# Colonoscopy in 4 hours, not clear yet...



## crankypants (Aug 25, 2002)

Today I'll be having my second colonoscopy. My first was 14 years ago.My current GI uses a simple regimen: no solid or fatty foods the day before (although they relented and let me have one hard boiled egg before 10 a.m. to help me get through the work day), 1.5 oz Phospho-Soda at 7 pm, and another 1.5 oz on procedure day, 3 hours before you leave for your appointment. My procedure is at 2 pm, and I'll be leaving around noon, so I took the second dose at 8:30. It's working (as did last night's dose) but the output is still quite muddy after at least 3 trips to the toilet. Am I doomed... after all this?







I'm hoping maybe preps don't have to be quite as squeaky as they did 14 years ago because the scopes are better?(And don't get me started on that disgusting "ginger-lemon" Phospho-Soda. If I have to do this again, god forbid, I'm going to get the E-Z Prep box with the unflavored stuff and do my own thing. I think I could probably tolerate the unadulterated salts better than the repulsive combination of saltiness with fake flavors. This morning's dose was especially difficult, and for about an hour I thought it wasn't going to stay down. And I am NOT a puker.)


----------



## crankypants (Aug 25, 2002)

Well, it all worked out in the nick of time... just a tiny bit of fine particle sediment or cloudiness left in the last two washouts. The procedure was okay, I did wake up a couple of times complaining of pain, but it wasn't terrible, I just wanted to make sure he knew he was hitting a hot spot. Might have been when he was taking biopsies or removing the one polyp that he found. As I recall, I heard him tell the nurse to give me more of whatever (fentanyl I think) and I went back out. The worst pain actually was afterward from the gas they introduce into the colon to dilate it. He says I have a "pretty normal colon" other than the diverticular disease but because I have been having episodes of significant fever with low abdominal pain and bowel symptoms, and a family history of inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis), he biopsied for that. The most noticeable thing, he said, was the spasms of the colon despite "a lot of medication." Ah, good old IBS.


----------



## 22943 (Aug 27, 2005)

Good to see it all worked out. Nothing like going through the prep only to be told you're not clean enough.


----------

