bad taste) into either Gatorade or Crystal Light. Shake, rattle and roll to mix. Once it's all disolved, drink 8 ounces every 15-20 minutes until it's gone. Then, the fun begins, and I won't leave my bathroom/sanctuary until probably 9pm tonight. That reminds me - I need to stop by the video store and grab a few movies....
In the past, I've had to use a Fleet Phosphoro-Soda drink which was AWFUL tasting but only 4 ounces. Last year, I used pills, which were easy but extremely salty and dissolved in my mouth quicker than I could swallow them. Still, I didn't have to drink the gallon jug of crap, so I'm pretty lucky. I'll let you know my opinion of this type of prep. I imagine it's going to be about the same - not too bad, bearable but not much fun.
No matter what, though, when push comes to shove, I'd go through this monthly if it meant I never had to go through chemo again. Hands down, this is MUCH easier.
Colonoscopy is at 1pm tomorrow. Have to be at the site at 12:30 pm to get ready. I'll try to update when I recover from the sleeping meds. I'll also try to remember to update on twitter and facebook, too, so keep an eye out on those. Meantime, I'm off to get some soda. Yum!
Now, I will say that I'm fascinated by the variety of colonoscopy prep methods around the world - each doctor seems to have a different method, and it seems to be dofferent based on age groups, which I find very intriguing. I've heard that some folks only have to fast for 12 hours (lucky dogs). I have also hear of other folks that have been on a liquid diet for upwards of five days prior to the procedure (no thanks!). Mine seems pretty middle-of-the-road. No solid foods the day prior to the colonoscopy, only clear liquids. Coffee, tea, soda, jello, broth (chicken or beef), water, etc. It's not too bad - the only other real restriction is that what you ingest can be any color other than red or purple, as they can color parts of the color and hide nasties in there.
***Do you know how DIFFICULT it is to find pre-packaged jello in a color other than red?!?!*** I digress.
Anyways, today's prep consists of the aforementioned liquid diet, then the actual "prep" begins at 3pm. Four Dulcolax (which is a laxative pill that helps move things along) down the hatch. At 5pm, I mix 238 grams of Miralax (a powder laxative that can be mixed into any drink and leaves no bad taste) into either Gatorade or Crystal Light. Shake, rattle and roll to mix. Once it's all disolved, drink 8 ounces every 15-20 minutes until it's gone. Then, the fun begins, and I won't leave my bathroom/sanctuary until probably 9pm tonight. That reminds me - I need to stop by the video store and grab a few movies....
In the past, I've had to use a Fleet Phosphoro-Soda drink which was AWFUL tasting but only 4 ounces. Last year, I used pills, which were easy but extremely salty and dissolved in my mouth quicker than I could swallow them. Still, I didn't have to drink the gallon jug of crap, so I'm pretty lucky. I'll let you know my opinion of this type of prep. I imagine it's going to be about the same - not too bad, bearable but not much fun.
No matter what, though, when push comes to shove, I'd go through this monthly if it meant I never had to go through chemo again. Hands down, this is MUCH easier.
Colonoscopy is at 1pm tomorrow. Have to be at the site at 12:30 pm to get ready. I'll try to update when I recover from the sleeping meds. I'll also try to remember to update on twitter and facebook, too, so keep an eye out on those. Meantime, I'm off to get some soda. Yum!
Comments:
Amie said...
OOh...sounds
rough! Let me know sweetie what you find out. Love you and you will be fine!
June
26, 2010 at 6:28 AM
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