Colonoscopy prep fail. Please help!

[Anonymous]

I use suprep, and it didn’t clear me out enough last time (that is the worst since you have gone through all the prep for no reason), so the doctor put me on a several day liquid diet, started the suprep earlier and added miralax the day prior. I also took Zoltan so I wouldn’t throw it up but it barely touched my nausea. I always wind up having violent cramps during the prep bc I think it starts by building up a ton of colon “action” and gas, if that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Bottom line—no prep will work well on its own if you tend to be constipated. Plan accordingly.

[Anonymous]

If you get migraines like me, I’d definitely recommend doing a week of slow prep - watching what you eat for a week and doing miralax over several days. When I did it this way, the only unpleasantness was being on the toilet for most of one day. But I didn’t get dehydrated, didn’t get a headache, didn’t feel stressed. And it worked. When I did the conventional Golytely prep, I had 24 hours of the toilet misery compounded by vomiting an$ one of the worst migraines of my life for 2 days afterwards.

[Anonymous]

This happened to me with Golyghlty when I had my colonoscopy at Johns Hopkins. Exact same result.

I had my colonoscopy a year later at Capital Digestive Care. Their nurse who schedules you is very experienced and personalizes your prep. Based on my eating habits, weight, and the fact that I 'failed' the first prep, she planned a prep for me that worked perfectly. I would definitely go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone just posted on here how a friend or neighbor just died of colon cancer and he said he had done the poop in a box thing and it missed his cancer. Poop in a box won't catch precancerous polyps as I understand it.

Color guard only detects blood in the sample. Precancerous polyps don’t bleed. Slow growing, relatively large, cancerous tumors sometimes bleed. The colonoscopy removes the polyps, some pre-cancerous, before blood is present in a sample and before it can become cancerous.
I do not understand how Colorguard gives any peace of mind (unless you only want to know when you have a big ole bleeding tumor).

It's called Cologuard, not colorguard. Color guard is a flag ceremony.

Secondly it has nothing to do with blood at all. It picks up cancerous DNA, not blood. What it doesn't do is detect precancerous polyps, which can turn into cancer. It's repeatee every 3 to 5 years, unlike a colonoscopy, which is every 10.

Yes, most insurances pay for a colonoscopy if Cologuard finds something.

You just made a lot of cr@p up here, pardon the pun.

Yep. I just received my cologuard and my doctor told me if I pooped in the box I'd get a test in 3 years and if I did the colonoscopy it would be 10. I'm only 45 and have no risk. I think I'm going to poop in the box.
Did recommend getting colonoscopy when I turn 50 however just to be safe

I had no symptoms, no family history and no cancer marker in blood tests and still colon cancer found at my first screening colonoscopy. I thank god I didn’t fall for the cologuard. But most people aren’t so unlucky.

Why do you think Cololguard wouldn't have picked it up? You didn't use it, so why do you think that? Cologuard does pick up cancer DNA.

Every doctor, surgeon, and oncologist told me Cologuard would have missed my situation.

My tests did not indicate any cancer DNA or blood marker out of normal range. Cancers do not always act they way we expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I've done every single prep mentioned above at least once. I'm 43, and I've been having colonoscopies about every 2 years since I was 20. I haven't done the Go-lightly in about 15 years. It's definitely the worst of the preps, and I'm always surprised when i see it behind the counter at the pharmacy. The go-lightly prep and the miralax prep both made me vomit. My last prep was the Sutab, which I was excited about trying because I thought it would be easier. It didn't work AT ALL. I ended up having to rush out to the pharmacy to get a bottle of magnesium citrate and redo the whole prep the morning of my procedure. The easiest preps for me are the ones with the two small bottles of liquid followed by multiple cups of water. Suprep, Prepopik, Clenpiq. The "flavor" has gotten better over the last 10 years, but none are great. If nausea is an issue, definitely ask your Dr for an antiemetic.

Anyway. OP - you need to call the office of the dr who is doing the procedure and tell them you want a different prep than what you had before. And if they won't talk to you about it, or they won't give you something else, then you need to call your primary physician and tell them that they need to refer you to someone else.

You are the colonscopy guru! You should do an AMA or sticky, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How did they determine you weren't completely cleaned out?

My friend had the unfortunate experience of throwing up the dratted liquid all night (she tried to contact their office without success to let them know), then being placed under in the morning, explored, etc, only to be told the results were inconclusive because she wasn't cleaned out enough, and she'd have to redo the entire thing soon.

Consider yourself lucky you escaped general anesthesia.

There are many people who don't do well with the prep, and research is ongoing to find better ways of exploring intestines. Contact the doctor to discuss a different prep.

