Anyone Have A Double-decker?

[psawyer]

Gatorade is gluten-free. Loaded with sugar, but I guess that is the point

[skbird]

Yeah, can't hack the sugar. It's gonna be broth and sugar free jello for me. I called the nurse yesterday to ask if my husband could attend and she said the room is very small but that I could make sure the doctor talks with him after, not just me. So that might help. Also, said the drug of choice is demerol, plus some amnesiac drug (starts with an "I" but I can't find my notes). I asked if I could wait until 3pm to start, like my mom, but was told that even if I did that route, I'd be drinking more stuff and I'd still have to follow the liquid diet all day, so no benefit there. Except that technically I could go to work half a day. But I already requested the day off so I'll stick with that.

Less nasty liquid to drink is better.

Anyway, I'll let you guys know how it all came out. (ha! ok, not ALL of it...)

Stephanie

[floridanative]

Less nasty liquid to drink is better.

I am really confused about this prep stuff we have to drink. I had to get only 3oz. and I use only 1/2 ouce mixed with 4 ouces of sprite or gingerale 6 times over three hours. How bad can 1/2 oz. of something be considering the sprite should mask the taste somewhat? Am I wrong about this?

Tiffany M.

[skbird]

You ask if you could be wrong about it being bad - well, have you ever had epsom salts for constipation? Blech, nasty! Only takes a tbsp of that stuff to make me want to heave. So, who knows, could be horrid.

I'm supposed to mix 1/2 bottle into 24 ounces of liquid and then drink 8 oz at 7am, 8oz at 7:10 am, then the last at 7:20 am, then the whole process again at 7 pm, 7:10 pm and 7:20 pm... oh joy!

Anyway, I just found out this will only cost me $2,000 with my bad insurance instead of $3,000 so I'm feeling much better about it. Funny how something like that will lighten the load...

Stephanie

[floridanative]

[

quote=skbird,Oct 4 2005, 06:19 PM]

You ask if you could be wrong about it being bad - well, have you ever had epsom salts for constipation?

No I haven't so I guess everyone is right that this stuff is NASTY! I just re-read my directions to make sure I wasn't confused. I don't understand why you start drinking tomorrow morning and I don't start until 5 pm. My appt. is at 7 am Thurs. It's too late to call now so I guess I'll just follow the instuction sheet. It's pre-printed so it's not like someone wrote in the time wrong.

Good luck and let us know how your first round goes tomorrow.

Tiffany M.

[skbird]

Thanks, I'll report in after the kool-ade does it's "magic". OK, not kool-ade... hahaha (gallows humor).

I called the doc to double check but they said yep, 7 am. If I could wait until later I could have worked some tomorrow, but that's the way it works, I guess. I have to go buy the stuff tonight after work...

Stephanie

[skbird]

OK, first report - I'm halfway through my morning dose of the drink, which is Fleet Phoso-Soda, lemon/ginger flavor dissolved in 24 oz of water. My review is this - it doesn't taste all that bad - I probably won't develop a taste for it, definitely doesn't taste much like either ginger or lemon but it's not unpleasant, like epsom salts would be. I have to drink 1.5 ounces this morning and the same amount tonight - found it at Rite Aid for just under $5 a bottle...

I'll write more later - for now I'm off to make some jello.

Stephanie

[floridanative]

[

[Janelson]

I actually had blood in my stools for a couple of weeks before they finally believed me that there was something wrong. I had the colonoscopy and when they were done with that they were like lets do the endoscopy too. I think they waited til I was so druged up to tell me about the other one Anyways I still dont know what the blood was from and once in a while it comes back. The GI really didnt know why either. What did they say was the cause of it for you???

[Janelson]

I was reading how you all dont remember anything from the procedure....I am thinking about going back to my GI doc no and yelling at him. I was almost in tears during the colonoscopy and he kept telling the nurse give her more giver her more. I wanted to be like yea knock me out nurse I dont want to be awake for this! I remember everything and though it wasn't a pleasant experience It was not that bad compared to some of the symptoms I go though when I get glutened ya know? Now that is pain and that is pain for days. So coming from a girl that was fully alert through both endoscopy and colonoscopy....you'll be just fine!

