Colonoscopy prep

I will be having a colonoscopy tomorrow. If you’ve ever had one, you know what “colon prep” means in that context. Here’s a hint: It is not fun. Yes, the rest might be TMI.

If you read that link on the prep, you learned that there are now various methods of achieving the desired result. The one I will be using (beginning at 6:00 pm) is called GaviLyte. I will be drinking a gallon of that mixture. 96 ounces have to be drunk between 6pm and 9pm tonight. The remaining 32 ounces are to be drunk between 6am and 7am tomorrow morning. There are also a couple of tablets to take at 4pm this evening as a prelude to the liquid fun. They are a stimulant laxative called bisacodyl.

The last time I did this, I think they just gave me tablets (much higher dose). It’s been years, and my memory is fuzzy on that detail. The one thing I clearly remember is how hard it was to drink a gallon of prep mixture the last time I did that. That time I had to drink it all in like four hours.

Another fun detail is you can have no solid food either the day before the procedure, or before the procedure on the day of. My procedure is at noon tomorrow. Today, I am drinking broth and fruit juices, and have made some flavored gelatin for later. My stomach is already rebelling against “no solid food,” and it’s only 1pm. Remember, my procedure is noon tomorrow. I don’t live alone, so there will be, at a minimum, dinner I will smell, and not eat. The price we pay.

If you aren’t aware, colon cancer took my mother in 2002. She was 62. I’m now 66, so I have already beaten the odds, so to speak. That said, I haven’t been able to get a colonoscopy performed in several years because of a lack of medical insurance. These things are not doable out-of-pocket for ordinary lower to middle class folks. So you pray, and maybe get the occasional fecal occult blood test. But with a family history, particularly first degree family, that’s really not enough. I should have been having this done every two years or so. I just couldn’t afford it, for about the last eight years.

So I endure the prep, and I hope for the best when the results come out. And just to be clear, I am incredibly anxious about this. Maybe you could tell? I don’t have any noticeable symptoms, and that is a very good sign. But my mother had a two pound tumor before she was even diagnosed. Obviously, she had been ignoring symptoms before that, likely for quite a long time.

I know, I’ve dumped a lot of information on you, dear reader. It’s what people like me tend to do when we are anxious or stressed. There’s even a name for it in the autistic community. It’s called “infodumping.” Creative, eh?

The journey continues.

Tags: Actually Autistic, Colon Cancer, colonoscopy, spoonie