Travelling three hours for a colonoscopy after Plenvu bowel prep

[DownByTheLakeWhereTheWatermelonsGrow]

I recently posted about having blood in stool. I was referred for an urgent consultants appointment and have now got a colonoscopy booked in October.

I'm absolutely terrified about the procedure and the prep, but to make it all worse my local (very regional) hospital doesn't have availability within the required timeframe so I have to go to the bigger hospital which is three hours drive away.

My appointment is at 14:15. I phoned the dept and they said I could take the two doses at 18:00 and 21:00 the evening before so that everything is over and cleared by the morning.

For those that have taken this medication (PlenVu) do you think this is realistic? I'm trying not to think about how hungry and faint I'll be (really struggle with hunger on a normal day). Can I travel 3 hours at say 10 am - 1 pm following the bowel prep? And then have the procedure and travel home again late at night? My husband will be driving.

Terrified.

I don’t think the advice they have given you is correct. If your appointment is early afternoon, you would normally be taking your second dose of prep in the morning….taking it all the day before is too early. I took my prep the day before and had my procedure at 9am….. and it’s a long time to fast. Ring them back and get that clarified. You do need to drink plenty of water with your prep and afterwards up to three hours before the procedure. I would also. Up some pull on incontinence pants in case you leak a bit.

Oof.

any chance of hotel the night before next to the hospital?

Thanks both for your replies. Yes I could get a hotel but would be there by myself as my husband is needed at home with the kids.

Is doing the prep solo OK? I guess it's unpleasant but am I likely to need any help or access to home facilities?

I specifically asked about the afternoon appt time and she said it was fine, just unpleasant with the longer fast. The hospital is the only one for hundreds of miles so they are familiar with people travelling long distances for procedures.

yes the prep solo is ok
possibly preferable as you don't block the bathroom.

3 hours travel would be ok after complete clearout, but I wouldn't drive! low blood sugar can make you feel woozy.

I had plenty the night before a procedure. I was worried about an accident on the way to hospital but I was fine. I definitely wouldn't want to risk having it the morning of the procedure as it took four hours after the second dose at 9pm to finish.
Buy some disposable incontinence pants just in case as they will at least make you feel more secure. In fact wear them on the evening.
I wouldn't stay in a hotel in case of "accident". Don't underestimate how violent the diarrhoea is.

Thanks @HereComesTheNight, reassuring about taking the doses in the evening.

How violent are we talking? I have pretty bad experiences usually (hence the need for a colonoscopy) but I am quite scared. I'm mostly worried about the pain and nausea.

I’ve done more or less exactly this a few weeks ago - albeit my hospital was 1.5 hours instead of 3. I did the plenvu the day before as you’ve described and by the morning everything had stopped. I drove with a spare change of clothes just incase and sat on a towel (!) and was absolutely fine. I did have a little go in the toilet when I got there and some watery diarrhoea did come out but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t control by then, I think you’ll be fine.

I did however have to repeat the whole process a few weeks later with a ct scan as the colonoscopy was painful for me and they couldn’t see a certain area of my bowel so I had to do the whole prep thing again too with citramag and something else that time and that was horrendous. I was up shitting all night and was really hit and miss about whether I was going to make it okay. Thankfully I did but the plenvu was so much better, it comes out in a few goes and you’re done.

No pain or nausea but you are literally passing liquid with very little warning. At one point I was 2 meters from the bathroom and didn't make it. If you make yourself comfortable either in the bathroom or just outside you should be fine. I struggled with having to stay awake so late.

Thanks @Sparrowsandbudgies that's useful. I was told that they sedate you and you shouldn't feel anything, but obviously that wasn't the case for you? I'm probably not going to be very good at coping with that either.

I think the doctors will know better than you.

There is no reason for you to feel faint. It’s a few hours without food.

If you only have one loo at home then definitely book a hotel near the hospital as you will be spending hours on it.

@HereComesTheNight OK I didn't appreciate that there could be so much urgency so thank you for the warning! I'm also not looking forward to staying up late - I know I'll be feeling weak and tired and just want to rest.

The timings they suggest are the best option if you have a long drive in the morning.

I would prefer a shorter fast and a shorter travel time to the procedure. Can you stay in a Travelodge or similar the night before? Wouldn't fancy a long solo drive hime after though, could you get there by train so you don't have a long drive home afterwards?

@icircleyouuuuuu I feel faint at some point most days with hunger so it's inevitable. I eat plenty and am a good weight, just think I have a high metabolism and low blood pressure! And I need to stop eating at 3pm on the day before and won't be home until after 9pm on the day of the procedure so it's a bit more than a few hours unfortunately.

