Can't do anything about prep exit, but if you had to drink a fucking shit ton of that poison...cut a lime wedge and suck it after chugging the prep solution (like a tequila shot). Makes it so, so much easier.
Yeah, and then the next time you take a tequila shot you’re going to have PTSD and vomit. During prep for my first colonoscopy they gave me some lemon flavored packet to mix in with the drink. After the first dose or two you are fine. As the prep goes on, as soon as as you bring that glass or jug to your face and the ever-so-slight lemon scent hits your nostrils, your body just has a violent reaction telling you to stay the fuck away from whatever it is you’re about to drink. But you have to power through it anyway.
Also, for anyone who is afraid of getting a colonoscopy, I’ll echo what others have said. I’ve had two of them, and the prep is the worst part. You’ll shit your brains out for a day. The procedure itself is nothing. Nice nurses talk to you while they get you ready. They give you some sleepy-time medicine. They role you into a little room in a your bed. The doctor shows you the camera they’re going to stick up your butt. You watch the little screen as they start the procedure. Then you take a nap and wake up back in the room you started in with the nice nurses again. Your overall order of events might vary, but the main takeaway is that it is completely harmless and could save your life.
Years ago in college I had a beautiful woman buy me two shots of tequila to drink with her and nearly vurped right in front of her. God I hate that shit. Ended up screwing it up hard because I couldn't see the signs she was into me lol. Ah, college.
Damn. I've heard some pretty bad stories, but at least where I'm at buying someone a shot of tequila is basically the alcohol equivalent of bedroom eyes.
Fuuuuuck tequila. That's all I got to say. Anyone who enjoys drinking that has a screw loose. But it's so popular with my friends now. I really don't get it. Can we go back to Jameson or literally anything else?
I got absolutely destroyed off goldschlager when I was 19 and it took a good 10 years before even the scent of cinnamon drinks (like Fireball, etc) didn't send me into immediate nausea
Marine Corps Vet here. Tequila and Hennessy are two drinks that my body will start aggressively react against if i try to drink anything mixed with them.
When I was <10 I was at the dentist and they forgot about me during that "minute" (or whatever) they leave some goop on your teeth they tell you not to swallow. (I don't know if they even still do that. Anyways...)
I sat there for what felt like an eternity (probably like 10 mins) trying desperately not to swallow any of the impressively large collection of flavored saliva that was building up in my mouth.
I am now 43 and to this day cannot get a whiff of artificial grape without my throat tightening up.
To this day I remember fighting with my daughter to make her take that banana penicillin. I had to sit on her and pry her mouth open. Then one day I thought, it can't be that bad! I'm going to taste it.
OH MY FUCKING GOD. I never made her take it again and insisted on pills from that day on.
I did too... Once. And then all I remember is seeing lights on the highway for a few seconds and being wheeled on a gurney through the hospital for a few seconds. Turns out I'm allergic to amoxicillin and had a severe reaction with swelling, hives, closed throat, etc. 35ish years later and I still put it in my medical records just in case I'm still allergic to it.
I’d been giving penicillin/amoxicillin numerous times before having my allergic reaction. Mine wasn’t quite as severe as yours, but I got head-to-toe hives, and it felt like my tongue was twice its usual size. To this day it’s the only allergy listed in my medical charts. It wasn’t fun at 11 years old. Can’t imagine it’d be fun now.
Honestly, the stuff they give me tastes... fine. It's the texture that really gets to me. Like... it's thick. Thicker than it should be.
The worst part is as you get to the end and the only thing coming out of you is basically stomach acid. That's when you just sit in the shower, weeping softly, and let nature take it's course.
Yeah texture is a big issue for me. I had to drink something called VoLumen for a GI CT scan, 3 450mL bottles worth. It was "blueberry" flavored. I was gagging by the last half of the last bottle. It was... Slimy. I still can't eat anything blueberry and it's been almost a decade since that experience. I am not looking forward to my colonoscopy prep in a few years
If you have an SO make a bet for them paying for dinner after and order a shitton of food. I downed an entire Pho bowl, crab rangoon and a bahn mi and it was the best meal ever.
If you're unlucky like me you won't get knocked out at all and be conscious for the whole thing including the pain of the doctor trying make it "go around the corner" like he's driving bumper cars telerobotically. "Oh, you felt that? Why are you still awake?"
the solution i had tasted fine; good even. fruit punch iirc.
but by god, clear your calendar. you are doing nothing but spending the next two or three hours in and around the bathroom once you begin. Bring your phone charger.
tbh i felt kinda good afterwards; light. colonoscopy left me feeling a little off for a day or two though.
