Documenting my Colonoscopy Prep Fun

Post Colonoscopy Results (blogish type thing)

I'm mostly just doing this thread for myself, but you're all free to follow along and give me advice The colonoscopy prep and colonoscopy is done, and I posted the results in my most recent post. I have a follow up appointment soonish and I'll be starting some sort of mesalamine type drug soon (doubt it'll work...been on it before). I know I preach the cannabis thing, but that's what kept me in remission for 4 years and I only started flaring again after I quit for a month. So it'll be cannabis, mesalamine and a carefully planned diet from now on. Thanks for reading :ycool:


Hello people :ybiggrin:

I've noticed a lot of new members constantly asking about colonoscopy prep, how bad it is, what to expect, etc....well, I have a colonoscopy Monday at 3 and I thought I'd document my experience.

This will be my fourth scope (i'm 22) and the experience gets easier every time. It was quite a bit for an 11 year old to handle (my first scope) but it's really not that bad. I'm actually looking forward to this colon cleanse since I've felt quite a bit plugged up lately!

Technically, I'm allowed to eat until Midnight, but all day today and Sunday I will be mostly sticking to liquids like water, broth, nestle boost drinks and things of that nature (Maybe a few pieces of toast for dinner if i'm starving). I just have an odd feeling that i'll need an extra day to clear out after pigging out on Thanksgiving :ybiggrin:

My directions for today:

-Drink at least 8 glasses of water (2 down already)
-Eat healthy meals (will be sticking to Boost drinks, broth and maybe some toast)
-No eating after midnight (that wont be a problem)

Tomorrow:

-I will prep my Golytely :dance: early to get it nice and cold...and i'll start chugging around 3pm (if college taught me anything, it's how to chug :cool2

-Only water and broth for me.

Alright, not sure if people are interested in this thread, but I will continue to update every few hours. Today will be uneventful (too many good football games) but tomorrow shall be fun. I will update until I get my results Monday afternoon (hopefully just some minor inflammation)

I hope somebody finds this useful/entertaining in some way :ysmile: Take it easy guys!......Go Ducks :ytongue:

Thank you for posting your prep blog - I am sure it will be very helpful. Thanks also for the cannabis patent link

I'll be reading, I was a complete and utter wuss doing my 2nd prep with fleet a few days ago!

You did good lsgs. You did good.

If you had to chug Klean Prep with 4-5 litres of water it might be a different story lol
The stuff is Rank Rotten!!!!

Alright guys, just mixed up my solution (golytely) about an hour ago. Chilling in the fridge right now! I will probably start drinking it around 3-4 pm....I have to drink half of it tonight and the other half tomorrow morning. Shouldn't be too bad.

Since I didn't eat anything solid yesterday I'm already starving! At this point it's mind over matter....I got some straight black coffee to perk me up and chicken broth to get me through the day. Procedure isn't till 3pm tomorrow....

I'll be back to update when I start drinking the prep. My plan is chug and then immediately grab the ginger ale

See you folks in a few hours....I'll be posting from the toilet :stinks:


edit: I think i'll take a video of me chugging the tasty golytely solution :ylol2: it's almost noon here and i'm STARVING! Mind over matter and soul before flesh...T Minus 3 hours till I begin consuming the salty solution. Making some chicken broth as I type.

T-Minus 30 minutes till ingestion of the salty concoction known as golytely....measured out 64 ounces of the stuff in bottles so I could put it in the freezer before I have to drink it (colder the better)

wooohooo

first 8 oz down....not so bad. I'll do another vid when I get to my 8th (and final) glass of the evening...

