colonoscopy prep

[JMulkey]

thanks, Tex. I'm going to try to the take the last two dulcolax, although it says to take them with 8 oz of water and I'm kind of afraid that's not going to stay down, but I'm going to try it. If it doesn't stay down, I'll just have to go in the morning and see what they want to do. I don't know if my doc has the kind of machine you are talking about, but I guess I'll find out.

thanks so much to everyone for all of your help this evening. It's been hell. You know, I had cancer, went all the way through months of chemo and wasn't ever this sick even with all the chemo and blood counts that fell through the ceiling :(

Thanks again. Let you all know after my appointment how things go. It may be later in the evening or maybe even Wed before I'm coherent enough to type...all of that kind of stuff knocks me for a loop, even though it's not supposed to.

TTYL

[Gabes-Apg]

my theory is at this point- you are so close to the end of the prep... stick with it

it would really *piss me off* if it wasnt quite right and i had to do it all again.

[JMulkey]

Well, I'm hoping and praying that I'm ok to go in in the morning. Kept the two dulcolax down, but am really passing alot of muscusy stuff (tmi, sorry :( ). So I hope I'm ok to go in the morning. I guess time will tell.

[ant]

Just caught up with these posts.

If you read this before the procedure, good luck. It should be easy compared with the horrid prep. I drank stuff called "fleet"... and thought my liquid output could have launched an entire fleet by the time I had finished. I also had some superficial hemorrhoids too as a result. yuk! It is great when it is all over.

All best wishes, Love Ant

[MaggieRedwings]

I am also late on the post but I really think the docs "overkill" on the prep for this procedure. We who have D as a constant do not need a gallon of Go-lightly in my case and have refused to do another test of this type.

Hope you are better now and that all went well.


Love, Maggie

[JMulkey]

Late getting back online, but thought I'd let you all know I came through ok, well, ok, if you count taking pain killers for two days because I'm in pain :( Anyway, everything looked really good, no pollips (sp?) even. They kind of had to manhandle me to get around a bend, they said, that is why the pain. But everything is working like it's supposed to and no bleeding, so I'm assuming I'm ok at this point, the pain is actually better today, not as bad as yesterday, so hopefully tomorrow will be even better. Thanks to all of you for staying up so late with me the other night, I really needed some support and you were all wonderful to be there for me.

Let you all know as soon as all the biopsies come back.

[Gabes-Apg]

glad to see that you have recovered from the prep ordeal, now just to recover from the scope.

hope the pain abates soon. glad to hear there are no major nasties from the scope

take care - rest up

[tex]

It sounds as though they did kind of a rough job - it really shouldn't hurt that much, afterwards. It's good to hear that the situation is getting better, though, as time goes by.

Tex

[Gayle]

So glad to hear all is behind you! I have been wondering how things went.

I came through ok, well, ok, if you count taking pain killers for two days because I'm in pain :

This is troubling. While it is common to experience some “trouble getting around the corners,” during a colonoscopy procedure --- usually a combination of 1.) backing off a bit with the scope, 2.) while adding a bit more of the sedative drugs, and 3.) having the patient change position – does get maneuvering around the corners accomplished, --- without “manhandling” (?) a patient. (Whatever does that mean?)

Having the pain following the procedure, as you have described here, is unusual. Wonder what Dr. thinks that is attributable to? Let us know the answer to that.

A FWIW heads-up here, regarding the post about preferring to using “Fleets” for colon prep for these endocscopy procedures, instead of these more complicated recipes such as Jmulkey outlined here…

… Within the past few years it has been observed that a number of people who used the Fleets brand laxative as a colon prep for these procedures have experienced significant kidney damage. A warning was issued by the FDA, as a result many Physicians will no longer prescribe the Fleets product as a prep today.

http://www.everyonesarticles.com/Articl ... all/203000

This is why they are trying to find other satisfactory prep routines. Go-lytely doesn’t seem to qualify here as satisfactory for these procedures -- for some reason??? It’s usually used as a surgical prep. (Gag-Gag).


