<p>^^^^You see that with certain natural supplements as well. Do you take anything like that?</p>
<p>Well, mine was over without incidents. I was told for 7 days prior, I only can take no fiber diet and I followed it by the letter. That gallon of fluid was intimidating but I had it down and was not a pain to sit on the bowl for 6 hours. I have never took so much 7ups in my life.</p>
<p>Anyway, it came out clean and I will be back in 10 years.</p>
<p>I work in a colonoscopy center as a RN. Iâm scheduled for my first colonoscopy on Tuesday. Just by virtue of listening to all the tales my patients have told me regarding their colon preps, I decided to do a clear liquid diet two days prior rather than just the day before. My doctor prescribed the new colon prep âPrepopik,â which is great in the respect that the actual medicine is only two doses of 5 ounces. Thatâs a wonderful improvement over some of them, which can be up to 4 litres of nasty tasting stuff to drink. The down side is some patients really donât feel it gets them as âcleanâ as some of the higher volume preps. Thus the clear liquid diet for 2 days, as well as an extra laxative the day before the prep starts. </p>
<p>I did have coffee with cream this morning, in addition to jello with homemade whipped cream for breakfast. Then I switched-Iâve been eating jello, broth, liquids, and some lemon sorbet today, to go to only totally clear liquids tomorrow. </p>
<p>Iâm starving.</p>
<p>Early evening I will do a dose of magnesium citrate. Tomorrow I go to a completely pristine clear liquid diet (no coffee creamer, no sherbet) and begin the prescribed colon prep. Not looking forward to it.</p>
<p>Do you guys realize how many commercials on TV have to do with food? Restaurants? </p>
<p>Canât imagine going another day without solid food. But I guess this will give me even more empathy for my patients when they come into the center complaining they are starving and raw from the colon prep. </p>
<p>Ugh.</p>
<p>After my procedure, I will report on the Prepopik and if I recommend it, because it does seem a bit too good to be true. </p>
<p>Sorry if there is too much detail. :o</p>
<p>Haha. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^LOL. Thanks, moonchild.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, I think itâs a good idea to do the liquid diet for two days. I wish I had, because the doctor said I wasnât totally clean.</p>
<p>Now for my exhortation for everyone to go for a colonoscopy if youâre 50 or older:</p>
<p>I had a colonoscopy the week after I turned 50, in July 2012. The doctor found a LARGE polyp in the ascending colon. He removed it and sent in a biopsy for testing. It was the longest week of my life. From looking at reputable webistes (Mayo Clinic, for example), I learned that this size and type of polyp had a decent chance of being cancerous. Thank God it wasnât. I really think this test may have saved my life, because the polyp could have become cancerous as it got larger.</p>
<p>The doctor had me come back for a second colonoscopy in December, to make sure he got all of the polyp removed. He had. Now I have to go back in three years.</p>
<p>And you know what? I will do it GLADLY!! I am an annoying pest and tell all of my friends over 50 to get their butts (oops, no pun intended) into the doctor IMMEDIATELY if they havenât had the test yet.</p>
<p>Seriously, whatâs ONE DAY of discomfort if it saves your life?</p>
<p>OK, I will get off my soapbox nowâŠ</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn, you are TOTALLY right on. My husband was told to get his colonoscopy at 40 due to some family history of precancerous polyps. He waited until 46 and was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He had a year of HELL while being treated. Itâs been six years and he has been clean on all diagnostics. He went to MD Anderson for his âfarewell workup.â The CT scan shows a minuscule spot on his lung, so he has to come back in 6 months for a follow up. His oncologist says itâs probably nothing, but they must do their due diligence. DH is not worried in the least. I am trying not to go to the dark side, but thatâs just my personality. Iâll worry for the both of us until I hear itâs okay.</p>
<p>Itâs NOT WORTH IT to delay this test. It can save your life. Working at a colonoscopy center, I know how critical it is and how lucky we are to have a test that can actually help us PREVENT cancer in susceptible individuals. </p>
<p>StillâŠIâm going to say itâŠIâm HUNGRY. LOL, fantasizing about fried chicken and mashed potatoes, which I never eatâŠ</p>
<p>Oh well, Iâll liveâŠ</p>
<p>I have a history of colon polyps that I have inherited from my mother. If you have any history in your family, either of polyps or colon cancer you should be starting colonoscopy testing at 45. If no family history, you should start at age 50. I started at 45 and have had maybe 5-6 colonoscopies since then. Except for one, my last one, I have always had polyps, thankfully no cancer but a few of my polyps were pre-cancerous, so they just cut them out and that was that. I had no symptoms at all and if I had never had those colonoscopies at such an early age, they would have sat there and become colon cancer. So be grateful for this test and everyone should go get one, even if you doctor has not suggested itâŠScreening saves lives!</p>
<p>Because my DH was diagnosed with stage III cancer at 46, our kids must be screened at 36. D2 has already had her first colonoscopy at 19 because of some other issues, but I am glad we have a baseline on her, and Iâll probably encourage her to have another in 10 years even if I have to pay out of pocket for it.</p>
<p>Those big polyps are usually trouble. MaineLonghorn was lucky to find hers before it turned into something awful.</p>
<p>Hello All,
As a 50++ woman who suffers with IBSâŠthe prep was excruciating. I suffered and could not leave the bathroom for hours. The next day, my blood pressure, was very elevated due to dehydration. MD will change up the prep for the next time!</p>
