Prep Part Two & The Big Day

I got about 5 hours of sleep on Monday night, half of which was on the couch, which is closer to the bathroom than the bed. It was that kind of a night.

On D Day, aka C & E Day, aka Tuesday, I had to wake up at 5am to finish the second part of my colonoscopy prep. Because when you haven't eaten real food in 24+ hours and you've been BFF with your toilet for hours, waking up early is just what you need!

The lack of sleep and food led to a poor choice of glass for the second part of my prep. These milkshakes taunted me through a liter of coconut water mixed with miralax.

Several hours of toilet-time followed prep part two before trekking to the hospital. I was initially worried about the hour-long commute after the second part of prep, but it was fine.

I remember bits and pieces from the main event. I was semi-conscious and uncomfortable a couple of times (maybe just once?) during the procedures. They reassured me I was doing well and gave me more drugs. As they were wheeling me out, I was somehow awake enough that someone said "Oh, you're totally awake." And I said, "I'm not sure if I'd say that". My doctor then told me how everything went.

I woke up two hours later in the recovery room. I was knocked out. And no longer remembered anything the doctor said. 

Brian came to get me, and I waited for my nurse to remove my IV and discharge me. I thoroughly enjoyed a plastic cup of cranberry juice. 

I was definitely still a lil high. We got home, I shoved a veggie sandwich in face, and went back to sleep.

 

And then I woke up in time to go back to sleep. And then I woke up the next morning to realize I wasn't functional & to call into work and go back to sleep. Later Wednesday afternoon, I went back to sleep. 

I finally woke up today.

I have a follow-up appointment in Wednesday. I'm hoping I'll have some answers. Cross your fingers!

Prepping...Part One

Almost through the first half of this crazy colonoscopy prep process. Twenty-four hours without real food & too much time getting to know our bathroom. But at least I'm in the home stretch.

Breakfast was a delicious bowl of white grape vegan jello jigglers with seltzer water and coffee. 

I had a mid-morning snack of Café Bustelo vegan jello jigglers. So happy I bought cookie cutters at a dollar store a while back: teddy bear, hippo, elephant, heart, star, and weird pointy circle. 

Lunch and dinner were both disgusting bowls of vegetable stock, oddly the worst part of this experience. 

Started drinking prep mixed with coconut water at 5. It started, uh, working before I was done drinking tonight's liter. 

Now, I'm having dessert in the form of crushed white grape juice ice - genius planning on my part. 

I'm a little loopy from not having any actual food, but other than that, I'm doing really well. And to be honest, the loopiness is welcome as it's makes it much easier to entertain myself through this.

Prepping for Prepping

After years of on-again off-again stomach troubles, my last few months have been filled with gastroenterologist appointments and tests of various kinds. Finally, on Tuesday, I have the big one...a colonoscopy. (Also having another endoscopy, but that's nothing new.) It's obviously not a fun, exciting topic, but I think it's important for people with tummy troubles to know there are others dealing with them, too. I know I'm forever grateful for my Sisterhood of the Spastic Insides for their support.

Since I'm a vegetarian and mostly stick to a vegan whole foods diet, the lists of foods acceptable for colonoscopy prep were troubling: chicken or beef broth, Gatorade, and all the (non-red) Jello your heart desires. The looming 24+ hours of a clear liquid diet were upsetting enough without all this. So I've been obsessing over/planning my menu for weeks. If I'm not going to be eating food, I at least want to "eat" well.

My Vegan Colonoscopy Prep / Clear Liquid Diet Menu

• Flavored seltzer water 
• Vegetable stock 
• Coconut water (for mixing with the Miralax prep - Gatorade? No thanks) 
• Vita Coco sports drinks 
• White grape juice 
• Café Bustelo 
• Coffee vegan jello 
• Grape vegan jello 
• Grape juice slushies 
• Multiple types of tea

I expect that I'm overplanning here, but I want to have options. This only has to keep me functional until I leave work at noon. At home I can lounge and nap until the real fun begins. More on that later.