For the normal heathy person, age 50 is the target time to get your first colonoscopy, but since my Mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at age 50, her doctors recommended my brother and I begin the screening at age 40. It's really not that bad a deal at all, but I will still ask that you please pray for me on Wednesday at 8:00 am. Today is prep day... Operation: Clean Pipes!
However I did want to enjoy a "last supper" so around 10:30 pm last night, this is what I had on my plate. Lasagna, baked beans, Oreo ice cream and cool whip with pomegranate seeds (oops, my paperwork said no seeds, popcorn or nuts three days prior to the procedure).
Today's menu included the above items plus a few extras. Breakfast was Cranberry Sprite. Lunch was Ginger Ale to drink, beef bouillon as the main course, and peach jello for dessert. Dinner came the best part... Gatorade spiked with Miralax and an appetizer of Dulcolax pills. It really brought the Christmas spirit alive for me! Honestly, the prep would not be so bad if I had not had to feed five children meals and snacks all day. I would have paid big money to eat a graham cracker with strawberry icing today, but alas, I iced them and passed them on to one of the "starving" children in my house.
The paperwork from this gastroenterology office specified for a "split prep" procedure. That just means I drank 4 glasses of my spiked Gatorade, one every 30 minutes starting at 6:00 pm. And in 10 minutes (at 11:00 pm), I begin my first of 4 more glasses, one every 30 minutes, to finish off all 64 oz. of that massive bottle. Not sure why the separation in drinking sessions because for my other two colonoscopies, I was told to drink 8 oz. of prepared mixture every 30 minutes until it was all gone. I suppose they've become sympathetic to patients who said they didn't enjoy drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade in 4 hours!
The process is really not that bad, although every 5 years is probably often enough for my liking. One day of being uncomfortable and a few hours of laying your pride to the side (but you really don't even know what has gone on as the sedation is great!) are definitely worth having the peace of mind that you are good and healthy. I pray the worse case scenario is that the doctor finds some polyps which are removed at the same time. The really, really worse case scenario would be finding cancer. If that were to be the outcome, I pray to have the strength to praise God in the good times and the bad. The road to recovery my Mom traveled was horrible, but time passes quicker than we realize and I'm so thankful to still have her here 10 years later!! To be alive and watch my children grow is 100% worth starving myself and using the bathroom a lot in one day. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow sometime soon. Cheers!
The paperwork from this gastroenterology office specified for a "split prep" procedure. That just means I drank 4 glasses of my spiked Gatorade, one every 30 minutes starting at 6:00 pm. And in 10 minutes (at 11:00 pm), I begin my first of 4 more glasses, one every 30 minutes, to finish off all 64 oz. of that massive bottle. Not sure why the separation in drinking sessions because for my other two colonoscopies, I was told to drink 8 oz. of prepared mixture every 30 minutes until it was all gone. I suppose they've become sympathetic to patients who said they didn't enjoy drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade in 4 hours!
The process is really not that bad, although every 5 years is probably often enough for my liking. One day of being uncomfortable and a few hours of laying your pride to the side (but you really don't even know what has gone on as the sedation is great!) are definitely worth having the peace of mind that you are good and healthy. I pray the worse case scenario is that the doctor finds some polyps which are removed at the same time. The really, really worse case scenario would be finding cancer. If that were to be the outcome, I pray to have the strength to praise God in the good times and the bad. The road to recovery my Mom traveled was horrible, but time passes quicker than we realize and I'm so thankful to still have her here 10 years later!! To be alive and watch my children grow is 100% worth starving myself and using the bathroom a lot in one day. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow sometime soon. Cheers!
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