Picolax - will I be safe to drive 4 hours after taking it?

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I have a flexi sigmoidoscopy on Monday, and have been told to take Picolax at 7am the morning of the procedure.

Trouble is, the hospital is a 1.5 hour drive away, so I'll only have 4 hours after taking the picolax before I have to get in the car to drive to my appointment.

Is that enough time for it to work, and be safe to leave?

I've had this procedure before and was given a different laxative to take the night before - so at least I could relax and let it do its worst all evening. This time I'll be under pressure to get it all over with quickly!!

I spoke to the hospital and they said they could move my appointment to later in the day (which I don't want as she said I could suffer knock on delays, and I won't have eaten since 9am on Sunday so I'd rather not delay it any more than I need to) OR I could get up earlier, say 6am, to give it more time to work.

Any experiences of how long it takes to fully clear you out?

When had my full colonoscopy I had the tablets + 2 sachets .
IIRC i had 'bland' food for 24 hours before, then breakfast no later than 7am ( DH made me one piece of toast I got up early for that )

Then when it began about noon, I was glued to the loo. Until 2am.

Weirdly, the next day I felt invincible and floating. I said "Why don't we get the bus"
DH was muttering darkly and phoned a taxi (I drive, he doesn't)

I had a sigmoid colonoscopy with an eneama.

Trust me, I'd pick the full tablet+ fluid option if I had to do it again.

Well I've done the deed, waiting for it to take effect.. no going back now!

Help! I took it last night, and it worked but it wasn't as 'thorough' as I was expecting - when I had Moviprep previously, I had to drink litres of the stuff and was basically shitting out clear water by the end. This time, I did have some very water movements... but by this morning, I'm passing some bits of solids again.

I'm worried it won't have worked properly!!!

By the way thank you to all of you who advised me to take it last night instead of this morning - I was still pooing after 6 hours, so there's no way I could have done that this morning and get in a car.

Hmmmm I can't say I've ever had anything after all the water is gone, and I've had 20+ colonoscopies so it may be that it's not fully worked.

In your position I'd call the gastro unit and ask for advice, they may need you in a bit earlier for an enema if not clear enough to see what they need to.

Defo always do it earlier than they say! for colonoscopies you do it over two days, the night before and the am of the appointment. They say do evening one 6 ish and am one 7ish- I alway do evening one at 4, so that by 10 I can go to bed and sleep! Then I get up at 4.30 to do am one as I leave by 12 and want to be absolutely sure it's over lol!

Everything I've read people have had 2 x Picolax, but i was only given one. Maybe that's why it hasn't worked fully?

The only thing I can think of is that by taking it last night, the food in my stomach from yesterday morning hadn't fully worked its way through yet, so that's still coming through...? Is that possible?

God I hope they don't tell me off for taking it last night instead of this morning.

I had a sigmoidoscopy and a colonoscopy last year and the prep for both was different. I took one picolax the nighy before the sigmoidoscopy and it worked- even when I used the loo before my appointment time it wasn't completely watery and it still went ahead (I'd also forgotten about the low residue diet and went to chimichanga had a huge burrito with guacamole and tomatoes and all sorts the day before!).
I found the sigmoidoscopy prep quite trauma- free so was expecting the same for the colonoscopy but that was much much worse, really grim.

That's good to hear Bounce. I've been religiously following the low res diet since Monday, so there shouldn't be much in there!

I wouldn't worry about yesterday's food- stool is 'stored' further up so won't impact on a sigmoid which only looks at the lower part of the colon and rectum.

I'd let them know, be prepared for enema just in case but it's likely you'll be fine

All done - it was fine. I told them that I'd done the Picolax last night instead of this morning, and they said as long as I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning it should be fine.

There were a few flecks of poo along the way, but the majority was clear. I'm SO glad I didn't leave it until this morning, that would have been way too stressful.

Now I just need to get rid of this wind and I'll be back to normal!