
03/20/2023
I Completed the First Colonoscopy—My Tips for You.
As a 49 year-old female and cancer survivor, I decided not to wait until age 50 to do the routine colon cancer screening. I also selected the ‘Gold Standard’ of screening colonoscopy. My procedure was Monday March 6. This is after being referred in August, waiting until January 12 for the Nursing Education Phone Call, receiving the preparation instructions by mail, and picking up “The Prep” at the pharmacy. If you want to see my specific prep instructions, please look in the comments section.
Comments or Tips on my experience are as follows:
1. I found it challenging to drink all the liquid in the recommended time frame, though I typically drink about 1.5 liters of water every day, in addition to my coffee and milk. You might consider upping your liquid intake for several days before drinking the prep as ‘training’.
2. The prep liquid tastes like a weakly salty/baking soda taste. The pharmacist did not include the flavor packet. I drank some plain and some with a bit of Crystal Light Lemonade mix.
3. Writing myself a ‘menu’ helped keep me on track, for example:
a. 9:00 a.m. Clear Liquids only
b. 2:00 p.m. Mix up Prep and store in fridge
c. 5:00- 6:30 p.m. drink 2.5 liters of prep
d. 6:00 p.m. Start Sh****ng (don’t plan to leave home or engage in any activity that cannot be rudely interrupted)
4. I looked forward to completing the screening as it is in my best health interest. I told myself to enjoy the fact that this ‘suffering’ has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. How often in life are we lucky enough to know there is an end to our suffering?
5. There were two worst parts for me: First was the initial onset of ‘s**tting’, though once the solid matter was out the ‘peeing out my butt’ was not an issue. Once the liquid coming out your backside is clear, you are ‘in the clear’. You will likely need to drink more prep during hours 5 to 4 prior to the procedure. Expect to see some morning ‘sediment’ in the bowel movement.
6. Once the BM liquid is clear the morning of the procedure, you can stop the prep. It is MORE IMPORTANT to have nothing by mouth at least 4 hours prior to the procedure than to finish the prep—you better be clear by then!
7. The surgery center staff were experts—so efficient. The sedation was quite enjoyable, I was out in about 3 minutes, woke up after 10 minutes in recovery room. I had a warm blanket and some juice, the RN allowed me to get dressed while my spouse drove around to pick me up. I went home and cozied down in my bed for several hours.
8. The second worst part for me was the abdominal tenderness the next day. I was told to expect this, and it only lasted about a day, my lower tummy felt tender, kind of like after stomach flu, but without the nausea and vomiting, and hey, I’d already completed the diarrhea part.
9. My colon had a single 10mm polyp which was removed during the colonoscopy. On biopsy it turned out to be a sessile serrated polyp that is precancerous but does not contain cancer. I will repeat the colonoscopy in 3 years.
Good luck to you on your colon cancer screening journey! I am happy to answer what questions I can for you, and likely your Primary Care Provider and Gastroenterologist can offer better answers more specific to your individual medical profile.