Colonoscopy time!

It's been 4.5 years since my last one.  So the time as come.

I was hoping to be able to get whatever Rx laxative pills I took last time, but I guess Kaiser no longer uses them.  I refused to drink the gallon on saline, and told the GI that I needed a different way.  (It's physically impossible for me to drink it.  After glass 2, I start throwing up.)  This time around I'll be using the MiraLax method.  I think it'll be pretty good, because I'm only drinking 64oz total, and only 32 in one sitting.

The MiraLax method goes like this:

• Clear liquids (as always)
• At the start of prep take 2 Ducolax
• Mix 7 doses into 32oz of yellow, green, or clear Gatorade.
• Drink, drink, drink.
• The next day drink another 32oz+7 doses.
• Then drink Magnesium Citrate (I'll likely skip this step, because I probably won't need to do it.)

That will all be on Thursday and early Friday.  My sister is having an endoscopy and colonoscopy at the same day, nearly the same time.  We always did like to do things together.

Magnesium Citrate

Everything was going along fine, for a really long time.

I stopped nursing, so I was able to start taking my Adderall (as prescribed) again.  Only this time it had an unforeseen side effect.  Constipation.  I've never really been constipated before, since Crohns provides the opposite problem.  But this time around, it's been an issue.  I already drink a lot of water (75+ oz daily), and I exercise.  I probably could eat a little better.  I started taking Miralax.  No help there.  I took ducolax on a few occasions.  It helped sometimes, but not others.  And it's habit forming, so you can't take it for very long.  Most recently, I went on Friday, then nothing all weekend.  Or Monday.  I emailed my GI today, and he recommended two bottles of Magnesium Citrate, four hours apart.

I found MgC at the dollar store, and started to drink it in the car.  The taste wasn't wholly unpleasant: like a strong lemon soda, which an odd after taste.  It almost immediately made my stomach hurt.  The bottles were 10oz.  I drank about 8oz of bottle #1.  Within the hour the constipation was gone... and boy howdy, was it gone.  I'd guess I've probably made 12+ trips to the bathroom in the last 5 hours.  It feels like colonoscopy prep.  I think the effects are finally starting to taper off.

I think my GI may have been trying to kill me (two bottles in fours hours?!).

So now I'm formulating a plan so I don't have to use that second bottle.  It likely includes continuing lots of water, and having a bowl of lentils everyday.