(vid removed)

edit 2: don't feel like re-posting, but glass 3 is about to go down. This stuff is nasty, but like I said I learned a few things in college, and 1 of them was chugging nasty iced beer. :ylol2: I feel my bowels churning already....

edit 3: 5 glasses down, 3 to go. Already almost clear....:dance:

edit 4: 6 glasses down, guess I wasn't clear yet lol

I can see the finish line....for tonight at least



Glass #7 in 10 minutes. I'm taking this like a champ....anything is better than Milwaukee's Best

edit: glass 7 done, 1 MORE TO GO :soledance:

Not sure if anybody is following along with this but here is glass #8 video

Don't mind the 'spillage' towards the end....i'm just glad it's over for tonight!

click for goofy vid



That's pretty much it for tonight....will report back tomorrow morning with more golytely chugging and tomorrow evening after my scope. Thanks for reading/watching :thumright:

Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. My symptoms aren't too bad so I think it's just a flare.

Hopefully you wont have to finish it and can avoid drinking more of it in the morning.

That's how I act before I have to chug it too. Lots of breathing and inner monologue about how you've got this man, its nothing!

I just can't wait to eat after the procedure....I am SO hungry

Hardly any calories today = one tired fullm3lt....

I'm about to pass out, I'll be back to update tomorrow before the procedure.

Oh man- I admire the fact you can take that stuff!

Last year in the hosp I learned you can throw up at the same time as drinking!!

Maybe I should have learned to drink when I was younger!


Good luck!

Lauren

Today is the day. Feeling a little anxious, but that's normal. They'll have good drugs waiting for me

I'm already going clear from what I can tell, but i'll drink a few more 8 oz glasses just for fun :rof:

Just got a call from my GI's office....somebody cancelled so I get to go an hour early That means I get to eat 1 hour earlier than before woohooooo....but I have to start drinking more golytely 1 hour earlier as well :rof:

Can't wait for this to be over, hoping for good results. Thought I was going "clear" last night but there was still brown coming out this morning (sorry if that's too graphic, but hey this is a crohns forum!)

edit:

Glass one about to go down the hatch....cheers!!


4 glasses in 40 minutes....i'm COLD :blush:

All done :biggrin:

I'm off to the doc, peace

I know this is already done but you don't actually need to be clear. I did citromag for my prep and it did absolutely nothing for me. I actually went even less than normal because I couldn't eat and didn't have anything to get rid of. My doctor told me as long as it wasn't solid than it's okay

tots said:

Last year in the hosp I learned you can throw up at the same time as drinking!!

Click to expand...

Been there! Also puked while sitting on the pot and no time to react. The wall was a lovely shade of whatever flavor gatorade I was drinking in between GoLytely chugs.

KWalker said:

I know this is already done but you don't actually need to be clear. I did citromag for my prep and it did absolutely nothing for me. I actually went even less than normal because I couldn't eat and didn't have anything to get rid of. My doctor told me as long as it wasn't solid than it's okay

Click to expand...

I learned this the hard way! I was clear last night, but more brown came out this morning so I just decided to drink it all (it wasn't so bad). They ended up just suctioning out the remaining mucus/other stuff before the procedure began....:ylol2:

Anyways, here is a word for word of my doctors "impressions"

"Erythematous, friable (with contact bleeding), hemorrhagic and inflamed mucosa in the rectum, sigmoid colon, descending colon, transverse colon and ascending colon. These were all biopsied. The examined portion of the ileum was normal. This was also biopsied."

"Appears to be consistent with Ulcerative Colitis." duh...I told him this several times but he didn't believe me for some reason.

"No polyps or scar tissue was present."

They gave me the fentanyl and propofol, and it did nothing. I told them this, but they decided to shove the scope in my a-hole anyways. I let out a few grunts, and they doubled the dose of fentanyl and propofol....still no relief. So I got to watch the entire procedure completely conscious and coherent. :rof: Really weird experience.

I still don't know what to make of the doctors "impressions" because my colon honestly didn't look THAT bad. Can any of you interpret what his quotes mean? AKA "Erythematous, friable (with contact bleeding), hemorrhagic and inflamed mucosa" My symptoms just don't seem that bad, yet he considered it to be "severe." I'm barely bleeding, I just have the big D and abdominal pains.

