Personal tips on colonoscopy

Hello again, sorry for the long pause, I was busy with my studies and exams is just in one month so I needed to send my report in by this month. It has been a hectic month. One the other hand, I'll be having a colonoscopy tomorrow. Although there will be dotted red line in Firefox under colonoscopy now but it is still a word.

Definition is here.

Read the detailed process about it here on wikipedia. It's just a procedure to check how healthy or bad is your colon and to negate diseases early assumptions i.e. colon cancer,crohn,ulcerative colitis etc. The procedure at the hospital isn't painful in anyway, you are sedated while they are doing pushing the camera into your anus. You won't feel a thing. You're drugged. Nothing to be scared of.

The preparation is painful if you didn't do it right. This is my third time doing colonoscopy so I think I got the hand of it.

This is just the summaries of preparation that I got from various doctors,patients and friends:

1. Listen what your doctor say, for example what NOT to eat. Seriously, if you didn't hear this, you'll be sorry.
2. The nurse said not to eat anything with seeds(kiwi),vegetables(spinach etc),high fiber food (oats etc.) a day before drinking the laxative solution. I stopped eating those things 3 days before the colonoscopy.
3. Do not eat anything spicy in this area of time.What goes through your mouth will come out through your anus. If you wanted how chili taste through your back side, do try. I ate something spicy on my second colonoscopy. Trust me it's hell.
   
4. Prepare lots of water. Cooked or mineral water. No tap water please.
5. Eat soft food or anything easy to digest like spaghetti,rice,potato(this is before drinking the solution)
6. Some doctor may forbid you from drinking or eating anything after you drank your laxative solution but my current doctor said that I could drink coffee and tea with NO MILK and of course you can drink water.
7. At this time of the life episode, you will be very tired. So get your stuff done before you drink the solution.
8. Pick the right date for the colonoscopy. No reports,no work ,nothing. After the colonoscopy you will feel tired and it is better when someone could take care of you. If you don't have any like me, tough luck.
9. Don't drive after the colonoscopy, you're sedated. You can't drive.
10. Pack the documents,money ,perfumes and even something to eat and drink after the colonoscopy. You will be damn hungry.
11. Tell your friends what you're going through. One or two close friends is enough. At least someone know why you aren't around.
12. Take a bath before the colonoscopy. Clean yourself. I even shave my private parts (well not the anus),at least it seems clean. People gonna see you naked.
13. Buy air freshener for your room and toilet.
14. Set alarm clock for the big day.
15. Try to plan for tomorrow and make sure you have something to eat after the colonoscopy.
16. Be punctual I guess. If I missed the appointment, I don't want to drink that laxative anymore.
17. See your weight after all the trips to the toilet. You'll be amazed.
18. Extra underwear for big day doesn't hurt.
19. Sleep early and drink lots of water.
20. After the colonoscopy, don't go home directly. Wait a bit because during the colonoscopy the doctor sometimes shoot some water to get rid of some feces that is still stuck on your colon. He just wanted to be sure that the object isn't a tumor or anything dangerous.
    

This list will maybe be updated in the future.

That is my personal preparations because I think the last two times was tiring, third one is a charm but still it isn't a walk in the park.

Thank you for your time and please do add what you did before your colonoscopy. At least I can add some more. I think I missed some but I am tired now, I'll be going to bed.

Wish me luck :D

Timeline Part 4

Since I was diagnosed with UC, I didn't know how it would shaped my world because at first I was just taking Mesalazine enema for once per day and it was ok. No more harsh diarrhea and it was ok I guess. I thought this isn't so bad. So everything was fine up until I got back from Malaysia. I started to bled again so the doctor here advised me to take a form of steroid,Budesonid. According to my doctor it has practically a really little side effects than other steroids that is used to treat my condition. Although, the relativeness of little side effects than is quite big actually. I'll post the side effects that I am having afterwards. My UC has been in an on and off situation. Sometimes it just bleed like I drank blood for dinner and sometimes I am like a normal person but that is a rare occasion. Since then I am taking 3 tablets of Budesonid and a daily dosage of enema. Enema isn't fun. Trust me. Seriously. I just don't understand how some people are into these type of things. Last year my UC started to "heal", so the doctor prescribed me with a lesser dosage of steroids and enema. That was really cool. The side effects are less and life was good, but last 2-3 months my UC started to flare again. This time(and unfortunately till now) I bled when I go to the toilet. It isn't fun and I started having the need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Sometimes 2-3 times and that just kills the mood to sleep.In the morning, I got panda eyes and started being cranky and grumpy. Seriously in the past 2-3 months , I think I got only less than 7 times of a good sleep.

