Guess what I got in the mail today?

The instructions on prepping for the colonsoopy! You know, the ones that they had to fax to my pharmacy yesterday? The ones I could have used as much as five-six days ago? Thank goodness for the Internet; because I used that, since I had no instructions to speak of (and didn't even know who my doctor was to look her up on my insurance website till yesterday), I had a great pre-prep, and everything went smoothly despite the snafu with the paperwork. Apparently my low-fibre diet several days before along with tapering off on food and then going to clear liquids really paid off, as my prep (which was MoviPrep) went smoothly and quickly to the desired results. But I was beginning to wonder what happened to that lost paperwork, and when they left a message to pre-register last night, it had a callback number that was inoperable. Fortunately, they called back when I was home in the midst of the prep and we were able to get that done.

I will say the team who actually took care of me before, during, and after the colonoscopoy, were excellent. I especially liked the humour of the anaesthesiologist, Dr Haas. I did well with the sedation, and was able to walk out a few minutes after the procedure was finished. The practice is Saint Joseph Gastroenterology Associates. The doctor who did my scope was K. Susie Jennings Conklin. Everything was over within a short time, and I woke up, and it wasn't too long after that I was discharged and sent home.

Also I'd like to thank Brenda's husband, Mike, who took me there and back. She would have, then remembered her master gardener class, which she's quite excited about, and made arrangements for him to be my ride so I wouldn't have to reschedule. It's not everyone who will take a near stranger to something like this for about three hours (we were a little early). Fortunately he brought plenty of reading material. :)

So since I've been home, I've been reintroducing some food to my system and getting some rest. The first thing I had was applesauce. :) I worked up to some high fibre-cereal just now. I still want pizza. :)

Just in case you, too, have to go through a colonoscopy, and you're looking for things to help you with the preparation, here are the links that helped me:

1. I used diet tips from Todd’s Six-Day Colonoscopy Prep Guide [PDF] (but I used the MoviPrep as my doctor's directions said).
2. I followed a clear liquid diet on the day before the colonoscopy.
3. I felt better because of Dave Barry's column: Dave Barry: A journey into my colon -- and yours
4. And this was really great; it even shows you how well your'e doing with the prep by colour of what's being excreted, and provided a good general overview: Getting Ready for Your Colonoscopy: Once and Done [PDF]

I loaded up on liquid diet items a couple of days before, including Frost Gatorade that's white but cherry flavoured, apple juice, sugar-free Jello (I'm diabetic), sugar-free Popsicles, and some Diet Sprite (Sprite Zero) soda. According to my directions, you should avoid red, blue, and purple foods, so I just ate orange Jello and Popsicles, not the cherry, strawberry, and grape flavours. During Monday, a workday, I ate two Jello cups for breakfast and a small thing of apple juice from our cafeteria; same for lunch, and then that evening I ate some Jello a little before I started the prep. I never actually got into the Gatorade or apple juice at home. Be sure to get a Gatorade flavour that isn't red, blue, or purple if you plan on that. Orange juice isn't a clear liquid, either, nor is coffee or tea with cream. I just went ahead and went with clear soda without caffeine for the last 24 hours or so.

The way my prep worked was there was a 32-oz. container in which you mixed two powders together with water. Ideally, you then refrigerated that for several hours. But I didn't have that luxury with the first batch because I didn't get my prep and instructions till right before I had to start. The referigeration does help a bit, but I was able to get the stuff down even without that. I then drank four ounces every fifteen minutes for about an hour and a half. Nothing particularly happened for almost an hour, then about every 5-10 minutes I went to the bathroom. I had little cramping, and since I'd prepared by changing my diet several days ahead, never had to deal with much other than liquid, which eventually got to clear to a urine-like colour (which is good). About 10 pm I was actually able to go to bed, and only got up a couple of times that night with the urge to go. In the morning at six, I had to do the same thing again, not that there was much of anything inside by that time. Judging by the pictures they presented me of my colon, everything worked like a charm. I do remember lying in bed at 6:10 this morning going, oh, great, I have to start it all over again. But really, it wasn't that bad. I also discovered Popsicles can be an excellent reward. After the first bout was over, I had a couple of orange Popicles to celebrate and felt better for it.

Everything went well, but they did find a polyp, which they removed, and I should know in a week if there's any concern about that. The blood they found before was most likely from some internal haemorrhoids (I know, too much information, what can I say, it's the curse of being middle-aged and overweight), which I knew about, but there other than those two things, everything looked fine. I don't have any history of colon cancer in my family that I know of; I think they were surprised to find one, though, between that and the fact I'm not yet 50. So I may need to be screened more often. We'll see when I follow up on that.

So you now know about my colonoscopy experience, including more than you probably want to. I won't put pictures of my colon and rectum up online, at least. One of the nice things about this test is you know immediately how it went, whether they were good images, and what they found. They even give you a sheet with your happy colon pictures on them. I also got one of the polyp before that was removed, which I find a little odd, but it does support my love of stuff medical (hey, there are reasons I like being a medical librarian). :) But in all seriousness, please, if you've been putting it off, consider getting one. Even the prep for me went fairly smoothly. It is the worst part of the whole thing. You won't remember the procedure at all, quite likely. And it could save your life.