bowel prep and colonoscopy experience

Hi I agree with House about vaseline for the sting! Start using it when you start taking the prepping meds. I've had about four colonoscopies and they've chucked on at me out of the blue this Friday

I don't mind the colonoscopy at all, it's a relief to get it started and therefore the prepping finished. I found the prepping a real pain in the - well you know where or you wouldn't be here

I am puzzled though. I've changed hospitals and areas since the last one. The old lot (london) made me do the three day prepping thing - eating white stuff, then eating clear stuff and purging, then nothing, etc. Horrible but although I do get the shakes when hungry, strangely, that did not affect me when fasting for this. However, new hospital (Surrey) have told me that I only have to prep the day before. Any insight, anyone? I would hate to not have emptiness for the procedure, but equally would be glad to skip the three day prep.

I always ask for maximum sedation. I have never had pain or problems, apart from when they forgot to sedate me u ntil the last minute and then didn't give me enough. Be firm about this!

Hi jen, I only had the one day prep and it was fine, different hospitals seem to have different ideas for some reason, you'd think they would all be the same.

Christine .

I know this thread was awhile ago but I'm due to start my bowel prep in a couple of days. 5 senna tablets Sat evening, 5 senna tablets Sun evening, citromag mon at 6pm, the again at 7am Tuesday morning. I'm really worried about it. I suffer with ibs with diarrhea so don't need stool softener, but hospital said I must follow the prep. I'm more worried about the senna. Any positive experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated!!

It is interesting that different hospitals in different areas approach the prep differently. Have had colonscopy this morning, only had pre-appointment two days ago so no time for special diet but I had to stop eating by lunchtime yesterday and start on the 4 litres of Klean-prep at 3pm. Felt like a mountain to climb! Two litres down and I didn't think I could take another sip but once it started to move through felt much better apart from developing a strange attachment to the loo (wish I'd known about the vaseline). Didn't feel at all hungry with so much liquid in the system, so don't worry about the not eating if you're doing this kind of preparation. Felt quite nervous of the procedure but having drunk the 4 litres I was determined to get it done. Did find the initial stages quite painful, strong cramps but after that it was OK except at the end when they were removing a largish polyp - had 3 removed and some other biopsies. Quite pleased with myself at the end - thinking that's done and I'm never repeating this experience only to be told that because I've have polyps I'll have to do it again in 3 years time as a check up. I'm struggling a bit with the post-procedure sedation so wonder if I'll try without next time - I didn't feel sedated during the procedure but very doppy afterwards. Can you have painkillers without the sedative?, and did someone mention having a valium beforehand (would probably still be in your stomach while they're looking at your colon). Decisions, decisions - I think I'll just take the ostrich approach and bury my head in the sand until the time comes!

By the way, I was given a full report of what they had done during the procedure with detailed information on the polyps removed and what would happen next before I left the hospital. Not sure it is standard procedure but I thought it was excellent (Glenfield Hospital, Leicester) and all the staff very careful to keep you informed at every stage.

Hi I had to do two bowel preps for my son who is 9, he is under Great Ormond Street and he needed a colonoscopy and endoscopy. We decided to do a bowel prep from home this is what I had to do :-

Clear fluid diet to commence 10:00 on the 06/05/13. Laxatives given as prescribed by GP. (60ml senna, 1 sachets of picolax 11:00 and 1 sachets picolax 18:00)

Admission date: 07/05/13 at 08:00

NBM: 02:30 jellies -5:30 water

Movicol faecal impaction chart:

30/04/13: 4 sachets

01/05/13: 6 sachets

02/05/13: 8 sachets

03/05/13:10 sachets

04/05/13: 12 sachets

05/05/13: 12 sachets

06/05/13: 12 sachets

He had one back in Feb too . He may need another but my son cant go through that again, he was stuck to the loo. My gut instinct was coeliac diseas as my 12 year old daughter has it, but Callum was not making it to the loo, had abdominal pains etc, he has been diagnosed with a few thing one colitis, he has the characteristic of coeliac disease despite blood tests negative, we are waiting on his HLA status gene test. If this is positive he will only be put on a gluten free diet if it is triggered. He will be screened reg. He is on Asacol now for the inflammation in his bowel. He couldn't cope with the bowel prep, he was also put out as he is a kid but as a day patient but next time like my daughter he will be admitted as they can do it in a nicer way over 48 hours rather than a week. Good luck

picolax is the one you want to watch...t can burn your mouth it gets very hot! be careful!

Thanks for the feedback, Christine.

Clarebear, I am sorry your poor boy has had such a lot to put up with. I hope that he feels better soon. It's bad enough as an adult, but all this as a child must be very hard

BTW, I am now prepping for my colonoscopy as it got postponed. This is the first time I've done it with Picolax. It didn't heat up when I mixed it?! I'm now worried it's not as it should be and I might not be "clear" for tomorrow. Also the effects aren't all that startling if you know what I mean. As a crohns patient, it's not all that much different from normal.

Can't wait to eat again!

I tried a nice brew for the prep day - stock cube dissolved in hot water, mixed with touch of chilli powder (not too much!) and dash of Worcester Sauce. Tasty enough to distract from the longing for actual food!

Thanks for alleviating my anxiety. The last thing I need is to show up tomorrow for my colonoscopy and find out I didn't prep properly. Sounds like I did. Thank you from Canada.

I have my colonoscopy tomorrow. I'm an hour in to the first picolax drink. Nothing doing yet. I'm dreading

this bit more than the actual procedure I think. Reading this forum has made me a little more relaxed though.I Will update with full experience after the procedure has been done. Fingers crossed all goes well.

Hope all goes well for you tomorrow Paul, taking the laxative wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but the second dose did work quicker than the first, I imagined being stuck on loo and not coming out but it wasn't like that and I even got a good night's sleep before the procedure the next day.

Brilliant thanks. I was expecting to be on the loo within a few minutes but two hours later I'm still waiting lol. Trying to keep busy and moving around to get things moving and take my mind off things.

Thankyou for the post Christine I am a firm believer in these forums, takes a lot of worry out of the equation

:-)

All done. Got to be fair, the hardest bit for me was missing my dinner last night. Picolax was ok. Did the job and was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Slept well last night and was up a direct showered by 9.00. Got to Hereford hospital at 10.10.for 10.15 appointment was out and on the way home by 11.45.

Super efficient, nice staff and everything was explained really well before they started the colonoscopy. This was a little more uncomfortable than I thought it might be. Stomach cramps and pain meaning ha ING to use engines / gas and air. Only er quite quickly and it was so nice to be able to eat a day have a proper cup of tea. To sum up, if you are having one of these there's no need to worry too much. It really wouldn't bother me too much to have it done again. :-)

Sorry about the dodgy spelling in the last post.,mixture of the stupid keypad on my phone and being given a little fuzzy after the sedation.

I'm glad everything went well Paul, yes it really isn't that bad just a bit uncomfortable, it is nice that we have these forums where we can write out experiences and hopefully let others know that it isn't as bad as they fear.

I had moviprep for a sigmoidoscopy last week and although i was glued to the toilet for 12 hours it had to be abandoned part way through as nurse said i was full of solid stool.

Have a colonoscopy on Wed, due to start picolax or citra fleet as called here tomorrow, terrified of it happening again because i i havent been to toilet since i had moviprep.

Have been tightly restricting my food since saturday and feel hungry and ill but too scared to eat in case i make the constipation worse.

Didnt help that she wrote on report i failed to prep properly and it was poor. Did everything to the letter.