Any Advice About Colonoscopies?

[MarmaladeSandwich7]

I’ve had the procedure before but it was several years ago & I can’t remember much about it, apart from the discomfort. Any advice would be welcome.

Use lemonade for mixing the prep and drink it quickly with a fat straw.

Check what sedation has been ordered and discuss with the gastroenterologist if you have questions or doubts.

And relax. Chances are you’ll be asleep for most of it and when you wake up it’s all over.

@Enrichetta is it ok with lemonade? I thought it had to be water.

I had one yesterday. I had Citrafleet, I made it up with ice cold water and just drank it.

i was sedated for the procedure, certainly not asleep but it it was fine, much better than the thought process behind it if that makes sense. It’s also over pretty quickly.

Stay near a toilet once you start the prep though.

I was advised to use lemonade. You can’t use orange, red, blue, purple or green
liquids. But best check with your HCP.

Gosh, I can’t imagine a load of fizz on top of the prep, glad it helped you though, nasty stuff!

My top tip is Vaseline on the toilet roll before each wipe!

Definitely not lemonade!! I took the advice of having sprite and quickly gave that up after some very unpleasant burping!

I have one soon due to a positive fit test, and I am dreading it! How many hours are you on the toilet for? I have 2 DC, and I don’t know how I am going to do the prep and look after them.

For the prep, I add a bit of lemon and lime cordial and chug it down as quickly as possible. None of this every hour business with me! Then it happens..... I would recommend buying some Aldi adult incontinence PANTS, not pads, like kids pull ups only bigger obv. quite inexpensive. They are great especially when in bed in case of accidents, and are reassuring also in case of leaks on the way to the hospital. Well that's what I do anyway. And have a tub of sudocrem by the toilet also. It's over relatively quickly once it starts in earnest, and it has to be done!

Good luck OP, you will be fine.

Try not to worry, the colonoscopy itself isn’t bad. You will be on the toilet for hours though and it’s real bum rush stuff.

Yep incontinence pants for the win. My bathroom wall wishes I’d got them for the prep for my first one…

and the best white/beige food.. iced buns!

I gave up wiping and just sat on the loo for three hours reading a good book

I said lemonade - I never mentioned fizz…

My best piece of advice is if given an option, take the sedation. It’s lovely. 😂

Last time I had the procedure we were living in our old house which had 3 loos. Where we are now only has one so I do wonder what DH & DD will do whilst the prep is doing its’ worst!

Ask for lots of sedation

I had one two days ago. I was given a 5-day recommended diet sheet to do before prep (which I ignored). Prep was at 7 pm and 7 am drinks for a 14.30 appointment. 1st drink was made up with 500ml water and was Mango flavoured (just very sweet and revoltingly salty). The next morning was Mixed Fruit flavour, less sweet, still as revoltingly salty. Stay near the toilet.

During the procedure, I had a cannula/sedation. It was very easy; afterwards, I was able to take photos of my pics, and they confirmed biopsies were taken. I felt nothing.

the worst thing for me was that I was awake all night as my stomach was gurgling so badly.

Moviprep is grim, Picolax is much easier to drink but you need a blood test first to check your kidney function. Get some flushable wipes and a good box set to watch!

You can have gas and air if you don’t want full sedation and your recovery will be quicker.

@HerbertVonDoodlebugI always have picolax and have never had a blood test.

@Ketley67that’s what I mean - how can I parent when I am on the toilet for hours? Do you take it in the evening?

Oh ok, so flat lemonade then.

It depends on when your colonoscopy is. Sometimes the prep is just the evening before and sometimes its split over the evening before and the morning of. Depending on what your little ones are like at going to bed you should be ok to get them to sleep and then start but you’d need to see what instructions you’re given.

Agree with others, take all the sedation that’s offered, it’s great. I was almost embarrassingly happy and chatty and never felt a thing. (And i was quite anxious beforehand)

I also had a really uncomfortable one years ago and was worried. The doc told me that the procedure has improved lots and the equipment is more flexible. Certainly was true for me. It was much better this time and seemed to be for everyone else. Everyone seemed to walk out looking ok.

Ive had 2 and no way are you asleep! The sedation is very light and no effect on me at all so don't rely on that either.