I fail remedial colonoscopy prep

[pameladean]

ETA: All right, we seem to have dodged that bullet. I am going to bed, and some of you probably should as well. Thanks for the company.




You may all laugh now. I actually let HCMC talk me into trying the same prep again, only they added an anti-nausea drug to help me get the vile electrolyte fluid down. I changed pharmacies for the prescriptions so that I could be sure of getting the flavor packets, too, since I knew that that taste of the unflavored stuff would do me in at once.

The anti-nausea drug worked for two liters' worth and then wore off in a flash. The flavor packets were vile, but did taste different. However, I stuck at two liters. I could not do more. I decided I'd just keep to the regimen of clear liquids for the rest of the day, take the laxative tablets at the proper time, drink lots of fluids, and see if they thought I was well enough prepared for the procedure.

Right on schedule at around midnight, I started shaking hard, and my pulse rate went up. I drank some juice and a great deal of water, flagrantly breaking the rule about when to stop drinking stuff, but things didn't get better, so I called, reluctantly, the GI nurse on call. She turned out to be the person whom I'd talked to when I made the new appointment, who talked me into trying the prep again. She was chagrined and apologetic and very nice to me. She said that despite all the outward signs being propitious, two liters really was not enough, and she didn't think that I should be put in the ER again on the small chance that my system passed stuff along a lot faster than most people's. So she canceled the appointment for me, and I am regaling myself on toast and pomegranate juice.

I hope we can nip this in the bud so I don't land in the ER anyway. At least, with luck, if I do, they'll decide they don't have to do eleventy-one tests to make sure nothing scary is happening, since they just did them last month, and it wasn't. But I hope I can just not go there in the first place.

I am NOT going to do this again.

Now I am off to drink water and juice and anything else I can think of, barring, unfortunately, alcohol.

If anybody else is up this late, I do hope it's for better reasons. Nobody is to worry. Raphael is up with me, and I will certainly go to the ER, complaining loudly, if it seems indicated.

Pamela

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm up at 1am because it's bachelor night and I have trouble making myself go to sleep when I'm alone in the house.

Oy. Poor dear. I have a cast-iron stomach, and I wish I could lend it to you!

[pameladean]

Oh, yes, I have that trouble too.

I wish I could borrow your stomach too. We could just swap for the day. Mine is quite well-behaved when not insulted by electrolyte solution and laxatives.

P.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I don't know that a cast-iron stomach helps. Mine is pretty hardy, and the liquid didn't really nauseate me; it just became physically impossible to force more of it down. I simply could not do it. Fortunately, I did get enough of it in, even if it wasn't the full amount, so was able to have the exam--which wasn't bad at all--and won't have to do it again for some years.

[pameladean]

Yes, that's a point. I wasn't really nauseated either; it's just as you said, I simply could not drink any more of it. I mean, I could have forced things to the point of nausea, but I didn't want to. The patient information insert specifically says that up to 50% of patients experience either nausea, abdominal fullness, which I assume is our problem, or both. And yet they just hand the stuff out and tell you it's no big deal.

P.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I wish I could lend you mine. I called up the doctor's office because I was finishing up the whole thing faster than expected, and wanted to make sure *that* wouldn't be a problem.

I'm glad to see that you managed to avoid the ER this time.

[pameladean]

I'm glad it works well for somebody!

P.