So this the the end up until now. I will post about other complications that I got from UC or the side effects from the medications.

Timeline Part 3

Proceeding the story. I was in Malaysia and I still got blood in my stool. I hate it. I always need to find a toilet after eating, it was excruciating. Sometimes during the process of eating, I need to go to the toilet. So I went to see a doctor at a clinic. It was first diagnosed as somewhat they called Traveler’s diarrhea but they pills they gave didn’t do anything at all. They suspected the worst , colon cancer, and they asked me to go to the hospital as fast as I can. So I went to a private hospital and they said they need some blood and stool sample, but they couldn’t process the sample as fast as some top hospital so they forwarded me to PUSRAWI. It was fast and easy. The first time experience preparing for colonoscopy was surprisingly painful and very tiring. Really it is, it’s like fasting(puasa) but for 3-4 days without breaking(bukak puasa) it. Then after the procedure and all. I went to the hospital a week after that for the explanation, I didn’t really understand the degree of my illness. Seriously I thought I just need to go to the toilet more and no more problems and there’s like some medicine to control the bowel movement. And I thought, OK that is all. I went back home even smiling. I really don’t know. The doctor said it is an autoimmune disease and the cause is unknown. The thing that changed your life and there is no hint on what is the cause. I was not satisfied actually and the best answer the doctor said “Your just unlucky”. I don’t blame the doctor after I joined some forums that I’ll update it later. I forgot to update that the medicine that I took costs a lot of money. It is expensive. It was shocking and I think it was around 600MYR and another 2000MYR for the colonoscopy. I paid half and my mother paid for the other half. For a student, 2000+MYR is expensive unless my parents are rich people. Unfortunately, they aren’t.

to be continue..

Timeline Part 2

Like I was saying in the previous post. Around that time, I was very focused on my studies. I thought the blood in my stool was temporary and nothing to be worried about. Every time I ate something in just half an hour , I must find the nearest toilet. Little that I know, this was the early symptoms. I remembered that I thought this was just a minor setback so I’d go to the doctor after the exam. But as my exam getting nearer, I was quite worried of the blood in my stool. It didn’t went away as I hoped. There is more and more blood sometimes. So I started calling my ex-classmate who is studying medic and now is a doctor. He said probably nothing to be worried about but I just need to see a doctor in any case. I procrastinated. Well I was too focused on the exams. That exam was vital. Well maybe not as vital as my life , but who would know the disease that I suffer from. My family never got it. And I never had heard from it anyway. Plus I was so excited to see my old friends and family. It was a very energetic semester. I entered gym, I study like hell, I was looking forward to fly back home, I got some money and would go for shopping and maybe a girlfriend. You know the stuff you wished for and finally I thought I had the courage to do it. After the exam I got a week before my flight, so nothing to be worried about. Everything was OK, just that I got very eccentric bowel movement. I thought everything was going to be OK or at least , I didn’t expect this going to happen. Really, this just blows up my mind.

to be continue

Timeline Part 1

I want to tell you about my life. I will hopefully be blogging this anonymously. About two years ago, exactly around this time, I was studying just to pass a difficult exam. I am not that talented in programming. Seriously, I am very slow at it. I need to pass this exam to stay in school and received a scholarship from a government agency. I was so focused on the subject and need to pass a few other papers. I remembered that summer was the first summer that I’ll be flying back home. I wanted to meet all my old friends back. There was so much to look forward to. So many things to experienced. I even signed up to join a gym to get my weight back down. I wanted to get a girlfriend, I really do. Life so boring when all your friends has a significant other. It’s just not the same when going out in couples and you’re single.It’s not about you want to like your friends, it’s just that I think it was time I started seeing somebody or having a relationship. I wanted to do many things. Seriously I wanted my life to be something. For the first time in my life , I am a positively motivated. I took chances. I even went running on a treadmill 3 times a week looking like elephant in sweaty clothes. About 2 months before the exam I stopped going to the gym, I focused more on my studies. At least my weight went from 88+ kg to 76 kg. I was happy for myself. This is about the same time I found there’s blood in my stool.

to be continued.