<p>My only comment is to set your appointment so you spend the least amount of time waiting in a dehydrated state. When you arrive and are checked in, they should start you on a fluid drip and you will feel much better.</p>
<p>Wow, Nrdsb4, Iâm glad your husband is doing well. I meant to mention that there is NO history of polyps or colon cancer in my family. So I was surprised to have one myself!</p>
<p>Does anyone know (Nrdsb perhaps from working at a center) why the same prep routine with same quantities of laxatives is ordered for everyone, regardless of body weight. Without getting too graphic, I have found the first dose quite effective whereas my husband needs to move onto a supplemental dose after the prescribed second. I am not sure what is gained by me taking the second dose and I feel terrible afterwards (flu-like almost). </p>
<p>Really just curious as I will have the test conducted every five years regardless. I had the first one at 35 b/c my mother had colon cancer (alive still), but five years rolls around more often than I would like. Grateful that we have such a diagnostic tool and that I can obtain it conveniently nearby, but I dread the prep.</p>
<p>I donât know if body weight is that significant vs. intestinal motility. In other words, some people just donât âmoveâ things through as efficiently as others. </p>
<p>If you feel your colon prep is overkill, discuss this with your doctor. It sounds like the one dose does the trick for you and the second round just gets you really dehydrated.</p>
<p>I am another pest to all who will listen. I had my first colonoscopy a few months ago. I also had a good sized polyp that was not cancerous, but the type if left untreated has the potential to become cancerous. Much easier to get it removed before it became trouble. Really, think about. I didnât even need a follow up appointment, but if I had waited imagine the difference in treatment I would have needed? As everyone says the prep is the hardest part, but luckily for me that was bad. I took the advice of others and ate very lightly and very low fat for about a week leading up to the test and of course liquid only the day before. You can all do this!</p>
<p>I also find it is better to do the procedure as early in the am as possible. Yes, you have to get up at 4 am to sometimes take more prep in this case. But with my first colonoscopy, I had it done in the early afternoon so my husband would only have to take off the afternoon to drive me there. By midday I was dying of thirst, and when I arrived to the place I asked them if they would at least allow me ice chips and they said no. If you have it done early in the am, you are not as thirsty like you are by the afternoon.</p>
<p>I was diagnosed with Crohnâs Disease in 2002, at age 37, so Iâve had a colonoscopy every year, sometimes more than once a year, for years. They need to do them to see how the Crohnâs is doing and having Crohnâs greatly elevates the risk of colon cancer. Every liquid prep out there makes me nauseous and it comes back up. One time, they had to stop because I wasnât clean enough because the prep didnât stay down. I can tell you, that is really not pleasant. As a result, I now use Osmoprep. They are pills that you take with massive amounts of water. They are effective for me and stay down with no problem. As someone with Crohnâs, things always move very quickly through me so I can get by with one day of the clear liquid prep but if I wasnât a Crohnie, Iâd probably do two days of a clear liquid diet to be sure. </p>
<p>The problem is, my new insurance wonât pay for Osmoprep. I paid $170 out of pocket for it anyway because I know how I react to the mag citrate, golitely, fleets phosphosoda, halflitely- Iâve done them all. Itâs very frustrating the insurance wouldnât pay for it this last time. My last gastro would have fought with them to get it covered. My new gastro apparently doesnât fight that hard. The reasoning, per the pharmacist, was âyouâve never tried the othersâ. Right. Just because I had a different insurance plan doesnât mean Iâve never tried the others! I didnât have the time or energy to take up a battle, but I will start earlier next time and fight them.</p>
<p>Good luck. I had my first 10+ years ago because of severe IBS, which I later determined was gluten-intolerance based on elimination diet. At that time, the only prep was the gallon of âstuffâ. </p>
<p>Fast forward to last yearâŠH & I needed them for age. Went to pharmacy to pick up prep to find out our insurance did not cover moviprep, just the old traditional, so thatâs what I brought home. Doctor told both of us our prep was âexcellentâ. We followed the rules of bland diet for 2 days before and no seeds or red liquid, including wine, for a week prior.</p>
<p>Will be honest, I could not get all of it down, but felt ok because anything coming ut was clear for several episodes. My colonoscopy was fine. But i did over hear a conversation and some guy wasnât I felt very grateful. I as ate very little the week before.</p>
<p>I had my most recent one just a few months ago. I told the docâs office I could not drink all that liquid and he prescribed what they called âFive and dime.â It was five Ducolax tablets followed by 10 ounces of that citrus of magnesia stuff. I was up all night, also felt flu-like, got dry heaves in the middle of the night. However, the doc said my prep was excellent, so Iâd do it again.</p>
<p>Iâm unfortunately on an every-five-year schedule due to their having found a polyp at my first colonoscopy.</p>
<p>The nurse at the hospital told me the prep is the same for everyone regardless of weight because the length of the intestine is the same for everyone.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4: I ate a ton of Jello the day before mine. Not red, of course, but lime and lemon. I must have eaten around two whole boxes worth. It helped keep me from starving.</p>