To be honest, I don’t care what people say when I’m not conscious, I wouldn’t be the one that tape anything. Gluten for punishment in my own opinion to hear what people say about me.
@DrGoogle, That’s a funny typo in a thread about GI health. 
Completely painless? Do you drive trucks through there or something?
Basically he got around the left upper bend and I was like “MORE SEDATION!!!”. Reminded me of the worst parts of childbirth.
Also had biopsies from the lower right, and because of the appendix there is more danger of perforation there. I would much rather not flinch thank you.
Good one, Dr. Google!
My procedure is Friday late afternoon; doc has prescribed EZ2Go (looks like a Miralax clone) along with bisacodyl tabs (4).
The Miralax is supposed to be mixed with Gatorade/G2 in a light color. I despise gatorade, and if G2 is similar, I despise that too. Is there something about Gatorade that is special? Could I mix it instead with iced tea? (I am allowed to have black tea/coffee until 3 hours before my procedure.) Or just better to hold my nose and suck down the gatorade? If so, is there a better flavor than lemon lime?
I’ve got chicken broth in the fridge, and I will see if there is some beef that might look palatable.
I had to drink a 4 liter jug of the plain PEG-3350 & Electrolytes once and I don’t think it tastes as bad as some make t sound. Just chill it up good and it goes down ok. I drank about 8 oz. every 10-20 minutes until it was all gone. When drinking it I visualized it being a nice cold, refreshing drink to beat the summer heat! I think it tastes like a cross of homemade salted water you gargle with for a sore throat, and sorta tastes like Gatorade Frost flavor (the sorta clear color one)…the PEG just not as sweet as Gatorade. Don’t know why manufacturer can’t add to the regular PEG solution a better flavoring…maybe they do and I just didn’t get it.
The PEG solution definitely has a kick!
Like vodka?
@arabrab, my doctor told me it was okay to mix the Miralax with Crystal Light. I don’t like Gatorade either and the CL was at least drinkable. That was 5 years ago; I’m having another one in a few weeks. I think the prep is the same (still waiting on instructions from the office). Good luck to you.
I ditto the Crystal Light. However, I am not interested in the artificial sweeteners, they kind of gross me out. Crystal Light makes a product sweetened with Stevia, which is quite good. I think it’s called Crystal Light Pure. Stevia has no bad consequences unlike all the artificial stuff, it is a natural sweeter, if you are unfamiliar with it. And this tastes very good to me. I just got it at the grocery store.
I’ll look for that, @busdriver11 - thanks. I also don’t like artificial sweeteners.
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@arabrab, to tell you the truth, I heard such horror stories (I had the Golytely, which was described as tasting like lemon flavored sweat), and you have to drink so much of it. I don’t know anything about Miralax, but I know my husband’s Moviprep was SOOO much easier than the Golytely. Small portion, tasted like seven-up.
I got a number of things to try experimentally, to see what tasted best, to figure out what I could tolerate, to mix with it. I bought chicken broth, beef broth, Crystal Light, Gatorade, orange flavored soda, apple cider. I was going to try mixing the sweat flavored mixture with all these different things, to see what tasted best (or less terrible). And the first thing I tried was the stevia sweetened Crystal Light, which was fine, so I didn’t even bother to try the rest! However…
I don’t know if the Miralax is as bad as the Golytely, but if it is…this way makes it tolerable! I picked out best practices from a couple of websites, and these really worked.
Make sure the liquid is as cold as possible in the refrigerator.
Suck on an icecube to dull your tastebuds.
Then suck on a lemon.
Plug your nose.
Down the drink, mixed with the Crystal Light. Best advice is to forget the straw, down it like “cheap beer at a frat party”.
Then again, Miralax might be small quantities of tasty liquid, so maybe that doesn’t apply!
I had vegetable broth for my “dinner” the night before my procedure. It was a welcome change from all the gatorade, popsicles, golytely, and other sweet things that prep seems to require. I had it in a bowl, so it also felt a little bit like I was eating something. It was actually pretty tasty.
I just wanted to say thank you to Nrdsb4. I was so disturbed by that article about the unprofessional doctor and staff and it reinforced my worst nightmare about being sedated for a procedure. Having said that, I worked in a university hospital/major medical center for 8 years and, although my position was administrative, the emphasis on customer service was huge. We had principles that we were to follow at all times and they would clearly extend to direct contact with patients, even if the patients weren’t conscious so I really feel confident that that type of behavior would not occur in that setting.
I’d recommend you to get that procedure done, it might cost a lot but a long term bleeding in your colon is going to end up a major operation.
@collage1, certainly there are cultures which promote the kind of behavior we read about in this incident. But you are right, you can tell when the culture of a facility is good. It almost always emanates from the top, the administrators and doctors who are in a position of leadership and are respected by their peers.
If I became aware that I was working in a facility which did not foster the proper attitude as it regards treating patients with respect and dignity as well as adhering strongly to principles of safe and ethical medical care, I’d be gone in a flash. The only thing which seems to change facilities/providers who do NOT operate in that manner seems to be hitting them in the pocketbook or by holding them up to public scrutiny. We all have bad days, but the behavior noted here seems to me to be more of a character problem. It was noted and tolerated or even shared by people in the position to change it, therefore there was no culture in place to censure this kind of behavior and stop it. I imagine there were many others who were appalled by it, but lacking the power to do anything about it, seethed silently inside and plotted to get out of there as soon as they could manage it.
I really trust my GI doctor. To the point that when I needed a colonoscopy, it was kind of embarrassing.
I guess my point about the college being mentioned is that the behavior being recorded on the cell phone doesn’t seem to match with “Hi, my name is Dr. Smith. Tell me a little about you!”.
I’m scared of flying, so I assume I am going to die and am very pleased when I walk off the plane.
I treat medical procedures with sedation or anesthesia the same way - if I wake up, that’s great!
Do you mind if I ask an honest question? I never can understand this attitude when I hear it. Do you realize how very, very, very few people die in plane crashes? Do you know how many, many, MANY people die in car crashes? Are you scared to get in a car to drive across town to the airport? I’m really trying to understand. Is it a phobia, similar to the way I feel when I put my head underwater?
@MaineLonghorn, yes, it is an irrational fear (a phobia). I’m terrified of flying, though I don’t let it stop me from doing so. I have no fear of driving. I think it’s also a control issue: I know nothing about the pilot. I know that I am a very careful driver. Statistics notwithstanding, I trust myself, but can’t necessarily trust the pilot. Intellectually, I see the weakness of all of that, but emotionally and viscerally, no.
I think that some of this is also inherent with fear of medical procedures. We are no longer in control of ourselves when we are under anesthesia. There’s no telling what’s going on, and we don’t know for sure that our providers know what to do, and we don’t know for sure what they are doing when “no one is looking,” so to speak.
I think in my case the main bleeding source is menstruation, and the “checking for HI bleeding” was just the doctor wanting to be thorough, but unlikely to find anything.
Is hemorrhoid bad? I was told I have minor hemorrhoid that after colonoscopy, I think the pushing in childbirth did that. I know I had to be treated for the problem after the birth of second kid.