Spinal Nurse, another colonoscopy ?

[tasty]

I have had 3 colonoscopies, but my internist retired and I had to find another one. His instructions: 3 ducolax tablets and 1 10 oz. bottle of magnesium citrate at 9:00AM, and then another 10 oz. bottle of MC at 6:00PM. The last time I took 2 ducolax tablets and 1 1/2 oz. of the other stuff that's in the 3 oz. bottle. Does this sound right to you? I have decent bowel control for a para, but this seems like an accident waiting to happen. If you think this is OK, no problem. However, if you disagree, how do I explain the situation to him? What is recommended at your hospital? TIA

[SCI-Nurse]

A colonoscopy prep is, by defnition, an accident waiting to happen. You need to prepare for loose incontinent stools once you start the prep. Every clinic or colorectal physician has their own preference for what prep is done, and it is critical to follow their instructions or they may refuse to do the exam.

We offer our veterans a 23 hour hospital admission if they prefer this for doing their prep. This helps them by having our nursing staff available to help them clean up stool and finish the prep, the get the exam and go home. Our doctors use a whole container of Golytely (we call it "go heavily").

Why are you needing to do another colonoscopy? Unless you have abnormal findings or a strong family history for bowel cancer, every 5 years is sufficient after the age of 50.

(KLD)

[smokey]

Gee, With a prep like that I imagine your stomach will rumble, your ass will detonate, shit will flow like a Cuban mudslide, the stench will be great. In other words it sounds like the ideal prep. Hope you have some help.

[tasty]

As I stated, this will be my fourth colonoscopy. I didn't have any problems with the others, except for some residual in the gut following the second one. I had no problems with the prep before the procedure. I used golightly for the first one and the prep I described for the other two. In the past I have been able to get to the bathroom in time and slept with a pad during the night. No accidents. I am older than 50, have had polyps removed in each of the preceding three colonoscopies, and my grandfather died of colon cancer; hence colonoscopies every 3 years. My biggest problem is dealing with 20 oz. of magnesium citrate. It seems excessive. Of course, the gallon of golightly also seemed excessive. If there are no clearcut guidelines for paras, then I'll either have to follow through with the prep or find another internist. If anyone has had a similar prep and done OK with it, then I won't complain.

[smokey]

tasty, Like you I am also older than 50, have had a couple colonoscopies and unfortunately my mother died from colon cancer. My preps were simply chugging a gallon of Go-Lytely. I had the good fortune....or rather insurance that allowed me to spend the "prep night" in the hospital. No way I could have done it at home even with help. I oozed stool and mucous for hours. Once the flow was somewhat clear, they inserted a Malencott tube up my ass to drain the fluid into a bedside drainage bag. During the colonoscopy the GI doc was able to suck out residual fluid, mucous and bits of stool still laying around in my colon. I was quite interested in the whole procedure and I wanted to watch so I asked them to go easy on the drugs. I actually asked her to suck out the fluids, mucous, stool etc. because I figured it would simply ooze out afterwards. She was cool with it. I can't speak about the mag-citrate prep part but I know others here can.

[tasty]

I was concerned about using 3 Ducolax tablets and 20 oz. of magnesium citrate for the prep because it seemed excessive compared to the the preps from 3 previous colonoscopies. To my surprise the only problem was that it didn't work until I drank the second 10 oz bottle of MC. No problems; no accidents. However, any time I could hear or feel gurgling, I had to hit the john. I think even AB's would have problems holding in the fluids created by the prep. By bedtime it was essentially over, but back to the john in the AM, and there was even a small residual after the procedure. The good news: no polyps for the first time in 15 years. The bad news: a rectal prolapse, not major at this point but something that will eventually require surgery. It's not big yet, but he said it would get larger. Spinal Nurse, can you shed any light on this problem? Apparently, it's fairly common with SCI.

[SCI-Nurse]

I have seen this fairly often but never seen it operated on. My nephew had this as a young child, we just pushed it back in and he grew out of it. May be others have more experience with this.

CWO

[tasty]

Bump. Anyone have experience with rectal prolapse and subsequent surgery?