He recommended a mesalamine type drug (which I have tried before, didn't do much). I still blame this flare on halting my cannabis use for a month (cannabis is a great anti-inflammatory....) He told me that I could do that if I like, but I should try the mesalamine along with it. I figured what the heck, I'll give it a try. Prednisone is a LAST resort, remicade gives me anaphylaxis, flagyl sucks for me, and 6mp destroyed my immune system. I will probably drastically alter my diet as well since people on this forum seem to have success with that too.

So going forward, it'll be cannabis, mesalamine, and some sort of special diet (need to get advice on this).

Anyways, that was my day :lol:

edit:

wiki says "severe" is

Severe disease, correlates with more than six bloody stools a day or observable massive and significant bloody bowel movement, and evidence of toxicity as demonstrated by fever, tachycardia, anemia or an elevated ESR.

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I don't have six bloody stools...most days I don't even have one bloody stool. Just D. I'm not losing significant blood....no fever...no tachycardia...no anemia and my ESR was normal.

I will probably continue this thread just as a little blog type thing for me....others can follow along but it doesn't bother me if nobody else cares. I have a follow up appointment in two weeks, and I think he already called in my mesalamine prescription so I might start that tomorrow. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Just glad I didn't have any cancerous polyps.

Well I don't know much about what terms mean, my doctors always say I have severe crohns after my scopes yet my only symptom is diarrhea, and I'm not even on any medicine. Personally I think if it was severe I wouldn't be doing as well as I am without being on meds. I don't have any of those symptoms you've posted and I don't even know the last time I had a bloody stool.

Yeah, I'm not on any traditional western medications either....yet my doc classified my disease as "severe"


Guess I just need to wait and see. I'm just going to watch my diet and see what happens.

I know you take the MM but what else do you take for your crohns. I'm having a few small problems but I don't want go back on medicine unless its the absolute only solution.

I was diagnosed when I was two and when I had my scope last year and I asked the doctor how it was, his reply was "well, you definitely have crohns". Oh thanks, I thought it was going to majically disappear

KWalker said:

I know you take the MM but what else do you take for your crohns. I'm having a few small problems but I don't want go back on medicine unless its the absolute only solution.

I was diagnosed when I was two and when I had my scope last year and I asked the doctor how it was, his reply was "well, you definitely have crohns". Oh thanks, I thought it was going to majically disappear

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I use MM, that is true...my flare up started after I stopped using it for month, so I'm pretty sure there is a connection between MM and gut health. Plenty of scientific and anecdotal evidence out there to prove it.

I use other supplements, just multivitamins, omega 3, vitamin d3, vitamin c, vitamin b12....after my scope my doc told me I should consider mesalamine or prednisone, but I've been on both of them before and they don't help much. He knows about my MM use and he admits it is a great anti-inflammatory, but he can't prescribe it. Therefore the industry can't make any money, so he recommends expensive drugs that don't work.

I might try the mesalamine for a while just to entertain him, but I've been on these drugs before and they don't work like the MM does.

I exercise a lot, i'm trying to alter my diet to help with my symptoms....that's just about all I can do. Prednisone is a last resort for me because the side effects are terrible.....

Mind if I ask how old you are? Like I said, I'm currently med free also and I think one of my biggest concerns is that I'm only 22 so I'm essentially at the healthiest time of my life and I sometimes worry about the long term effects and how I'll be by age 40+ because I didn't take meds. I hate crohns meds. It's like we can do damage without, but I've definitely witnessed horror stories because of medicine as well.

I thought about trying MM, and still do but I have some very religious people within my family that would certainly let the stigma of marijuana get in the way of the differences/benefits from it being medical. I believe it's even legal where I am.

