I recently got a colonoscopy because I have a family history of colon cancer and I’m having some recurrent upper left abdominal pain, chronic constipation, and minor rectal bleeding. It went pretty well (Excellent prep and no polyps! Just internal hemorrhoids. >.>;;).
I’d like to talk about my experience and share some tips, both for myself in the future and for anyone else who might be getting a colonoscopy. I had a lot of anxiety about the prep and procedure beforehand. I was worried the scope would be too big since I’m a smaller person, but learning that they do colonoscopies on children helped with that. I was also worried that it would hurt or feel weird, but I saw someone on a forum say that they don’t remember anything after getting the anesthetic and that helped me be more calm about it. Besides that, there were a couple of things the instructions I received weren’t that clear about, so I thought I would write a guide to clear up some of the less obvious stuff.
This is from a patient’s perspective; I have no medical training. Read all the prep instructions very carefully and if you’re not sure of anything, ask your doctor.
Planning:
- Ask your doctor what other options you have besides colonoscopy. FIT test is when they take a whole-bm stool sample and look for a certain type of blood can that be indicative of cancer. FIT test may be sufficient to check for colon cancer if you are over 50 and have no symptoms. Sigmoidoscopy is when the scope only goes through the bottom-left part of the colon. It also allows the scope to view up the left side of the colon. For sigmoidoscopy, you don’t have to drink a lot of liquid, but you do have to fast the day before, take a laxative the night before, and do 2 enemas in the morning. Sigmoidoscopy often doesn’t require pain meds or sedation and carries less risk of perforation, but you may have to prep again and do a full colonoscopy if the test detects something abnormal. CT or MRI scans may also aid in diagnosis. CT scans use a fair bit of radiation but they only take about fifteen minutes and are cheaper than MRI. MRI can take up to an hour and is a bit more expensive, but it doesn’t expose you to radiation.
- If you have periods, try to set the date of the procedure the week after your period. Period poops make for great pre-prep!
- I did it in December, but if I were to do it again I would do it in a warmer season because fasting, being up all night, and wearing a hospital gown are all more uncomfortable in cold weather.
- If you’re prone to constipation like I am, take Miralax in an electrolyte drink every day in the weeks leading up to the procedure. I’ve never had Miralax on its own work for me, but I got curious when I saw the prep involved Miralax + electrolytes, so I tried it in an electrolyte drink, and it actually worked! When the physician’s assistant (PA) told me to take it every day, I was worried it would give me too much diarrhea, but it really wasn’t bad… Miralax doesn’t give you the urgency of stimulant laxatives like senna or Dulcolax, so I found I could mostly go out and do my normal activities on it.
- Drink a lot of fluids. If you’re not in the habit of counting 64 ounces a day, now would be a good time to start. The cups I use hold about ten ounces of water, so 64 ounces is about 6 glasses for me (a standard measuring cup is 8 ounces). I like to use a tally counter in my pantry to keep track at home, and ranger beads if I’m on the go.
- Avoid red meat and heavy foods for a couple weeks before the procedure (I think this was in the instructions, so pretty basic).
- Ask your doctor what kind of anesthetic they’ll use during the procedure. I was worried about getting fentanyl because my dad had a horrible reaction to it, but I didn’t know that was what they were going to use until the day of, so we didn’t really have time to discuss alternatives. Luckily I didn’t have a reaction to it (they gave me Benadryl and that may have helped), but I wish I had discussed with my doctor what drugs they were going to use in advance.