Review of a Colonoscopy

For reasons I am not comfortable sharing, I had a colonoscopy yesterday (at 23 years old no less!). It turns out everything is fine but boy, oh boy, is that prep torture! The procedure itself is not that bad. They did barely seem to give me any anesthetic so I felt what they called the "turns of the colon" but even that wasn't awful. Nothing compares to the prep you have to do.

I am one of those people who have seriously never had diarrhea before. I must just have a really good system or something (sorry, too much info?). I didn't even mind that during the prep. (To be honest, I found it kind of fun as long as I was at home).

My procedure was on Thursday so Monday and Tuesday I had to start a low fiber diet (basically no vegetables, only white breads, basically junk food). This wasn't that bad but it did make it a little hard when going to grab a snack or something because I had to think about my choice first. After midnight on Tuesday, I was not allowed any more solids. All of Wednesday, I could only have clear liquids (sodas, water, broth, hard candies, etc). This was quite difficult. I feel so sick if I don't eat food; it doesn't matter if I'm allowed liquid. I was so hungry, I was in tears at points throughout the day.

At noon, I had to take 2 Dulcolax tablets. These didn't seem to have any effect on me until around 8pm. These were fine. Two very small pills, take with water. Not a big deal.

Between 4 and 6pm, I had to drink 64oz of Gatorade (only orange, yellow, or clear varieties--gross!) mixed with Miralax powder. You cannot taste the Miralax, so that wasn't a big deal. The Gatorade wasn't a flavor I liked but that was tolerable. What wasn't tolerable was the speed at which I had to down this liquid. Reading my instructions, I thought I had two hours to do this. Turns out, I had about 5 hours but I gave myself 5 hours anyway because I could not stop puking. It was just too much liquid to consume. My stomach was too full (and the first time all day, I wasn't hungry!). They had told me later I should've called them when I kept throwing it up but I didn't have an after-hours number for them. Oh well. Then I decided to take more Dulcolax to make up for what I had thrown up in Gatorade but I threw that up too.

I decided to go to bed to try to sleep off my nausea. This is when I started getting up about hourly to use the bathroom. In between trips to the bathroom, I had to tend to my baby and breastfeed her. Basically, I didn't get much sleep.

Then at 9am on Thursday, the day of the procedure, I was required to drink 10oz of magnesium citrate followed by an 8oz cup of water. That is the GROSSEST thing I have EVER had to drink in my ENTIRE life. It took a lot of self control to get it down (and to stay down). Also, after that, I was not allowed to consume anything, even water.

By the time I got to my procedure at 1pm, I was feeling light headed and sick to my stomach because I was so hungry and getting dehydrated. After I had my IV hooked up, I felt much better. Then I had the procedure, which is super quick, I got a cookie! Then I could eat whatever I felt up to.

Basically, the prep is a 100 times worse than the procedure itself. I had to fast for my C-section for 14+ hours and this was worse than that. I don't mean to scare anyone because this is a necessary procedure, especially for people over 50, but I just wanted to share my experience.