My philosophy has always been, if it's not broken don't fix it or if you are not having a problem, don't go looking for one. The following procedure I did finally for my husband who has been bugging me to do this ever since I turned fifty (so many years ago).
I am usually a rule follower. But this particular morning (Friday) of last week, I broke that tradition and I refused to finish this extremely nasty concoction in prep for my very first (and only) colonoscopy.
Nothing but liquids the day before the procedure.
Then, 8 PM dose number # 1 of what I call THE POISON.
Gag. Burp. Yuck. Eww. Blah.
I barely got it down. But when I did, I felt as though it would not stay there. After it settled, I started drinking the fluids. 40 oz to be exact. Then I waited.
All HECK broke loose about two hours later and I felt as though a bomb exploded inside of me. It was not a pretty sight.
No sleep was expected that night so you can imagine my delight to have nodded off for a good 45 minutes before urgency sent me flying to the john in those wee hours of the morning on Friday.
4 AM came. I stared at the cup. Part two of the prep. The 5 ounces of POISON. I sipped. I gagged. I chocked down another swallow. I sipped some more.
I had heard that the prep was the worse part. My doctor said it was a piece of cake, not to worry. This, why I do not totally trust doctors.
I took another sip. My stomach began to churn and bubble up. I concluded that I was not going to be able to do this. At that point I thought maybe I'd do what I refused to do earlier. I googled.
"Don't take the stuff!" "It made me violently ill!" "I was sick for days..." and the negative comments went on and on.
But still. I had 4 oz left that I must finish and I better hurry because by 5 AM I needed to be finished the POISON and 24 oz more of water!
I felt like such a failure. I wasn't even able to finish half. I decided I'd call the surge center in the morning and let them know I just couldn't do it. It seemed a shame since I was more than half way there.
No worries. I guess I was prepped enough, which made me think... the second dose of that POISON was over-kill... and speaking of kill, I thought I'd die if I had to drink one more drop.
At 8 AM the nurse blew a vein and tried again to get the needle in my hand to hook me up to the IV. Finally success. A talk with anistheseology and a brief waiting period and before you know it the team of nurses were telling me to roll onto my side and then everything faded.
I opened my eyes to good news. I passed the test. I was barely able to stand to dress but they shipped me out the door and I was soon home and the nightmare was behind me.
No nightmares for me. Only sweet sleep. Gracie.
