Colonoscopy Tips

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:

  1. 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.
  2. If you have periods, try to set the date of the procedure the week after your period. Period poops make for great pre-prep!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Avoid red meat and heavy foods for a couple weeks before the procedure (I think this was in the instructions, so pretty basic).
  7. 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.
Continue reading “Colonoscopy Tips”

Thoughts on Buying a Used SUV + Tips and Resources

Recently my Subaru Forester bit the dust (head gasket failure at 270k miles) and I embarked on a quest of car shopping. I wanted a small SUV-type vehicle that I could lay the back seats down and sleep in if need be and would be large enough to move small furniture. I did a ton of research and watched a lot of Scotty Kilmer on YouTube. I want to condense down some things I learned so that I can remember it in the future (and maybe it will be of use to you, dear reader?).

Disclaimer: I’m not a mechanic or engineer, just a random consumer, so don’t take these opinions too seriously

SUBARU

My mechanic told me not to get another Subaru because they aren’t reliable… he suggested sticking with Toyota or Honda (or their luxury makes, Lexus and Acura). Scotty Kilmer said the same thing about Subaru. U.S. News tends to rank Subarus pretty low in reliability, but Repairpal ranks them a bit higher. U.S. News’s rankings are based on repairs and problems for the first three years, while Repairpal is over the lifetime of the car. The feeling I get after reading and watching a lot of information is that Subarus can last a long time but they may need pricy repairs as they age. On the plus side, they’re extremely safe, pleasant to drive, decent on gas mileage, and great for dogs or camping.

Crosstreks and Outbacks drive pretty smoothly, but after owning a Forester for five years I can tell you that Foresters can be really bumpy on the highway. I tested a 2017 Forester and was dismayed to find that they haven’t fixed the rattling issue that my 2007 had at highway speed (it’s a loud shaking/rattling on the right side—not sure if it’s wind noise or loose window flaps). The all-wheel-drive is fun in town or on country roads but can be rough on uneven highway pavement. The Forester has unparalleled sure-footedness and visibility, though, and I really enjoyed the 2017’s sound system.

I saw Scotty say something about Subarus needing parts that only dealers can supply… perhaps the reason some mechanics give Subarus (and other brands with exclusive serviceability) such a bad rap is that for certain makes or repairs they can’t get those customers’ business.

CHEVROLET

I also looked at the 2019 Chevrolet Equinox and loved the size and gas mileage (32 mpg, similar to the Subarus). U.S. News rated the Equinox a 5/5 for reliability, but Repairpal rated it a 3.5/5. Looking at NHSTA, though, I noticed a couple reports of people losing steering due to the turbo hose popping off, often multiple times for the same car, which made me hesitate, and someone else bought the car before I could do a test drive. I’m still not sure if GMs can be reliable… let me know what you think, especially if you own an Equinox!

Continue reading “Thoughts on Buying a Used SUV + Tips and Resources”

March Writing Fail

So… writing in March didn’t exactly go as planned. I kinda got busy and completely forgot about it. I did do some other writing for ExploreLivermore and I managed to finish my So Rich, So Poor review, but fiction writing kinda didn’t happen. Happy distractions abounded, from Daniel’s birthday, my mom coming to visit, and we moved our new cat into my room (bad idea as far as productivity was concerned – hard to write when you’re being headbutted, kneaded, and having your keyboard walked on).

onika
“Why isn’t she petting me???”

Besides the external reasons, there were internal ones as well. For the last three months, I was setting a daily wordcount goal and more-or-less hitting it, but the lack of direction and goals was demotivating and trying to come up with new ideas every time I sat down to write became exhausting. Continue reading “March Writing Fail”

Ars longa, Vita Brevis: NaNoWriMo 2016

I did NaNoWriMo this year!

nano-wordcount-tool-screenshot

Well, I participated, at least… I didn’t get to the 50,000 word mark but I did get 10,000 words down. I started off really strong the first day, slowed down on day 2, and then got bogged down for two weeks with Comp Sci homework (and then dropped that class) and the shitstorm that was the 2016 election (spent the 8th working the polls). Realized about halfway through the month I should get back to work and wrote a bit more… then every couple of days I wrote a bit and then made a break for 10,000 at the very end. Well, now I know exactly how bad my work habits are…

Even though my totals weren’t that impressive I’m proud of myself for not giving up. I tried to do NaNoWriMo a couple of times in high school, but I never got very far. There were a couple of things I kept in my metaphorical “backback” this year to help me get through the NaNo journey: Continue reading “Ars longa, Vita Brevis: NaNoWriMo 2016”

Trich Tips (BFRB week, pictures)

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It’s the very end (actually the last two hours) of BFRB week. For those of you that don’t know, BFRB stands for Bodily Focused Repetitive Behavior. BFRBs include trichotillomania, an issue that I’ve struggled with since I was about seven years old. Trichotillomania is a condition of unknown origin (not sure if physical or psychological) which causes a person to pull out strands of hair.

The first time I remember pulling was when we were in a hotel room after just moving to Mobile, Alabama. We were looking for a house and I was bored so I was jumping on the bed a lot and generally misbehaving and getting scolded frequently. I remember looking in the mirror – I think I might have had something stuck in my eye – and pulling out a hair. Then I pulled out more hairs “to see what would happen”. I don’t know what I expected to happen. No magical portal to another realm appeared, and I wasn’t imparted with any kind of arcane knowledge. What did appear was a small gap in my eyelashes. Continue reading “Trich Tips (BFRB week, pictures)”

Weekly Update #3

Again, not much done this week because of wedding planning and job stress. ^^;

However, I got through 3 chapters of A History of Western Philosophy:

  1. The Rise of Science
  2. Francis Bacon
  3. Hobbes’s Leviathan

(and a little bit into Descartes but I’ll leave that for next time…)

“The Rise of Science” summarizes the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. It talks about how Protestantism led the way for the rise of science because it broke up of the Roman Church into national churches, which weakened the Church so it was less able to suppress science. Continue reading “Weekly Update #3”