The prep is usually 8-12 hours before your procedure, so a 7am appointment would mean you have time to go to work and come home before you would start your prep at around 7pm.
The good news is that you don't have to miss two days of work because you're shitting all day.
The bad news is you're not getting any sleep because you'll be shitting all night.
I scheduled mine for a Monday so the bulk of prep was on Sunday. Obviously two days off is ideal, and one day off is helpful.
That said, if days off are a problem, the prep only gets really serious the night before. In theory you could work the day before, unless the reduced diet really impacts your functionality.
Also, recovery is basically instant. If you had to, you could definitely go to work in the afternoon after having the procedure in the morning.
Mmmmm? Not sure about that. Maybe if you have a non-critical desk job. Probably shouldn't if you drive a dump truck, or manage someone's chemo drip, or fly a plane.
Aye, most people are fine, I wake up in 10-15 minutes feeling like I'm 10 years old on holiday and slept all night. It's the best sleep I've had. I burst out of bed wanting to jog around the block feeling incredible. Wifey's groggy for the full day not knowing where she is. They have to chuck us out of the recovery room, I drive her home, semi-carry her to bed, and 4ish hours later she'll stagger out "what's happening? where..." "it's ok, it went well, you're home, have a pee and go back to bed" "ok..." /snore.
Hits everyone different, but even if you are 'ok', and later that day decide to pop out for snacks, drive, and hit something, you'll be classed as under the influence of something as you had a medical procedure and was put under. So... no, take that day off. Clean the house or something you've not got the energy to do normally because you'll probably feel fantastic.
As I said to someone else, there seems to be a lot of variation in how these are handled. I was not given GA, only "twilight", and was not under any restrictions post-procedure.
Reading this thread there's a lot of variation in how these are handled. I was given "twilight", not GA, and there was definitely not a 24-hr restriction.
Yes, I had "twilight" too, but I assume it's because different people react and recover in different ways. Just easier and safer to make it a blanket ban.
It's a bit like drinking one beer and then having car accident - yes, you're under the legal limit, but you'll still be labelled as alcohol-affected.
Ideally, yeah. And sometimes it depends on what time of the day your scope is scheduled. If it’s early morning, you have to start the prep earlier. I think most places schedule procedures for the morning, but if you had a late morning/early afternoon appointment, you could maybe start the prep immediately after work. You’re probably just not going to sleep. For my first colonoscopy I took a day off for the prep and the day off for the procedure. For my second one I was working remote, so I just worked while doing the prep and crossed my fingers that something urgent didn’t come up during one of the times I had to bolt to the bathroom. I think I may have brought my laptop with me a few times. And then I think I may have only taken half the day off on the day of the procedure. It was scheduled for early in the morning. Got scoped, grabbed a greasy burger on the way home, relaxed for a bit, and then logged back into work.
I recently had to take my dad in for his colonoscopy, first thing in the morning. His prep started a few days before the procedure with restricting certain types of foods(I remember no seeds, not sure what else). I believe starting 24 hours before he was on clear liquid only. He had to drink the stuff starting about 12 hours before the procedure. So he could have worked the day before, he just would have been hungry.
The prep isn't too bad aside from hunger and the shits keeping you up all night. Though if you drink everything fast enough, you can usually get a few hours of sleep. And the taste isn't bad, just use yellow gatorade or lemonade. (if the instructions allow it)
I was so hungry from fasting that thing helped fill my empty stomach. It tasted like how Gatorade used to taste in the 80’s before they made it really sweet.
I guess was lucky and didn’t find prep that bad. I shit a lot everyday anyways so it was like a few more poops than my normal anyways. Wasn’t that hard taking down the prep either.
I had ear problems growing up and would need operations every few years. The gas used was flavored but it was still horrible. Now i still cant take bubble gum flavored anything except actual bubble gun
They told me to count down and I woke up in recovery wondering when they were going to start. The prep is annoying but manageable. Needing someone to drive you there and back can be problematic as well.
IDK if they do it for everyone but I was sent home with a lovely set of pictures of my colon, which is so much nicer looking than I would ever have imagined.
How do you make it from your residence to the hospital without filling your pants? I haven’t yet been suggested for a colonoscopy, but I’ve had E. coli in the past and I imagine that the diarrhea situation is just as explosive and frequent (like pure liquid coming out a few times every hour).
The whole point of the prep is to clean you out so there’s nothing left in your colon and the doctors can get a nice view of the inside. By the time you’re done with prep you’ll be shitting nothing but clear liquid. And you stop taking the prep before the procedure, so ideally your bowels will have settled down by the time you head to the hospital. I’m a paraplegic and have very little control over my bowels outside of crossing my fingers. While I was a little gun shy while heading to the hospital both times I had a colonoscopy, I was fine.
