My First and I lived to share my thoughts and experience.. LOL
The word alone to the younger generations seems Taboo. It was to me. It wasn’t something you ever talked about! What an embarrassing subject! Yeah, you just don’t go there!!.
I was talking to my daughter last week about Health and what older people talk about. I said the Word “Colonoscopy” and she pretty much shut me down right away!! LOL (And she is almost 43)!
Among all my friends aged 60-90, when you mention you are getting a Colonoscopy, they are happy for you especially if they learn this is your first. And it isn’t just Colonoscopy’s, It is amazing the health subjects talked about around the table at the Senior Center.. (I’ve learned things).
And here I am… in this Phase of Life talking or listening to various aches and pains and procedures. People went from Youth to Married w/kids to Widowed/Divorced, and now here at Senior and Health/Death Subjects.
My Health Facility uses the MiraLAX Prep. It is pretty Barbaric in my opinion!
I was on a Low Fiber Diet for 5 days prior and it was no biggy. It is a lot of what I eat anyways. But that opened my eyes as to why I don’t get enough Fiber in my diet. Okay, I need some changes. The day before the procedure was just a liquid diet and surprisingly, I wasn’t starving. It made me think about all the things I consume in a day and maybe I really don’t need all that.
My Experience without Graphics-
- 4 PM… 4 Dulcolax Laxative tablets.
(Don’t and have never swallowed pills, I asked about crushing them. They said it would lessen the potency. I HAD to swallow them.... Yes, they are very tiny)!!! Originally, I bought the chewable and then the day before realized they were purple and red in color… nope can’t have that color. There was no substitute for these pills, Sigh~
Even though they are soooooooo tiny I can’t swallow them. I am a gal who chews every bite at least 100 times if not more. NO tiny or no chunk goes down my throat! SO, I compromised, and I halved them and even THAT was hard for me! I chewed two of them!
These things are SO tiny that it is ridiculous that my mind says- I can’t!
Within 45 minutes I felt nausea and my gut burned. What was most depressing is I hadn’t even got to the main stuff yet and I felt really really really bad!!! (I wondered if it was because I chew a few of them, they were intended to dissolve in the intestines, not the stomach).
Most everyone I know says drinking the main stuff is the worse part but not overall terribly bad. Before I got to this point, I was optimistic about it. OK so you spend some time in the bathroom… I’ll just get a lot of reading done… I thought~
- 6PM-
Looking at the HUGE 64 oz Orange Gatorade and 14 doses of MiraLAX and feeling already nauseated was DREADFUL. I wondered of I’d get through it!
To cancel is a fee of 250.00 bucks.. maybe it would be worth it (I was thinking).
I drank about 10 oz’s every 30 minutes, So, it took me 3 hours to consume.
I was so concerned about getting sick because I was already nauseated . It has been like 20 years or so since I last threw-up and I am aiming to never need to do it again. Crazy thing is the more I drank the better my stomach felt.
I stayed in the bathroom the whole time because I wasn’t gonna run back every minute. Of course, that act of sitting no doubt made my other situation worse. Which is the whole reason I had to get a Colonoscopy. Prior to that I was good with just doing the Cologuard.
I played games on my iPad the whole time.
The Barbaric Concoction seemed to get to work quickly and do the proper job. I am so glad my body played along. I was SO concerned about it failing and having to redo the Barbaric procedure again. But NO worries there!
I did get terrible heartburn and a headache from all that stuff.
By Midnight, I felt it was “safe” to go to bed. Although for a while I thought of sleeping in the bathtub!
- 8:30am next day- I drank another 7 doses of MiraLAX and 28oz’s Orange Gatorade and it went down pretty easy. (But I think I will never like Orange Gatorade again)!
My Appointment was at 2:30pm. To get there you have to go “Over the River and through the Woods”. There is several 2 & 4 Lane Highways and some back-roads which all have their share of backups and wrecks so that was concerning to me. I could NOT be late!
Once at the place it was a breeze. Nice people. I remember them putting the knockout med into the IV. I said it burned and the next thing I know they are telling me it is time to wake up.
The outcome was good. They found one small Polyp and after two weeks the result came back as benign. Next Colonoscopy in 7 years.
In Hindsight.. The WORST part of the whole procedure for me… was not drinking that Barbaric Mixture… It was getting down those 4 very tiny Dulcolax Pills!
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