They never give general anesthesia for a colonoscopy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was given movenprep and did not get fully cleaned out. I was panicked. The nurses told me that they basically spray up there to clean you out a bit anyway during the procedure and that the doctor would proceed with the procedure. It went fine but I’ll ask
For a different prep next time

They do--I have been awake and watched it on myself. But having watched it, I can tell you that I understand why they don't want to have to do it. It's nowhere near as easy as visualizing and sampling from intestinal tissue that has no residue clinging to it.

[Anonymous]

Hi, OP. Did you read this thread? There is lots of good advice about the Miralax and Gatorade approach. I posted about it and others did as well. Read and see if it might work for you. There is a link that more fully outlines the approach. It is highly effective.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1009321.page#21111416

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, OP. Did you read this thread? There is lots of good advice about the Miralax and Gatorade approach. I posted about it and others did as well. Read and see if it might work for you. There is a link that more fully outlines the approach. It is highly effective.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1009321.page#21111416

The person in that thread drinks orange gatorade which is a no-no (no reds)- no idea otherwise re that prep approach but in 30 years of cxolonoscopies I’ve never had that approach suggested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, OP. Did you read this thread? There is lots of good advice about the Miralax and Gatorade approach. I posted about it and others did as well. Read and see if it might work for you. There is a link that more fully outlines the approach. It is highly effective.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1009321.page#21111416

The person in that thread drinks orange gatorade which is a no-no (no reds)- no idea otherwise re that prep approach but in 30 years of cxolonoscopies I’ve never had that approach suggested.

The miralex/gatorade instructions are what I got for my medstar/Georgetown colonoscopy, and the instructions say orange gatorade is fine -- only red/blue/purple are bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did they determine you weren't completely cleaned out?

My friend had the unfortunate experience of throwing up the dratted liquid all night (she tried to contact their office without success to let them know), then being placed under in the morning, explored, etc, only to be told the results were inconclusive because she wasn't cleaned out enough, and she'd have to redo the entire thing soon.

Consider yourself lucky you escaped general anesthesia.

There are many people who don't do well with the prep, and research is ongoing to find better ways of exploring intestines. Contact the doctor to discuss a different prep.

Sorry for the TMI, but the nurse asked about my poop when I arrived and said if it was anything except clear or yellow I needed to use the bathroom and let her look at it. It was kind of embarrassing, but I am glad I didn't go through with a useless procedure. She also got a second opinion from the charge nurse.

The problem with contacting the doctor directly is that I tried to get in touch with her before the procedure (about timing of migraine meds) and she never responded. Unless the person who does scheduling is adept at discussing options, I'm feeling like there isn't a good way to get information from them about what will work better. Hence my idea to try to figure it out on my own and then make a specific request when I call to schedule.

Go find another doctor. During initial consultation, your doctor should've given you different options and the recommendation.

There is no initial consultation. My primary care doc refers, then the office calls me to schedule. I am not in DC, but near two major medical centers and they both seem to work this way. My primary care doc is great but I've never been able to speak to a specialist with whom I didn't already have an established relationship, and I doubt primary care doc will be able to advise on this.

That.Really.Sucks.

I still think you are missing a step here somewhere. Going straight from your primary to surgery table doesn't seem right to me. I had one hour long appt with my GI doc who worked on me.

Op here--interesting. I asked around a little and out of my sample of 3, no one did a consult with a doctor prior to the colonoscopy (these were all screening colonoscopies; my husband had one for pain and he had a few appointments prior). Maybe regional differences? Or maybe just because everyone I know basically has the same insurance (health plan offered through the state). I'm sure it's much cheaper if the first time the doc sees us is at the procedure.

[Anonymous]

OP here: thanks everyone for all of the good advice. I'll see what the scheduling person (hopefully a nurse?) says and go from there. Now that I am one day removed from the awfulness, I definitely want to try again. With a different prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, OP. Did you read this thread? There is lots of good advice about the Miralax and Gatorade approach. I posted about it and others did as well. Read and see if it might work for you. There is a link that more fully outlines the approach. It is highly effective.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1009321.page#21111416

The person in that thread drinks orange gatorade which is a no-no (no reds)- no idea otherwise re that prep approach but in 30 years of cxolonoscopies I’ve never had that approach suggested.

The miralex/gatorade instructions are what I got for my medstar/Georgetown colonoscopy, and the instructions say orange gatorade is fine -- only red/blue/purple are bad.

Same. We received the exact same instructions from MedStar for the past few colonoscopies. It works like a charm. Orange Gatorade is fine. You need to stay away from the red, blue (both dark blue and light blue) or purple Gatorade versions. Anyway, this is a great way to prep. Much more effective than any of the other methods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you are at risk, do the mail in test.

Exactly. Cologuard or something like it. How old are you and do you have a hisotry of colon cancer in your family? Otherwise, no way in hell would I do a colonoscopy when there are other options.

I did the Cologuard because I couldn't go through with all the prep and fasting.