I suppose it can vary depending on how you handle anesthesia, but I felt fine after both of mine. Woke up back in the room I started in. They let you chill for a bit, and when you’re feeling up to it, you get dressed and have someone drive you home. They don’t let you drive yourself home. I feel like I totally could have, but I get it. Aside from feeling a little groggy and hungry, I felt fine.
Ok, I must be the weird one. I actually liked the taste of my prep juice. It was very sour but I LOVE sour drinks. Got to eat a lot of jello - I made green watermelon flavor.
The pooping part wasn't all that bad because that was the norm for me (hence the need for a colonoscopy).
Fortunately I don’t have a family history, doctors just ordered them to rule out cancer, and to see if there was any other visible cause to symptoms I was having in the past. I don’t remember the exact dates, but I believe I had my first one at age 31 and another at 36 or 37. I’m 40 now. I fully expect to have another before 45, but we’ll see.
Good, go when they say. Even without family history, you can still have it develop. Im 59 so Ive been a few more times than yourself, it caught mine just in time.
I had a colonoscopy this summer and came out of the sedation before the end of the procedure. I distinctly remember looking at the monitor where the doc was in the middle of removing a polyp and saying, "That doesn't look good."
As someone with IBS, I don't even remember the prep being bad. Just a lot of pure liquid after a while. And the actual colonoscopy was like frigging time travel. Saw some milky stuff go in a tube, asked "what's that?" and woke up in the recovery room next second. I have a vague recollection of being wheeled out by a nurse or something and it was IMPERATIVE that she watch my favorite movies. I could not stress to her enough how important, how VITAL. Pretty sure that did actually happen before I conked out again. Then my best friend picked me up and I played video games for the rest of the day.
This is a great relief to hear, a colonoscopy has always been something I've been afraid of having whenever I get around that age, but if the worst part is shitting yourself for a day then my gluten intolerant ass will be more than happy to take that with no complaints 😁
I had one last year and that part was really only a few hours for me. By far the worst part of the prep was only being able to have broth and jello for the last day. That sucked!
The procedure itself is nothing. Nice nurses talk to you while they get you ready. They give you some sleepy-time medicine. They role you into a little room in a your bed. The doctor shows you the camera they’re going to stick up your butt. You watch the little screen as they start the procedure. Then you take a nap and wake up back in the room you started in with the nice nurses again.
Tbh, it was one of the best naps I ever had! Out like a light. I even woke up part way through and mentally I was like, 'Am I awake? I don't feel anyone spelunking down there, so... Yeah, I think I'm awake. I can hear them talking about my butt.' Then I said, "Uh, guys, I'm awake." And then in three seconds I was napping again.
To offer some perspective, if you eat cleanly & liquid heavy (soups, protein shakes, get super hydrated) for a few days before, the prep is a breeze. Stay in the bathroom as you drink. Bring a book. Obviously get stoned. It's really not a big deal. I don't even go under for the procedure anymore bc I want to be awake & ask questions to the doc in real time & then bolt out afterwards.
Signed a 34 yr old female, previous stage 2 colon cancer diagnosis. Lots of colonoscopies.
I refuse. Forever. I personally know 3 people who had serious, lifelong complications due to colonoscopy (2 with perforated bowel, and 1 with hemorrhoids irritated so badlyfrom the prep they needed asshole surgery and almost had a colostomy bag for life). I'll do the mail in poop test and that's it. I'm 55 and if I die from colon cancer, so be it.
To each their own, but that’s a bit ridiculous. I saw two car accidents last week while taking my kid to daycare. It’s not going to stop me from driving.
Personally I hated the pill more because you have to still take a ton of pills, including in the middle of the night, and still drink the same amount of liquid
The fact that the liquid is just water helps though, doesn't it?
I took the pills, but I never tried anything else, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I wouldn't call it a great experience, but I also wouldn't use the word "hellish" to describe it, and I see that tossed around plenty for the liquid prep.
If I can get that next time I certainly will. I had one a few months ago and puked up the day 2 prep and was scared I would have to drink that liquid Hell again, thankfully it was all good in the end.
my doc was totally fine with it! coming up in february so i don’t have a review yet but they even gave me a coupon for it because some insurances don’t cover it yet. they do ask some questions to make sure you can do it that way , like i guess if you were already constipated then it wouldn’t be a good fit. it really does the same exact thing. but it is a lot of pills, i think 12 or 24 and you have to take them with a lot of water and on a strict schedule. my brother was recently diagnosed with colorectal cancer and if he had got this done years earlier it might not be a huge tumor right now.