[jenvan]

Janelson-

what is your blood like? dark and tarry or bright red. the color helps denote which area of the digestive system it came from...

[floridanative]

[

quote=jenvan,Oct 5 2005, 12:12 PM]

Janelson-

what is your blood like? dark and tarry or bright red. the color helps denote which area of the digestive system it came from...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[skbird]

Hey Tiffany -

On my second bowl of broth... I am starving. I have been having the most bizarre food fantasies! I am going to be cooking like you won't believe this weekend.

Anyway, getting a lot of reading done... and this really isn't bad, just the hunger part. I didn't read anything about sugar being restricted after the evening dose but don't plan on having any anyway because that will only make me hungrier.

(if that's possible!)

OK, off to my broth, lucious, tasty broth...

Stephanie

[jenvan]

hang in there girl

[floridanative]

Stephanie,

I am not eating gluten-free since I have no idea if I'm Celiac or not yet but I noticed on my chicken broth cube package there is yeast in it. What type broth can you have that is gluten-free? I'm just now starting to get really hungry but I slept in until about 8:30 today. I work from home so clients have been keeping me busy which is good - less time to think about how hungry I'm getting. I had two cups of broth for lunch and I'm going down now to get some more yummy jello before I start my prep drink at 5.

Also, I have to brush my teeth tomorrow before leaving. Did you instuctions say anything about this? Mine don't - just not to eat or drink ANYTHING after midnight tonight. Guess as long as I don't swallow any water while brushing I'll be fine.

Tiffany M.

[skbird]

Thanks, Jen!

Tiffany - toothbrushing is ok if you spit it back out, don't swallow. That's what it said in my instructions.

This is kind of cracking me up, my updates...

Anyway, I have had about half my jello and three bowls of broth. Tastes good but still trying to wrack my brains for anything that I could possibly eat, then I remember, oh yeah, nothing.

The broth I got is Health Valley non-fat chicken broth in the can. This is a problem - I have seen boxes of Health Valley non-fat chicken broth that include barley malt and others that don't. I usually have the low-fat version but figured I should avoid fat, too. That one is fine. I like this one's flavor the best. There are boxed and canned broths that say gluten free on them - I think I noticed Swanson's Organic or some similar name as having it right on the front.

I also have some reserved from when we recently roasted a chicken, so I'll have some of that later.

Anyway, I think you must have already started your prep drink, I hope you found it as non-disgusting as I did.

Take care

Stephanie

[floridanative]

Anyway, I think you must have already started your prep drink, I hope you found it as non-disgusting as I did.

Take care

Stephanie

Yep - finished with my first batch and it was not tasty but not horrific either! Thought I was going to get sick from getting nauseous after the drink settled but I didn't.

My next batch isn't until 8 pm and now I'm getting worried that I'll be up all night in the bathroom. Guess it won't matter since I can sleep all day after the test.

Good luck! Only 13 hours until I leave for my appt. I want to go to bed early (if possible) so I can't feel how hungry I am.

Tiffany M.

[skbird]

I have been wondering the same thing, about drinking it at 7pm I may be up a while. Oh well, only 16 hours until my appointment. I'm getting pretty used to being hungry now. Though I may have my husband eat in another room tonight, I might not be able to take the sight of it! LOL!

The center that conducts the test called and checked to make sure I was following procedure. Then at the end she asked why I was getting this done so young, only 34, as most people are a bit older. I told her of my food woes. I'm surprised they would think I was an unusual case, wouldn't you think there would be at least a few people my age or younger who've had this done in a town of 100,000?

Huh.

OK, to early bed times and to the second dose going down easily. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Stephanie

[floridanative]

[

The center that conducts the test called and checked to make sure I was following procedure. Then at the end she asked why I was getting this done so young, only 34, as most people are a bit older. I told her of my food woes. I'm surprised they would think I was an unusual case, wouldn't you think there would be at least a few people my age or younger who've had this done in a town of 100,000?

