colonoscopies…

In my experience, when chronic illness bloggers disappear for long periods of time, it’s usually for one of two reasons: either 1) their health declined, and they don’t have the energy to keep up with the blog, or 2) things have improved, and they’re out living their life with less time to devote to the blog. Fortunately, in my case, it’s the latter.

Quick Updates

As you might remember, my elderly father-in-law was living with us and required a lot of time and energy. A LOT. In some ways, caring for elderly parents is a beautiful gift we can give them. But our situation wasn’t safe. We have stairs, and bedrooms are on the 2nd floor. My father-in-law didn’t drive and couldn’t be left alone for long, and that meant husband and I literally never got time alone together. Our frustration culminated in December 2023 when my husband and I had a trip planned and my FIL had agreed to go stay with his other son one hour north. Suddenly, the day before our trip, he refused to go to my brother-in-law’s house. I still went on the trip, but we had to cancel my husband’s ticket so he could stay home with his dad. It did pretty awful things to our marriage, and for a time, we were on rocky ground.

Because it wasn’t safe for him in our house, we were eventually able to convince my FIL that a senior community would be the best option. That was a hard battle that we fought for many, many months. Fortunately, he found a community he liked, and a year ago he moved out. Husband and I now get to be alone together without his parents for the first time in 10 years. It saved our marriage. It’s like we’re newlyweds again.

With the significant reduction in stress, my POTS, small fiber neuropathy, and other illnesses have  improved. I can provide more updates on that in a separate post, because this one has a particular focus. With my chronic illnesses somewhat controlled, I have been trying to focus on other health maintenance that I disregarded while we only focused on my father-in-law’s well-being – things like mammograms, pain management, nutrition, strength, and the shit brain and heart genetics that I inherited. And a colonoscopy.

Colonoscopies

I had my first colonoscopy about 20 years ago during a time where I was experiencing regular abdominal pain and vomiting daily. The colonoscopy came back clean but I was eventually diagnosed with esophageal ulcers and a mild form of gastroparesis. With the higher prevalence of colon cancer starting at a younger age, colon cancer screening is now recommended starting in your mid-40s, which meant I was due.

Since many of my friends (both POTSies and non-POTSies alike) will also need to have colonoscopies in the coming years, I thought I’d share all of the shit (haha) on colonoscopies. Apologies in advance, because this could get graphic.

The Prep

Everyone says the prep is the worst, and it’s true. It’s awful. No one wants to spend an entire day pooping. For my 2005 colonoscopy, I had to drink the gallon of liquid all over a period of several hours. If I remember correctly, I had to drink 1 8oz cup every 15 minutes for 4 hours. You could choose different flavors for the prep, and I chose lemon-lime because I heard it was the least awful. Keeping it cold and using a straw helped, but you can’t completely undo that level of grossness. I was allowed to suck on hard candy that wasn’t red in color, so I had jolly ranchers in my mouth nearly at all times while drinking the prep so I would have something to drown out the flavor of the prep. That helped a lot.

For this 2025 colonoscopy, I was given a bottle of solution that I had to mix to make 16 oz of liquid and had to drink that in the afternoon before my procedure and again the next morning before my procedure. Only a total of 32oz of prep liquid, but had to follow that will clear liquids of my choice (nothing red, since it can look like blood on a scope). The taste of the prep liquid was still awful, but with only 16 oz per day, it was easy to gulp most of it down before the taste even hit my tongue.

All afternoon the day before the procedure I drank orange gatorade, coconut water, apple juice, ginger ale, and lots and lots of water. It took about an hour for things to start moving, but once they do, you want to be near a bathroom. I’m fortunate that we have a guest room with an en suite bathroom, so I set up camp in there. Brought some books, my iPad to watch movies, and just hung out.

I was told not to eat anything that day, and I expected that to be the hardest part. Your girl likes to eat, and eat regularly. How I don’t weigh 200 pounds is still a mystery. And while I was starving around 4:00 p.m. when I started the prep, I quickly lost my appetite. That much liquids will make you feel full. That, and it’s hard to focus on food with all of the pooping. I did have a little bit of jello (again, nothing red).

On the morning of the procedure, I set an alarm for 4:00 a.m. to finish drinking the second half of the prep. Same strategy as the prior afternoon – gulp down the 16 oz as quickly as possible, followed by lots of clear liquids.

The Procedure

I had to arrive an hour before the procedure with a designated driver. From there, it was a lot of sitting around and waiting. For my 2005 procedure, I was sedated but awake for the entire procedure. I remember watching on a tv screen while they scoped out my colon and thinking I had a pretty awesome bowel. For the 2025 colonoscopy, I was OUT. I have no recollection of any of it. They wheeled my bed into the procedure room, hooked up the IV, and that was the last thing I remember.

The Results

The doctor found 3 polyps during the procedure, and all were removed. They sent all three off to the lab for testing. One came back as a noncancerous polyp, the other two were precancerous adenomas which, from what I understand, is not uncommon at my age. Since all were removed, there’s no reason for concern, and I’ll go back for another one in 5 years.

Suggestions

Since I have now done this twice, I have a few tips to share. Hopefully these are helpful.

• When scheduling your procedure, don’t just look at that day on your calendar, look at the day prior as well to see what you have planned. I scheduled mine on a Monday so I could complete the prep on a Sunday. I’m pretty sure my coworkers appreciated that I wasn’t taking calls from the bathroom.
• My doctor also highly recommended that I take 2 Gas-X pills with the afternoon prep and 2 the next morning with the prep. I was not told that before the 2005 procedure, and that was a noticeable difference for 2025. It made things much less….explosive, if you will. I highly recommend taking Gas-X with the liquid (obv, talk to your doctor to make sure that doesn’t conflict with any other meds you’re taking).
• My doctor also recommended putting a little Vaseline on the button hole before I started needing to use the bathroom to keep it from getting too raw. I also bought flushable wipes for the same reason. I didn’t really felt like I needed them, but was glad I had them.
• I didn’t think about this for either of my procedure, but by cleaning out your colon, you may lose some of that good bacteria. Ask your doctor if you should take probiotics in the days after the procedure.
• This one is specific to POTS, but may be helpful for others as well: you drink a lot of fluids, but you lose a lot, too. Make sure you’re getting enough sodium, whether through electrolyte drinks or salt pills. The dehydration was the worst part for me. I a recent visit with my cardiologist (separate issue, more on that some other time), she told me about hydration patches. They’re targeted to hungover college kids, but could be useful for POTS. I have not tried them yet, and therefore cannot endorse them, but might be worth discussing with your doctor.

One last word of warning: I expected things to return to normal, bathroom-wise, after the procedure was finished. They didn’t. There isn’t the urgency need like when you’re undergoing the prep, but it took 1-2 days for a normal solid poop.

Schedule Your Colonoscopy

If you’re at that age or have been experiencing unusual bowel symptoms, please talk to your doctor about scheduling a colonoscopy. It sucks, but if you have a clean colon, you only have to do it every 10 years. If caught early, colon cancer can often be treated successfully. But the best way to catch it early enough is deal with it and do the shit. Haha.

You’re important to me, and I and everyone else who loves you would kinda like for you to be around for a while.

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. – C.S. Lewis

Smell ya later.
– Linds