question about annual colonoscopy

fandaj
fandaj Member Posts: 81
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My annual colonoscopy is in 2 weeks. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the stuff you have to drink more palatable. Just thinking about it makes me gag. I wish you all a very nice Thanksgiving tomorrow. Regards, Arlene

Comments

  • tkd3g
    tkd3g Member Posts: 767
    #2
    Hi Arlene.

    Just reading your post, I can taste that stuff. Are you downing the small 1.5 oz doses? That is what I take.

    Here's what I do. It still tastes terrible, but it gets down.I take one of those sport water bottles, the ones with a squirt top. I empty it out and transfer the prep into the bottle. Now, sometimes I add a very very small amount of something. Apple juice, lemon juice, and sometimes an extract of some sort. ( peppermint, or lemon: although, I don't really know if that's "allowed" during the prep.)

    So, then I get an apple juice chaser. A large chaser...like 12 ounces or so.

    I stand next to my sink, build up lots of courage, and shoot the prep ( in the sport bottle) down as fast as I can take it, then immediately chase it down with apple juice.

    Then I do a little shiver/shake dance as I finish.

    Oh man, that is so gross. You'd think in this day and age, they could make a decent tasting prep.

    Best of luck to you. My next one isn't till June!

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and all my friends.

    Love,

    Barb
  • jsabol
    jsabol Member Posts: 1,145 Member
    #3
    Hi Arlene, I just completed my annual colonoscopy last week, and boy can I relate. The small dose phospha soda stuff tastes pretty awful. Some people have found that drinking it in one big slurp through a straw helps. My GI docs office also recommended a special compounding pharmacy, that makes the stuff into flavors, like pina coloda or cola BUT it's not only the taste, but the solution just doesn't agree with me. After a while, I just start puking and puking. The Go Lightly stuff was worse; I puked foam through my nose with that stuff. Nice.
    Sooooo, after a consultation and discussion with my doc, I went back to the old fashioned Citrate of Magnesia prep that was used years ago, and that I had successfully done for other unrelated surgery prep a long time ago. The citrate prep is not as "powerful", which does not clean out some folks, but I eat lightly the day before the prep as well as the day of the prep, and this is the second time it has worked fine for me.
    There are also Visicol pills, but my doc and I think there is something about the sodium or phospha based preps that I can't take, so I didn't even try those.
    Good luck; you'd think with all the advances in medical science, there would be some better choices. (I can't drink the barium sulfate medium for CT scans either; but there is an alternate solution for that, too, thank goodness) Good luck, Judy
  • fandaj
    fandaj Member Posts: 81
    #4
    jsabol said:

    Hi Arlene, I just completed my annual colonoscopy last week, and boy can I relate. The small dose phospha soda stuff tastes pretty awful. Some people have found that drinking it in one big slurp through a straw helps. My GI docs office also recommended a special compounding pharmacy, that makes the stuff into flavors, like pina coloda or cola BUT it's not only the taste, but the solution just doesn't agree with me. After a while, I just start puking and puking. The Go Lightly stuff was worse; I puked foam through my nose with that stuff. Nice.
    Sooooo, after a consultation and discussion with my doc, I went back to the old fashioned Citrate of Magnesia prep that was used years ago, and that I had successfully done for other unrelated surgery prep a long time ago. The citrate prep is not as "powerful", which does not clean out some folks, but I eat lightly the day before the prep as well as the day of the prep, and this is the second time it has worked fine for me.
    There are also Visicol pills, but my doc and I think there is something about the sodium or phospha based preps that I can't take, so I didn't even try those.
    Good luck; you'd think with all the advances in medical science, there would be some better choices. (I can't drink the barium sulfate medium for CT scans either; but there is an alternate solution for that, too, thank goodness) Good luck, Judy

    Hi Judy, thanks for your reply. My dr. prescribed compazine for nausea and vomiting and I have never had any problem other than getting the prep down. Maybe that might help you. Regards, Arlene
  • chynabear
    chynabear Member Posts: 481 Member
    #5
    fandaj said:

    Hi Judy, thanks for your reply. My dr. prescribed compazine for nausea and vomiting and I have never had any problem other than getting the prep down. Maybe that might help you. Regards, Arlene

    *groans* I'm coming up (actually passed) my one year scope.

    Last year, the pharmasist recommended adding crystal Lite to the mix. It seemed to work... except by the end of it I was gagging again and I don't think I can ever drink Crystal Lite again.

    Might be a suggestion, though. I would ask the pharmasist if there is anything they can do.
  • fandaj
    fandaj Member Posts: 81
    #6
    chynabear said:

    *groans* I'm coming up (actually passed) my one year scope.

    Last year, the pharmasist recommended adding crystal Lite to the mix. It seemed to work... except by the end of it I was gagging again and I don't think I can ever drink Crystal Lite again.

    Might be a suggestion, though. I would ask the pharmasist if there is anything they can do.

    Thanks for your advice. However, it seems that most people say whatever they drink to try to kill the taste, they can never drink it again. Maybe if i just hold my nose??? Regards, Arlene

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