My Tips for Colonscopy Screening Preparation

I am at that age where doctors prescribe medical procedures for my health and insurance will pay for it!

One of these is a visit with a gastroenterologist to check your large intestines for anything funny - also known as a colonoscopy screening.

Problem is: the gastroenterologist needs your large intestine to be clean so they can do their job effectively.

The upside: if the gastroenterologist doesn’t find anything, one won’t have to do anything for ten years. Ten Years!

This is what I learn from preparing for the procedure:

• Follow the directions from pre-op meeting. The worst thing that can happen is you have to do it twice because you didn’t follow directions!
• Have a variety of liquids that conform to the directions, ones that you normally don’t drink and have flavor! Ones that also taste good hot or cold is a bonus.
• Have a hot water bottle handy. At the end of the preparation, I only drank cold liquids and after a day of only water, my body did not have resources to generate heat. A hot water bottle is really comforting!
• Have lots of toilet paper - you will need it.
• A bidet, like a Toto Washlet, makes the whole preparation so nice.
• Have something to do on the toilet that’s easy, like reading a book on playing a game on your phone. You will spend some time on there.
• Don’t plan to do anything day before or day after - they will be low energy days.
• A standing desk is nice because sitting will cause you to goto the toilet.
• An easy way to clean your toilet.
• If there’s any doubt with the last bowel movement, before the procedure, take a photo of it. At least you can show the team and they can make a call. The worst is if they can’t see anything at all in your large intestine and you’ll have to do the preparation all over again. That happened to me and I am glad I didn’t get sedated to learn that!

Hopefully these help you out on your routine check up!