Gayle

[JMulkey]

Ok, well according to several of the nurses who were in the procedure, the doc hit a hard bend in my colon and just could not get around it, so they put alot of pressure by pushing on my left side, to hold the colon in one place, evidently mine moves easily, and they didn't want to stretch it for fear of a tear, so they pushed really hard on my left side to keep everything completely stable while the doctor manuevered around the bend. I remember waking up and saying ow, ow ow, while they were doing it, and remember the doctor saying, "I'm so sorry, but I'm almost where I need to be here, please be patient with me" and thats' about all I heard. I'm wondering now if I've ever really had a total colonoscopy before, although on the last one, about three years ago, I remember waking in the middle of it in extreme pain, so maybe they had to do the same thing. Anyway, better again today than I was yesterday and the nurse said it should get better every day. I'm thinking maybe some bruising inside from them pushing so hard on my left side.

[tex]

I've never heard of something like that before, but I suppose there's probably a lot that I've never heard of before.

That does seem like rather an unorthodox way of going about it, but I have no idea whether or not that technique is officially appropriate, under the circumstances. There's a significant risk of perforation in a situation such as that, and I suppose if they really know what they're doing, they can reduce that risk by the "proper" manipulations. At least it seems to have worked - that's the main thing.

Tex

[ant]

Dear JMulkey,

Wow, that sounds like quite an ordeal. Glad you a getting better.


Dear Gayle,

Thanks for the heads up on Fleet. My GI doc gave it to me in Nov 2008 and I see it was recalled in the US in Dec 2008.

this warning included people: who are over age 55; who are hypovolemic or have decreased intravascular volume; who have baseline kidney disease, bowel obstruction, or active colitis;

"55", "active colitis" ....

Best, Ant

[Polly]

Just caught this post. Sorry you had such a dreadful experience. I have had 2 colonoscopies, and both times I was completely cleaned out after drinking only 1/3 gallon of the Go-Lytely. (I am 5'5" and weigh 120 lb.). Also, I was always told that as soon as my poop was clear yellow liquid, it was fine to stop the swamp water.

At least it's all behind you now (pun intended).

Polly

[adelie]

Dear JMulkey,

Sorry to hear about your ordeal, though I can definitely sympathize. I've had three colonoscopies so far and with all three, the GI's gave up after a couple of hours. I have two sharp kinks, two twists and a loop. Fortunately, they put me under for two of the three colonoscopies. I was well awake for the second one and was an active participant in all the flipping, pushing, etc. Yep, not pleasant. My guess is your pain afterwards is from your colon being a bit raw from the scope being pushed back and forth to get it to go through. All three times, I was sore for a few days, especially around the kink on the left side which took most of the rubbing from the scope.

For the prep, I did magnesium citrate with ducolax for two of the procedures and phospho-soda (fleet) for the other one. I think I threw up more of the phospho-soda than went down. The magnesium citrate was much much better for me. The two colonoscopies I had with the magnesium citrate, the GI's were able to get to the second kink on the right side, but with the phospho-soda, they were only able to get about half-way around and couldn't get past the loop. Thinking back, I know magnesium can help with inflammation, so the magnesium citrate may have helped open things up a little more so they could get through a little further. The biopsies from the one with the phospho-soda prep had higher lymphocytes and eosinophil counts too. It's not enough experience to know scientifically, but I wonder if the magnesium helped cut down the inflammation and thus the lymphocyte/eosinophil numbers or if my reaction the the phospho-soda really jacked up the numbers? Of course with the patchy nature of MC, it might have just been luck of the draw too.

Hope you feel better soon!
Karen

[Stanz]

Wow,after hearing this from JMulkey and Karen about your experiences with colonoscopies, I feel totally blessed. Prep wasn't fun but the procedure is nothing I even remotely remember.

My sympathies.