MarathonMike
Diamond Member
My PCP convinced me to have a colonoscopy so I went and did it. It wasn't horrible and it wasn't great either. But I'll pass along some info for those of you considering one:
The Prep: Yuk! Two days before, I had to drink a 10 oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate which had a gross citrus taste. It was Really cheap OTC, about 3 bucks. That basically induces diarrhea for a day. You also stop eating solid foods when you go to bed that night. After that it's only clear liquids, coffee, popsicles, soup broth and hard candy. Yeah that blows.
But that was just the pre-prep! The prep was this stuff called PlenVu which comes in a box with mixing packets and a mixing bottle. My insurance covered it but it costs like $120 without insurance. The first "dose" was a nastier more syrupy version of the Magnesium Citrate and begins the day before the procedure. Dose 1 was Pretty hard to get down and (for me) made for a very difficult nights sleep running to the bathroom every half hour. Dose 2 is taken just a few hours before your procedure and isn't as nasty as Dose 1. Dose 2 is for the final "flush out". There should be nothing but yellowy liquid in the toilet, anything else in there and you ain't flushed out.
The Procedure: It was a little weird to not meet the doctor until I was just about to be put under. This guy must do about 10 procedures a day, no small talk for him! Now For some reason they give continuous oxygen through your nose. I told them I was a runner but they said it's SOP for them. OK fine. Then they put me out with a Propofol drip. Man I gotta get me some of that! The nurse said "OK I'm going to start the drip, you will have a funny taste in your mouth, do you taste it? I said "Yeah" then she said something like "it's a "twightlight dose you might hear some.......". The next thing I heard was "OK you're done!" I guess it took about a half hour and I was "clean" except for the beginning of diverticulitis which means I need to hit the high fiber. No biggee.
Now the other aspect I didn't think of was this: As nasty as the prep is, maybe it's beneficial to do the big flush out. I'm not a doctor but intuitively it seems to be a good thing to do.
I'm Not sure if I will do another one. Maybe I'll just buy a couple bottles of Magnesium Citrate every few years and keep doing my Cologuard tests. I REALLY don't like doctors and hospitals, but again that's just me. All in all, it wasn't bad you just have to invest a couple days prepping and getting doped and probed. And hey you get pictures of your colon in the report, where else would you get that?
The Prep: Yuk! Two days before, I had to drink a 10 oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate which had a gross citrus taste. It was Really cheap OTC, about 3 bucks. That basically induces diarrhea for a day. You also stop eating solid foods when you go to bed that night. After that it's only clear liquids, coffee, popsicles, soup broth and hard candy. Yeah that blows.
But that was just the pre-prep! The prep was this stuff called PlenVu which comes in a box with mixing packets and a mixing bottle. My insurance covered it but it costs like $120 without insurance. The first "dose" was a nastier more syrupy version of the Magnesium Citrate and begins the day before the procedure. Dose 1 was Pretty hard to get down and (for me) made for a very difficult nights sleep running to the bathroom every half hour. Dose 2 is taken just a few hours before your procedure and isn't as nasty as Dose 1. Dose 2 is for the final "flush out". There should be nothing but yellowy liquid in the toilet, anything else in there and you ain't flushed out.
The Procedure: It was a little weird to not meet the doctor until I was just about to be put under. This guy must do about 10 procedures a day, no small talk for him! Now For some reason they give continuous oxygen through your nose. I told them I was a runner but they said it's SOP for them. OK fine. Then they put me out with a Propofol drip. Man I gotta get me some of that! The nurse said "OK I'm going to start the drip, you will have a funny taste in your mouth, do you taste it? I said "Yeah" then she said something like "it's a "twightlight dose you might hear some.......". The next thing I heard was "OK you're done!" I guess it took about a half hour and I was "clean" except for the beginning of diverticulitis which means I need to hit the high fiber. No biggee.
Now the other aspect I didn't think of was this: As nasty as the prep is, maybe it's beneficial to do the big flush out. I'm not a doctor but intuitively it seems to be a good thing to do.
I'm Not sure if I will do another one. Maybe I'll just buy a couple bottles of Magnesium Citrate every few years and keep doing my Cologuard tests. I REALLY don't like doctors and hospitals, but again that's just me. All in all, it wasn't bad you just have to invest a couple days prepping and getting doped and probed. And hey you get pictures of your colon in the report, where else would you get that?