KWalker said:

Mind if I ask how old you are? Like I said, I'm currently med free also and I think one of my biggest concerns is that I'm only 22 so I'm essentially at the healthiest time of my life and I sometimes worry about the long term effects and how I'll be by age 40+ because I didn't take meds. I hate crohns meds. It's like we can do damage without, but I've definitely witnessed horror stories because of medicine as well.

I thought about trying MM, and still do but I have some very religious people within my family that would certainly let the stigma of marijuana get in the way of the differences/benefits from it being medical. I believe it's even legal where I am.

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I'm 22 as well. I hate the meds too, the side effects are just as bad as the disease....i've been on them all over the past 11 years.

I agree that there is a negative stigma with MM, and I have people in my own family that don't approve of my use, but I really don't care what they think. It worked for me...until I stopped. Just like any other medication. The scope I had before my most recent was pink and healthy after 3 months of MM use....so I just never stopped. I was in complete remission until I stopped using it. No symptoms whatsoever.

The doctors tell me "You may have been in remission, but you're just masking the disease." Well in my opinion, every medication is masking the symptoms of the disease....it's a lose lose situation. I'm open minded to anything that I haven't already tried, I might even ask my GI about low dose naltrexone...he'll probably say no, but I don't know what else to do besides what i've been doing for the past 4 years.

Yeah, you're right. While there's still no cure for crohns, even the best medication available is still just a band-aid that makes the disease. I kind of look at it like whether I go med free and have my only symptom of diarrhea (sorry lol) or somebody goes with medication, we both still have crohns.

I'm pretty uneducated about the medical marijuana thing. Do you personally smoke it? I think I would be more willing to try it if I could get it in like pill form or something like that so I'm not looked at as "smoking pot". Know what I mean? With pill form, it would just be like I'm taking my daily pills and that's it.

I want to ask my doctor about LDN as well and not sure how he'll react.

KWalker said:

Yeah, you're right. While there's still no cure for crohns, even the best medication available is still just a band-aid that makes the disease. I kind of look at it like whether I go med free and have my only symptom of diarrhea (sorry lol) or somebody goes with medication, we both still have crohns.

I'm pretty uneducated about the medical marijuana thing. Do you personally smoke it? I think I would be more willing to try it if I could get it in like pill form or something like that so I'm not looked at as "smoking pot". Know what I mean? With pill form, it would just be like I'm taking my daily pills and that's it.

I want to ask my doctor about LDN as well and not sure how he'll react.

Click to expand...

I vaporize, use tincture and hash oil pills. Tincture and hash oil pills are good for long lasting effects, but they take a while to kick in. Vaporizing is immediate relief, and it's basically just like inhaling water vapor. So the health risks are minimal. Psychological dependence is very possible, but I can tell you from experience that it is not physically addictive.

I get what you mean about the "smoking" stigma....Not going to lie, I did smoke it for a year or two with no negative effects but then I invested in a vaporizer because my naturopath recommended it. The hash oil pills I take are just one little drop of oil in a capsule...and I get all day relief.

The only side effect is the "high" which can be a little bit unpleasant at first. Once tolerance builds, your body becomes accustomed to the feeling. THC is a great anti inflammatory, but the psychoactive effects can be uncomfortable for some people. CBD is another great anti inflammatory without the psychoactive effects that THC offers. Unfortunately, it's difficult to isolate CBD. Most strains are bred to be high in THC...although as of late more breeders have been creating strains with 1:1 ratios of THC to CBD. I've been using a 2:1 THC:CBD oil for a while, and it is very effective at reducing my D and abdominal cramping.

Israel has even bred a strain with no THC....just CBD. I wish I could get my hands on it. I hate being "high" but the intestinal relief is totally worth it for me. I am in a legal MM state and can grow my own medicine....I am going to be trying high cbd strains like Cannatonic and Harlequin since I don't care about THC. Here is a bit about the Israel "THC-less" cannabis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/israel-highless-marijuana_n_1645488.html

SAFED, Israel (Reuters) - They grow in a secret location in northern Israel. A tall fence, security cameras and an armed guard protect them from criminals. A hint of their sweet-scented blossom carries in the air: rows and rows of cannabis plants, as far as the eye can see.

