Colonoscopy Thursday morning...

[FrankC]

Hi Frankc I'm sorry you have to go forward with a colonoscopy. I found the build up to the procedure far worse than prep day and the actual procedure. I think at that point you're just ready to get it done and move forward! But I totally get it, I was terrified of the possible results even though my surgeon and GP were adamant it wasn't anything serious. Can I ask what your symptoms are?

My GP refused to do a fecal occult sample on me...she said because I'm anxious by nature I'm better off to just get a colonoscopy if I'm experiencing symptoms. She said there was a definite possibility of a false positive or better yet a positive due to hemorrhoids...she felt I would just get worked up. A positive fecal occult sample definitely doesn't mean it's something serious - just means you need further work up to rule certain things out!

The surgeon gave me my results as soon as I woke up in the procedure room. Then the nurse went over things with me before I left. Still waiting on the biopsy results but I imagine that will take a week or 2.

What is your prep like?

Stay positive!

Thanks so much for your reply. It's amazing how much good can came from a post such as yours. And I like how your GP thinks...she seems to really understand the effect these things have on folks like us. Is she taking new patients? lol

As for symptoms, just the positive sample in this case. That said, for some time I have had a sensitive stomach and after noticing undigested food (sorry) on a couple of occasions my anxiety went through the roof. Since then I became obsessive about "checking". I get a bloated feeling in the upper left part of my stomach at times and that feeling intensifies when anxiety builds. My GP suggested possible IBS.

My prep I guess begins next Monday with some dietary restrictions, then the 2 laxative pills and finally the PegLyte liquid the day before. Ugh...

How did you find that anyway?

Well, sorry for the novel here and I hope you will update after you get your good news in a week or 2. I know it will be a relief for you to move on

[anxious848]

Thanks so much for your reply. It's amazing how much good can came from a post such as yours. And I like how your GP thinks...she seems to really understand the effect these things have on folks like us. Is she taking new patients? lol

As for symptoms, just the positive sample in this case. That said, for some time I have had a sensitive stomach and after noticing undigested food (sorry) on a couple of occasions my anxiety went through the roof. Since then I became obsessive about "checking". I get a bloated feeling in the upper left part of my stomach at times and that feeling intensifies when anxiety builds. My GP suggested possible IBS.

My prep I guess begins next Monday with some dietary restrictions, then the 2 laxative pills and finally the PegLyte liquid the day before. Ugh...

How did you find that anyway?

Well, sorry for the novel here and I hope you will update after you get your good news in a week or 2. I know it will be a relief for you to move on

I'm glad my post helped. And, I don't know that you'd want my GP! As lovely as she is, I find she tended to make my anxiety worse. She'd ask me questions like, "what do you think I should do?" or "do you want to see a specialist?" I think I need someone assertive telling me not to worry, stay away from google and relax

Has your stool been checked for parasites or bacteria at all? They found a 'parasite' in my stool and I'd been seeing undigested food quite often (and I'd never had that before). The parasite I have is called blastocystitis hominis and it was considered a yeast up until recently. Now they've labelled it a parasite but there is a lot of medical literature debating whether or not the parasite actually causes digestive issues. There are some arguments that it can cause symptoms of IBS. Anyway, I've gone through 2 strong rounds of antibiotics and its still in my system...will probably leave it as is as the antibiotics did more harm than good!

Your prep sounds pretty similar to mine except I had 3 pills plus the peglyte. I found the peglyte really hard to stomach...what I found really helped was to gulp down a sip of powerade/gatorade then drink as much as you can of the liquid and then take another sip of the powerade. I found that I almost gagged otherwise with the peglyte. You may not mind it but I couldn't stand the aftertaste! Otherwise I didn't find the prep too bad...it was more of a nuisance particularly because I had to drink the second round of peglyte at 3:30am and was up using the washroom until about 5-5:30. But I slept well from 10:30 until I had to get up in the middle of the night. Procedure itself was a piece of cake. They put me out entirely which I think was better for me...apparently recommended for anxious patients

I loved my surgeon - he was fantastic and I met with him once before he suggested the colonoscopy. One wonderful thing he told me was about a study he read recently...he said the study talked about how patients self diagnose through 'google' and are wrong more often than not...and how they don't trust their doctors. Well, apparently the average doctor is right about 70% of the time according to that study which is actually not a bad statistic! Just something to keep in mind which helped me a little bit.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the prep, etc.!

