This is the worst day. Tomorrow I will at least know it’s going to be over bylate morning. Today is the day of clear liquids followed by the laxative prep that will result in me feeling somewhat nauseous and ‘off’, no matter what I do. I know because I go through this every year.
It’s recommended that people like me with Crohn’s Disease have an annual colonoscopy. It’s the only time my doctor actually gets to see what’s going on inside. I feel like it would be unfair not to give her that opportunity but I can’t say I ever look forward to it.
I’ve learned a few things along the way. For me, definitely choose the laxative prep which is only 10oz in volume. Because I never succeeded in getting down the ones that were a gallon or even a half gallon. 10oz of prep plus 64oz of clear liquids of my choice is so much better. Relatively speaking, because the 10oz part is – well, I would never deliberately choose to drink something which tastes like that.
Also, I make my own clear liquid stock because after the sweetened prep I will want something savory to take the taste away. And store bought stock all tastes insipid to nasty. It’s not hard to make a tasty stock at home. And if strained through cloth it will be clear enough. There’s magic way of clarifying stock with egg whites which I succeeded with a few times in the past. But then a couple of years ago it dismally failed, ruining a whole batch of stock, making it all more cloudy with unstrainably small bits of egg white. So now I don’t dare do that anymore.
I buy apple juice because it seems like the prep is unable to ruin the flavor of that for me. So I have water (of course), clear apple juice, clear chicken stock (my favorite for this purpose) and herbal teas (not red), for now until 3 hours before the procedure. They say jello (not red) is allowed but I’m pretty sure sugar messes up my digestive system. So that seems like a bad idea. There’s already enough sugar in the apple juice.
I also need to manage my expectations. As I mentioned, the physical experience of what the laxative does, while mostly not painful per se, will detract from my feelings of physical wellness. It will contribute to me feeling at least somewhat ‘off’. I expect lack of protein is a factor too. But I just need to be a little bit patient – until tomorrow late morning, when it will all be over for another year.