Pre Bowel Prep

Everyone who has ever had a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy knows that the bowel prep you have to take up to 48 hours beforehand is the worst part of the whole process. You basically don't leave the bathroom for 24 hours. Hell, I've even slept (well, dozed) on my bathroom floor before.

I have a colonoscopy on Monday. This means a countdown of seven days, staring with a low fibre diet, which also makes my diabetes worse. Unfortunately, I already had a bad case of diarrhoea and incontinence this week (just my luck!), and switching to this diet has made it worse. I've had to do a lot of cleaning up: not only personal, but clothing, bedding, floors, toilet, etc. Yep. Living with this disease is a dream [read: nightmare].

I have to stop meds at some point, and starting from the day before, no food whatsoever, and then I have to start taking the bowel prep. The first dose normally doesn't have much of an outwardly visible effect. It's the second one, which is taken in the afternoon that will result in what will be hell. It will aggravate my colon, leaving me in pain, and I'll be stuck in the bathroom all night, meaning no sleep before my procedure.

Monday, I have a 45 minute drive to the hospital to endure as well. I have puppy pads for the car seat and disposal bags, and a bag with a change of clothes, shoes, etc. along with wipes, toilet paper in preparation. I'm a little anxious as it's a Monday morning and I'll be travelling during peak hour.

I am having a general anaesthetic for this one, because I have strictures which causes awful pain. I've had colonoscopies with no pain relief at all and it wasn't painful, but I've accumulated scarring since then, making that impossible now. I am relying on a friend to transport me, and I'm scared I'll mess up her car.

Now, what folks may not realise about bowel prep is that, following the procedure, the prep is still working. What this means is that every time you eat anything for around 72 hours after, it goes straight through your system. I've been forced to eat biscuits after a procedure before and the result was explosive. I had to change clothes, shoes, everything and get in a taxi. I felt so bad for the hospital cleaners, too. I'm really not looking forward to the days following, but at least I can take loperamide during that period.

So, I'm writing off this weekend and all of next week. Not because of the procedure itself will cause issues, but the bowel prep will make my life a living hell.

Keep me in your thoughts over the coming days.