It is here, at a medical marijuana plantation atop the hills of the Galilee, where researchers say they have developed marijuana that can be used to ease the symptoms of some ailments without getting patients high.

"Sometimes the high is not always what they need. Sometimes it is an unwanted side effect. For some of the people it's not even pleasant," said Zack Klein, head of development at Tikun Olam, the company that developed the plant.

Cannabis has more than 60 constituents called cannabinoids. THC is perhaps the best known of those, less so for its medical benefits and more for its psychoactive properties that give people a "high" feeling.

But cannabis also contains Cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance that some researchers say has anti-inflammatory benefits. Unlike THC, it hardly binds to the brain's receptors and can therefore work without getting patients stoned.

"CBD plants are available in different forms all over the world," said Klein, adding that the company's plant is free of THC and very high in CBD.

Tikun Olam began its research on CBD enhanced cannabis in 2009 and about six months ago they came up with Avidekel, Klein said, a cannabis strain that contains 15.8 percent CBD and only traces of THC, less than one percent.

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I hope you guys feel better soon- to young to be sick and deal with this stuff!!

I was "un medicated" for about ten years- I dont think I will do that again! I am still dealing with my worst flare up so far.

Lauren

tots said:

I hope you guys feel better soon- to young to be sick and deal with this stuff!!

I was "un medicated" for about ten years- I dont think I will do that again! I am still dealing with my worst flare up so far.

Lauren

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Thanks Lauren :ysmile:

I hope to feel better too, but to be honest, this is probably my least painful/symptomatic flare to date. It's still very uncomfortable, but maybe I'm just more tolerant to pain now. With recent continuation of MM I'm having 4-5 BM's per day with no blood...just mild abdominal discomfort and the big D

I have a follow up with my GI soon to discuss options....I sent him my medical records from my pediatric GI (had no GI from age 18-22) to show that I've been on almost every medication to no avail till I tried MM. I plan to ask about other options that I have not tried, such as LDN, but I know most docs aren't too keen on that treatment option. I also plan to talk to him about some sort of diet, but I don't know how knowledgeable he is on the subject. I've learned more about diet on this forum than I have from any doctor.

I'm also seeing a Rheumatologist soon, this flare is more pain related than gut related (My disease is active though...), although I don't know what a Rheumy would do besides prescribe pain medication (joint/costochondritis pain for me is 6-7 on a 1-10 scale...)

I know I sound like a broken record, but I firmly believe in the healing properties of MM. It may mask the symptoms, but there is also evidence out there that concludes it may promote regeneration of healthy gut lining.

At this point I'm just taking it one day at a time. I feel 10x better since starting my MM regimen, but the symptoms are still there, although they are dissipating slowly. Like I said, my doc classified my disease as "severe" although my symptoms don't match that....I personally saw my entire colonoscopy and it just looked like mild inflammation. No polyps...no scar tissue (yet)...just inflammation and very minor bleeding.

Sorry for rambling on, thanks for listening guys/gals. This forum is good therapy

blue krinkle, dynamite kush ,and trainwreck kush, and purple kush and granddaddy purple are good for rebuilding your gut tissue, and helping with those nasty cramps and pain too. but i would recommend hashoil, or making a tincture with coconut oil. or with bubble hash. it will help you eat. and id reccommend eating gluten free and vegan. and taking hemp protein powder for the constipation from the health food store. got another colonoscopy tmrw . just took kleen prep. and ive got a hiatial hernia and a inguinal hernia and an incisional hernia. Also ppi's pills along with antibiotics and NSAIDs pills for arthritis have caused more than half of my problems. and pantoloc and nexium is known to cause gastric cancer, after you stoptaking it. if you were taking it for long term, (a year or more.) Peace and Cannabis. and hope yall feeling better.