Having a colonoscopy and just diagnosed with IBS

beaniebunny.....I was a basket case fretting about my colonoscopy this past June. Of course I too had read some of the horror stories but most said the prep was the worst part. I was quite worried when I saw a bed wheeled out of one of the rooms and the patient was fast asleep (they don't put too many to sleep here in Canada for this procedure). Anyway, the surgeon told the nurse, three syringes of joy juice and I watched the whole thing and conversed with the surgeon during the procedure.

The worst part - preparation! Just had a colon resection and the prep the day before was gruelling.

My wife had a barium enema booked the day after my colonoscopy and she hated her prep (far worse than the CoLyte) and hated the procedure - told her doc should the need arise again, she'd far prefer to have a colonoscopy.

Being a heterosexual male, I freaked about that tube being shoved up you know where and didn't find it too invasive either - I didn't enjoy it but it was not as uncomfortable and scary as what I had imagined.

So beaniebunny, the worst part is the prep and while there are isolated cases, go in with the positive outlook that you'll ace the whole thing.

Bruce

Thank you radioman and dbab now i am not as scared as i was I hope mine is fun like your dads my doctor is real handsome and looks like that cute guy with the beard on despararte housewives tv show. I hope i dont tell him THAt!
lol...:)

Check out the post someone had on here earlier about getting Pico Salax out of Canada. They said it actually tasted good and wasn't a chore to drink. The Golyghtly stuff is super nasty! Like drinking some sort of thick, salty sludge you'd find in an old tidal pool. All it needed was a dead horseshoe crab floating in it and a little sand on the bottom, LOL. I drank it a shot glass at a time to try and get it down without tasting it. You get nauseous from it simply because it tastes so bad--not because the medicine in it is sickening. I've heard the Fleets drink is also fairly bad tasting (best if you mix it in with something, like apple juice or coke), only you don't drink nearly so much of it, so it doesn't end up making you feel sick. If you gag easily or have a weak stomach, tell your doctor that and beg for the pills. If I had ended up having a colonoscopy, I would have definitely gotten some of that Pico Salax on my own and taken it. My boyfriend said I was crazy for not wanting to follow what the doctor recommended but hey, if it works on Canadians, why won't it work on me? I mean, yeah, they're Canadians, but that's not quite the same thing as being space aliens (lol, j/k). Besides, when you have diarrhea every day, how much help do you really need to get cleaned out? It's not like it has to work real well to end up doing a super sweep of your colon.

Regardless of what you have to take, wipe with a wet washcloth to avoid paper burn (or maybe you should try Kleenex with lotion--I never get paper burn with those on my nose even when I go through a box during allergy season). They gave me that "sleeping consciousness" stuff for my test and I don't remember a thing about it. Apparently they gave me a bit too much (or else it increased my natural tendency to sleep more than most people) and they couldn't get me to wake up to go home. Finally they let my mother back into recovery to see if she could get me to get up. I did wake up to the sound of her voice, but I kept going back to sleep in the middle of things. She had to dress me because I was too tired to do it and kept going back to sleep in the middle of it. And then I went to sleep walking down the hall to the bathroom. Apparently I was walking funny because I can remember my mother laughing and asking why I was "high stepping." I sort of realized then that I was lifting my legs up really high while I was walking, lol. Not that I could see, because I had my eyes closed and was more than half asleep. I even slept while eating breakfast! I went to bed when I got home and slept until about 7 or 8 that evening (I had it done very early in the day).

Beaniebunny...Don't worry about a thing...the Doctor with the black hose will be very gentle.  I got to watch the whole thing on a television screen.  I didn't have the complete, knock-out version...only up to the first bend.

 It's true that a barium enema is eleventeen times worse!!!

I found that the prep-work wasn't as bad as the daily symptoms.

Worst of all is the part where they tell you it's not life-threatening, but it's not curable, either.  Keep a change of clothing in your car at all times.  Keep Imodium in your pocket.  Buy stock in Kimberly-Clark.  I can't believe there are almost 20,000 members of this site.

Hope that together we can all find solutions.

Hey Bunny, I'm 24 and I've had IBS now for a little over 3 yrs.  The colonoscopy was the easiest thing.  I was soooo worried about it too, but it turned out that it was nothing but an added stress i didn't need.  Probably the worse part of it for me was drinking the nasty stuff the day prior to cleanse your body out.  But other than that it was nothing.  You're still awake during the procedure usually but so doped up you won't remember, I remember little things here and there.  But after it was over I was really hungry and felt really good because of the drugs, they make you feel stress free.  Try not to worry about it.  It's not too bad.  Molly

Hey there,
Have your doctors considered GERD? I also get really bad pains when I don't eat and it's because of the extra acid. I take Prevacid daily however when its time for my prep, my doctor will give me an extra Protonix to shut down the acid pumps in my stomach that cause the pain. My doctor always prescribes me an anti-nausea medication as well to take during my prep (either Phenergan or Reglan) and it helps me tremendously. The worst part is you really start to notice all of those food commercials on your prep day and its pure torture. I would definitely ask your doctor what he recommends and hopefully you will get some feedback on the nutraprep.

Perhaps my doctorwill allow me more antiacidmedication, but having just drinks isnot enough. Also, the pain is not in my throat; it's in my stomach. It starts out as discomfort, then gets progressively worse the longer I go without eating. I know you can take tums with nexium, and I'll take them occasionally when my stomach gets *real* bad. Since tums contain calcium however, too many are likely to bind you up more unless you take magnesium to counteract that. I think you're allowed tums, but I'm not sure when, how many, and at what intervals. Don't know about Malux, Milanta, or a double-dose of Nexium. As for the commercials, I can deal with that, but I'm a chicken for pain! Maybe I can just sleep the day and night away so I won't feel the hunger, like take sleeping pills or sedatives or something around mid afternoon? You can eat breakfast in the morning, I know that, so I prob won't feel real bad until much later, depending on how late I can eat my breakfast and how tense/nervous I'm feeling. I notice heating pads help me to relax too.

when and what you eat will depend on what time you have the proceedure. I don't think you will be able to eat anything in the AM as you have to be clean by then. Mine was a 2PM and I couldn't eat anything. I could eat breakfast the day before and then clear liquids the rest of the day and I think I could have some clear broth in the AM. nothing solid and especially no milk products for the day of and day before. Personally I would not have it without sedation as I have had and it was painful for me but everyones colon in different. They can always give you alittle more if you are not comfortable. I used the phospha soda and it isn't pleasant but at least you don't have to drink tons of it. Everything will be fine.