@AltitudeCheck Unfortunately the train takes almost 8 hours and the latest departure home goes two hours before my appointment 😭

I could go up the day before and stay in a hotel and then my husband could come to get me after, maybe that's a better solution.

Dd managed similar. We drove over an hour to the hospital we’d been told to go to. And found they’d changed her to our nearest hospital so had to drive well over an hour there. I was worried about her needing the toilet but she was ok.

Please don’t be terrified

the prep is a bit of a faff but not painful

i I did it solo, I had one tablet the day before and one on the morning- think I took it a bit earlier just to be on the safe side time wise travelling to appointment

unfortunately there is plenty of sitting on the loo

i put towels down bedroom and loo just in case of an accident but also wore pants and a pad - had a couple of mishaps but pads saved the day

but by 11am everything had stopped. I still wore a pad jyst in case but I was empty

I had my appointment at 2pm and they were so very lovely to me, couldn’t have been kinder. If you want pain relief it’s there, it’s a bit uncomfortable but nothing gas and air won’t solve and for less than 45 seconds. The procedure takes longer but it’s really not painful, just one part for a few seconds. Afterwards they gave me biscuits straight away and a cup of coffee

i would strictly follow the food diary and I started a couple of days before cutting out the prohibited food and just eating the allowed food, which just means it’s easier to empty on the last day and a half

the cleaner your bowel is the better photographs they get

you do have to have someone pick you up afterwards, they asked me when I arrived who it was going to be. You can’t just say I’m getting the train!

Do that, that's what I did when I had a colonoscopy in the summer. Stayed in a hotel right next to the clinic, appreciated having a bathroom to myself with no one to hear me shitting all evening! But sleep in incontinence pants, just in case, you don't want to mess the hotel sheets. I also made sure to get my money's worth by swimming in the hotel pool and relaxing in the sauna before I started the prep, just gutted I couldn't have the breakfast. My partner drove to pick me up afterwards (well actually he came for when the appointment started just in case they said they can't sedate me if they don't see there's someone to drive me home, but then he went off for lunch and came back at the end)

Just make sure you book a hotel that has a fridge in the room (minibar will do, just move the minibar products out to make room for your drinks) because you will want to drink the prep cold so a fridge is a must.

Going up the day before and getting picked up after sounds a good idea.

You can have clear fluids (includes soft drinks, tea or coffee, and clear strained soups/ stocks) up to a few hours before so perhaps this will help with light headedness? A sugary drink or cup of miso soup or broth?

I think I'd rather be on my own with a hotel bathroom at my disposal the evening/ morning of the prep.

I’ve had at least 10 of these - I actually appreciate the bowel prep as a good clear out!

they’ve given you a protocol for a morning procedure I guess because of your drive

I am not good with the tube going into my mouth so I ask them to give me max dose of meds that put you into twighlight. The whole point of these drugs is access to the last part of bowel can be uncomfortable if you were fully awake - but you are not fully awake because of the meds. If anyone has felt pain the person in charge of the drugs is not doing their job!

my top tip for you if you are worried about bowel prep try and clear yourself out before you take it. Sometimes I have some movicol just one sach a day in lead up

I hope you are ok

I had a colonoscopy about 6 weeks ago. Plenvu at 18:00pm then 06:00. It took just over an hour after the first dose for it to start to work. It was around the time of my second dose that it really kicked in. My appointment was 14:30pm and I was still
on the toilet at 11am. Staying in a hotel is a really good idea. The prep isn't that bad you know what it's going to do, and it does what it's meant to!

If you are going to spend night in hotel maybe ask them if you are still doing that protocol - and ask for a late check out

if you are not fully clear on the day you can ask for an enema

I did have the sedation but it didn’t do anything at all for me- I suspect this is because I have lupus and other very painful conditions and I take strong Cocodamol regularly anyway so I’ve always found anaesthetics and sedatives don’t do anything for me at all. So please don’t assume that will be the case for you - when they wheeled me into recovery everyone else was completely out of it and snoring away so it clearly worked for them, but despite having fentanyl and all sorts I felt like I’d not had anything at all.

Sometimes the sedation doesn't work just because it doesn't work on you - did not work on me at all, so they just gave me more of the painkiller component to ease my discomfort. Just wish they had given me the painkiller for the gastroscopy they did first because the sedation didn't work at all so they had to rush the whole procedure as I was coughing and vomiting throughout - definitely preferred the colonoscopy!