Colonoscopy prep

The low residue diet means there will be less waste that needs to be emptied out of your colon. So that will help insure you are clean. It will also make the prep less onerous. 

I was also advised to take miralax for several days leading up to the prep. You might consider asking your doctor if that's advisable in your case. (I'm hoping they call it miralax across the pond because I have no idea what else to call it!)

Thank you, Susan13. That’s really kind and helpful.

I understand what the diet is for, and why one needs to minimise residue. I think I’m anxious about everything in this ‘in between’ period, which I guess is normal, but my worry here is about what happens if the low residue diet, and the prep sachets, do not clear my colon.

I’ve got one of the UK versions of Miralax (Laxido), which my GP prescribed me a while back to help when the constipation is particularly bad, so I am using that at the moment anyway. I am seeing my GP this Friday too, so I’ll check with her if there’s anything else I can do.

Thanks again for your message from across the pond.

Hi cavy I was given moviprep for both my colonoscopies. It’s a lot of liquid drunk over a few hours and I found I was passing liquid when I was only 25% of the way through it. Perhaps you could ask your doctor for extra laxative as backup  but you don’t want to do it before the 4 hour drive. Could you maybe get a cheap travel lodge near the hospital and travel the day before?

Take care

Karen x

Thank you, Karen. I think some people are given Moviprep and some Plenvu. I’m not sure of the difference, but it sounds like they do the same thing. I have been sent Plenvu, and it, too, involves lots of liquid over a few hours. Because of the 4hr drive on the day itself, they’ve told me to take it the previous evening instead. So if it works, I’ll be clear for the drive and the procedures.

I will definitely ask my GP for extra laxative when I see her this week, and hopefully it will work out fine.

Thanks for your kind and helpful response; I really appreciate it!

Hi cavy  sorry you are having to deal with this, I had my colonoscopy a week or so ago and used Plenvu.  For 3 days I ate v low residue, white pasta, tuna, eggs, white fish, mash. V unlike my normal diet but am sure it helped. Then the 2 doses of Plenvu. I was amazed how quick this worked, also zero pain, which I wasn't expecting.  You quite quickly just start passing water, yellow colour, I didn't have too many toilet trips, mainly after second dose. It isn't pleasant,  the Plenvu, I found second dose worse, but didn't throw up or anything.  I found systematically taking 3 sips through a straw every 5 mins, followed by a mouthful of water, worked. I took the full hour to get it down. Couldn't manage the last 50 mls but it didn't matter, bowel was totally clean. Hope this helps. All the best xx

That’s super helpful, and really kind of you, Arial88 .  It’s both incredibly useful, and very reassuring, to know how things have worked for other people, and I am really grateful for what you shared. Thank you so much.

The plenvu will work fine without taking anything else. 

I started mine an hour earlier than it said in the paperwork. I wasn't ready to go to bed till around 1am. Get some proper conti wipes as they have barrier cream on them. Can't be flushed though. I used a dog poo bag.

I took a bucket , just in case I felt sick. Sit on toilet, be sick in bucket! That way you won't have any accidents lol.

I ended up using it to put my tablet on and binge watch tv. 

I also got some tena to put in pants, just in case of leaking. I didn't but better safe than sorry.

Thanks for all this advice. Everyone has been so helpful on this board, and I am really grateful. So kind of you all to share your experience and tips.

Hope everything’s gone ok today cavy ? x

Thanks for checking in. Despite all my worry, my bowel was very clear for the scopes, so I must have followed all the rules well. I think the guidance that you know you’re clear if you are passing only clear liquid is misleading, as what I was passing was very murky brown liquid right up until the scope itself. I guess the problem with any guidance is that it is based on the “most likely”, but not everyone is “most likely”.

Both the colonoscopy and gastroscopy were clear, other than one very small polyp: they removed this and sent it off for biopsy, but they were not concerned (hence why the wait time for the results will be 3 months!), and they said it was highly unlikely that polyp caused the FIT results of >400.

So I feel conflicted and uneasy. On the one hand, it is obviously good news that they didn’t detect any cancer in the large intestine, and I am genuinely grateful and relieved about this.

However, on the other hand (and I feel bad saying this on a forum where lots of people have not had that good news), I remain worried: because my symptoms, even if we now know some more things that have NOT caused them, we still do not knows what HAS caused them. I still had the >400 FIT, the loss of 30% of my body weight in 6 months, severe constipation and anemia, and the reassuring scopes don’t change that. Does that make any sense?

I am seeing my GP this afternoon anyway, so will discuss all of this. I will also ask to have a second FIT test: if the second one is clear, that would reassure me massively; if, however, it is >400 or very high again, it reinforces the need to find out what is causing it.

They also took a sample from the top of my small intestine to send off for coeliac testing, and advised me to ask my GP for a coeliac blood test. So I will do that too.

In summary, really good news, but I don’t feel anywhere near as relieved as I thought I would, and am surprised by that. I hope that doesn’t sound ungrateful, or disrespectful of the experience of other forum members for whom the scopes confirmed cancer, because that is not my intention at all.

Finally, it is my understanding that the two scopes still leave most of the state of my small intestine unknown, so I am hopeful that the abdominal CT is reassuring too, and I will explore all of that with my consultant in the appointment to review all of yesterday’s results.