Re: Colonoscopy question-what happened

[Guest guest]

Thank you Joanne, Liz and Meghan,

After hearing Joanne's story, I decided it was wiser to go to the

hotel the night before, and I'm glad I did, because the same happened

to me. Liz's prep sounds much smarter, using laxatives before mag

citrate. I think that would have made it go more quickly. My

instructions were 1 1/2 bottles (10 oz each) Mag Citrate at 5 pm, at

least 3 x 8 oz. clear liquids in the next 3 hours, and another 1 1/2

bottles at 10 pm. I can't say which I hate more, the phosphosoda or

the mag citrate. NOTHING happened until 2:45 am. By 7:30, I was

nowhere near done for the 9am appointment, and still going every 20-30

min- would have made it a LOOONG drive. The doc took others before me,

but even then the prep wasn't complete, although it was good enough

for him to go ahead. He said we are NOT using that again, but that

they don't use phosphosoda because there are rare kidney

complications. So in future I will have to probably take laxatives and

start earlier, but I'm not doing the gallon- never again. Fun, eh? It

all looked good, no obvious colitis, no polyps this time. I am running

a low fever but they said it's not an issue till it's over 101. Last

year I was hospitalized after the colonoscopy for a higher fever, due

to a reaction to the cauterization of a polyp rather than infection.

FYI, I told them I get nauseated after every ERCP and many

colonoscopies. So this time they gave me Zofran first, then Fentanyl

and Versed. No nausea, which was great for a change, but I slept most

of the way home. We had agreed to stop at the Bridge of Flowers, a

beautiful war memorial garden on a disused trolley bridge over the

Deerfield River in Shelburne Falls, MA. My husband, thinking I was

sleeping, passed it, but turned around when I woke up and started

looking tearful. I try to be a big girl but when the rest of the

family gets treats like going to our old favorite restaurants in

Boston, while I drink nasty stuff, I get a bit wistful.

[Guest guest]

Martha -

Congratulations on a clean colon (although it sounds like it was

definitely not an easy day for you!). I'm so glad you didn't have to

worry about the long drive!

Hope all settles down this week, as you get ready for school, work, etc!

Take care.

Joanne H

(, Ca, mom of , 17, UC/PSC 2-06)

It all looked good, no obvious colitis, no polyps this time.