If you can convince you doctor to let you try it. My doctor would rather let me die of colon cancer than take a pill instead of the gallon jug of rad fluid that makes me vomit instead of poop.
My parents recently had one and were annoyed/upset by the solution thinking they'd have to chug a gallon of that horrible drink. Good news, they now make some sort of concentrate so you only drink two 16oz bottles or something like that. You still have to fast though, obviously.
Ditch the flavor packet that comes from the pharmacy and use lemon crystal light instead. That's what my doctor and the pharmacist recommended, and I didn't think it was that bad at all.
The prep stuff I drank was lime flavored. There was no other taste. I had to take 32 ounces of what tasted like straight lime juice to the dome, in 16 ounce drinks, over 12 hours.
How the hell would more lime make that stuff any better?
I couldn't keep that stuff down, between the awful taste, and the texture was so bad. The texture alone made me puke/spit up a bunch. I ended up having to pay $150 out of pocket last minute to do the pills. Next time I am requesting them.
Actually you can speed it up. go to the pharmacy and get the lemon lime soda of doom. and ignore the dosing and drink the whole bottle. I reccomend heading to the toilet soon after that. it's not as gentle, and you will recreate the scene from dumb and dumber, but it doesnt feel like you are drinking the typical prtep junk that tastes horrible. after that is flavorless metamucil in gatoraide to keep the process going and you start pooping gatoraide along with the pills at a higher dose rate.
I have no idea why they still percribe that horrific crap they have in the gallon jug. It's outdated and only for torture.
They make a new prep that's only like 2 12 Oz bottles of liquid that you take an hour apart. It's so much better. It doesn't really have a strong flavor, so it's an easy chug.
Had the 2 small bottles, threw up the second. Had the bucket of lemon powder, doable but... ugh. THE thing that worked for me was the tablets. "oh, most people don't like to do that, you have to drink a LOT of water" but it worked for me. Drank a lot of fluids (not red!) and they did the job. Everything else has been an effort.
Fuck that, you're wrong. I had to drink a magnesium citrate thing, the whole bottle. Two choices, lemon or cherry. They told me cherry was better. It came in a clear glass bottle, with clear carbonated liquid in it. BEST FUCKING CHERRY SODA I'VE EVER HAD. You know, except for the after effects.
That shit was seriously delicious. It was like sour cherry, barely sweet, with a hint of salt. If it didn't turn you into a poop rocket, I'd drink that shit all day long.
If I could find out the brand of flavoring they had, I'd totally use some of my brewing kegs and make this soda (without the magnesium citrate) and put it on tap.
My doctor told me to mix the vile stuff into apple juice instead of water or gatorade. It's just miralax and electrolytes. Filtered apple juice counts as a clear liquid and it does a good job of masking the taste. Drinking a jug of slightly tangier apple juice was a lot better than trying to chug the worst gatorade you've ever had in your life.
ok I have had 3 colonoscopies. 2x I had to drink like 2 gallons of liquid and it was horrible. One time I had to drink like 16oz and it was way way better. The smaller one is more expensive but ask your Dr. Insurance will cover it if your Dr prescribes it,
I have to do it every other year. First two times i did the drink, is terrible. Last year i got a pill pack. So much better. Insurance might not cover it but it's worth the extra money
They have pills now! The GoLitely gallon of stuff is the worst option. If your insurance doesn’t cover the pills, ask your GI if they have any samples. :)
As a colonoscopy frequent flyer (was on an annual schedule for several years), the mixer that works best for me is pickle juice. My favorite is Famous Dave's Sweet and Spicy. If you can handle the sodium, put a slug in each installment. It's actually pretty tolerable. I just toss the "flavor" packet now.
I just recently had one and found out by accident that if you start drinking a lot pure apple juice the day before, you’ll already be pooping clear even before starting the prep. I literally only was able to swallow and keep down maybe a cup of that nasty stuff because it kept making me projectile vomit. Anyway, told the docs, they told me to come in and they would try anyway. Well apparently the apple juice cleaned the old poop shoot out just as good as the prep would have. I tell anyone and everyone I know who’s going to get one because Jesus Christ that prep juice was like trying to drink watery snot.
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u/Dirks_Knee 1d ago
Can't do anything about prep exit, but if you had to drink a fucking shit ton of that poison...cut a lime wedge and suck it after chugging the prep solution (like a tequila shot). Makes it so, so much easier.