Well at my GI office I was by far the youngest person there and I'm 42. There was one guy that was probably a little younger than me but he was just waiting for his grandmother - I had to laugh. There are about 4 million people in the metro Atlanta area so I thought it odd that I was the only person there in my age group. Oh well, as long as it gets us to the anwers we so badly need - right?!

Well it's almost time for my second and last dose of the 'drink'. Yum yum!

Tiffany M.

[Lisa]

Good luck to the both of you. I am glad that you are in good company.

Let us know how you are doing. Lisa B.

[jenvan]

Tiffany-

I was also BY FAR the youngest in the office when i had my colonoscopy. Everyone was in their 70s or above!

On the blood...I'm not a doctor (so I'd recommend you run this by one)...but typically brighter blood means the bleeding is coming from the lower end of your intestines--like hemmorroids or an anal fissure (sounds gross i know!). Darker blood could mean something more like Crohn's. You could just have hemmorroids. Do you get constipated? They can bleed quite a bit when irritated. Mucous can be quite common, especially among Celiacs You're intestines can produce it when they are inflammed, irritated.

[skbird]

OK, I'm back! The procedure was hardly noticable but I woke this morning not feeling great so I tested my blood sugar and it was 59 which is low for me. When I got to the center I told them I was having symptoms and low blood sugar and they gave me an IV with glucose solution in it. That helped a lot, also helped with my feeling dehydrated despite all the liquid I drank yesterday. They tested me at 69 - I do know that veinous blood sugar tests usually come higher than the prick tests we can do at home.

Everyone was very nice and I was without a doubt the youngest person there. I woke right after they started the colonoscopy and felt a little discomfort as he found a polyp and removed it. I was asking questions about it too. Then they must have put me deeper under because I have no memory of the endoscopy and my throat isn't even sore at all. So they did a good job. Took some small intestine biopsies but he said it didn't appear I had much going on, so it's a sentence of IBS for me. Well, I can tolerate that as long as I know there's nothing else major going on. He'll let me know the biopsy results on Tuesday.

When I got home the nurse called me to say she'd called my family doc - aparantly my blood sugar when I left was 225. I have never seen it go above 130 in any of my testing so that was a shock. Probably all the sugar they ran into me. Then my doc called and wants me in for an appointment on Wednesday. Never ends... hope they don't think I'm diabetic. I am in no mood to take the glucose tolerance test - what I went through yesterday was enough. I was definitely more wasted this morning than any of the 50+ aged people there who'd done the same prep - rough on a hypoglycemic person.

So there's my experience, ready to eat something and take a mellow day reading a book.

Stephanie

[jenvan]

glad you're doing all right and that they found your polyp. all gone... hope the rest irons itself out girl. its over!!

[julie5914]

Yeah, you're a total trooper. That is high blood sugar - does insulin take care of sugar only when you eat it or when it is pumped into your veins I wonder. You have so many symptoms - I hope they do not plan on leaving you out to dry with that IBS crap.

I find it so funny that so many distinguished MDs will roll their eyes at some things and do the quackwatch.com thing with fad diagnoses, but out of those same MDs mouths come things like oh, it must be IBS (can anyone say fad diagnoses), it must be stress (please, I don't even have kids yet!), or, my favorite, you are gaining weight because you got married. If they do pin you with IBS, please consider doing the overnight study at UNC Chapel. It pays you $250, so hopefully that might cover your travel expenses. You would have to do a sigmoid, but that is probably nothing compared to colonoscopy. The cool part is that they insert this little ballon with sensors that they can inflate to see if your colon starts squeezing on it like it's supposed to or it's really spastic. They also have you rate your pain levels to see if you are "more sensitive to pain" as the claim of IBS goes.

[Lisa]

Boy, I am truely sorry to see this saga end. Better than a good book. Better than a good soap-opera

I'm really glad that everythings has worked out. See, it's not such a big deal.

You both really cracked me up. It was fun to read Thanks for taking the time. I am sure that it will help others through their own testing.

Lisa Baker