[FrankC]

Thanks for another helpful reply. Good point about your GP! I think I'll stay put. lol And I totally agree about Google. I try to be selective and see only things I want to see but that never works out and it always ends up making matters worst. What your surgeon said is definitely comforting.

No tests for parasites or bacteria but I will definitely mention that. Thank you.

So, a fellow PegLyter huh? I am not looking forward to that at all. My pharmacist pretty much described it the same way except she used jello to get through it. My procedure is at noon so apparently I need to start drinking it from 2pm - 8pm the day before.

I may take you up on the offer and send some questions your way if that's OK. I am feeling pretty alone at this time. Quick one for you now.. what flavour gatorade did you use. I heard you cannot have anything that is red, purple or blue .. what does that leave? lol

[anxious848]

Thanks for another helpful reply. Good point about your GP! I think I'll stay put. lol And I totally agree about Google. I try to be selective and see only things I want to see but that never works out and it always ends up making matters worst. What your surgeon said is definitely comforting.

No tests for parasites or bacteria but I will definitely mention that. Thank you.

So, a fellow PegLyter huh? I am not looking forward to that at all. My pharmacist pretty much described it the same way except she used jello to get through it. My procedure is at noon so apparently I need to start drinking it from 2pm - 8pm the day before.

I may take you up on the offer and send some questions your way if that's OK. I am feeling pretty alone at this time. Quick one for you now.. what flavour gatorade did you use. I heard you cannot have anything that is red, purple or blue .. what does that leave? lol

Ugh, yep...fellow PegLyter! So, I bought the jello...I bought the green jellow as it was the only one I was confident in purchasing. I believe orange is okay but I was a little nervous about it. I'd seen mixed comments about it while googling about the prep. I had jello in the morning and before lunchtime - that was about all I could handle quite honestly. I'm not a big jello fan and if I was I'd want the red colour lol which obviously I couldn't have.

The Powerade I drank was also super sugary but I found that I liked the taste more. Again they had an orange flavor which I like but was a little unsure so I bought a "lemonade" flavor. I actually didn't mind it at all. Gatorade has a lemon-lime flavor but it didn't appeal to me.

Basically my diet for that day was jello in the morning and morning snack, chicken broth for lunch and also at dinner. I found I wasn't all that hungry quite honestly inbetween drinking the powerade and PegLyte. One thing I did have was my morning coffee (black only) and was very grateful and happy to have!

[Capercrohnj]

Oh btw I am a frequent colonoscopy person (every year) as I have severe crohn's. I can answer bowel and colonoscopy related questions

[FrankC]

Ugh, yep...fellow PegLyter! So, I bought the jello...I bought the green jellow as it was the only one I was confident in purchasing. I believe orange is okay but I was a little nervous about it. I'd seen mixed comments about it while googling about the prep. I had jello in the morning and before lunchtime - that was about all I could handle quite honestly. I'm not a big jello fan and if I was I'd want the red colour lol which obviously I couldn't have.

The Powerade I drank was also super sugary but I found that I liked the taste more. Again they had an orange flavor which I like but was a little unsure so I bought a "lemonade" flavor. I actually didn't mind it at all. Gatorade has a lemon-lime flavor but it didn't appeal to me.

Basically my diet for that day was jello in the morning and morning snack, chicken broth for lunch and also at dinner. I found I wasn't all that hungry quite honestly inbetween drinking the powerade and PegLyte. One thing I did have was my morning coffee (black only) and was very grateful and happy to have!

Great info anxious! I will make my shopping list from this.

---------- Post added at 13:55 ---------- Previous post was at 13:55 ----------

Oh btw I am a frequent colonoscopy person (every year) as I have severe crohn's. I can answer bowel and colonoscopy related questions

Noted. Thanks very much!