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**pfcs49** · 15 Jan 2021, 8:06 PM

You're gonna need help!!

**pfcs49** · 15 Jan 2021, 8:27 PM

and a life preserver!

**Treeza04** · 16 Jan 2021, 11:22 AM

Thanks pfcs ! I feel much better now - NOT !!!

My home health aid has agreed to come help - so that makes me feel somewhat better

**Tim C.** · 16 Jan 2021, 12:59 PM

It’s somewhat more complicated for us, better to have help there that’s good. For me i would follow the MD that’s going to perform the procedure, along with your own instinct of how much you can tolerate end clean yourself out. Honestly my biggest struggle was eating jell-O and water and regular medications on top of it. Not having protein meant not having energy because my metabolism is fast but my G.I. tract is slow. I know I snuck some boullion etc. and I was not completely clean. Procedure will still be done. You will wake up groggy and hungry and gassy, maybe a little bit butt hurt.
Don’t let a curmudgeon like Phil freak you out over it. You will soldier through it, we all do.

**Treeza04** · 17 Jan 2021, 11:47 AM

HI Tim - thanks for your reply - I will have my home health aid there to help - she normally helps with my BP so I am confident she will have it under control.

My only concern with following the direction of the performing doctor is he doesn't start things until 11 pm. I worry I won't be complete with evacuation by time I have to be up and on the move, 7:30 am. I have a couple weeks to make my game plan. Just hope it's the right one !

Again, thanks for your response !

**Treeza04** · 23 Jan 2021, 5:07 PM

Sooooo, is this "crap" going to just oooze out or is it going to come out with force? *seriously*

**baldfatdad** · 23 Jan 2021, 6:22 PM

I told them I wouldn't do it at home. WHen that stuff kicks in you crap, and crap and crap. Unless your aid is going to stay with you from the time you start, until you are taken in the OR you are going to have a problem. There is suppose to be another way to do it. A vacuum system that cleans you out without the chemicals. I believe there is also a pill that's a camera that can be swallowed and it takes pic on the way through. This is all hearsay, but they aren't the one's that have to deal with the mess and the possible damage to your skin from sitting/laying in crap.

**Treeza04** · 23 Jan 2021, 7:19 PM

Thanks baldfatdad - you confirmed my worries - Were you able to have prep done somewhere? Or did you end up not having the colonoscopy? I have been fighting having this done for quite a few years, because of the prep. I had 2 scopes prior to my SCI, so I know how the prep can be.

My aid was going to come and stay overnight to get me thru the process - get me cleaned up, dressed and in my chair. My husband was going to take me to my appointment.

I have a couple weeks before it's scheduled. I think I am going to call and reiterate the paralysis and see if they have dealt with this situation before. They have equipment for transfer, since I don't self transfer. Not sure that means they have actually had a paralyzed person go thru the process.

Thanks again for your input

**slow_runner** · 23 Jan 2021, 9:40 PM

Originally posted by Treeza04 View Post

When doing prep for a colonoscopy do you follow the directions from the prep box, the ordering doctor, or the doctor doing the procedure? Box directions and ordering doctor are similar, but completely different then the doctor doing the procedure. The directions from the doctor doing the procedure has me in fear that the clean out process won't be complete due to the time it is said to start.
By the way this is my first go at it since my SCI, so I'm a little nervous. I do my bowel program in the bed so I fear a complete mess! **YIKES** Thanks in advance for any and all replies.
T

Hi Treeza.
I have just returned from the OSRU to home.
My new situation after being torn from my chair by my lovely dog Lewis means a significant loss of function, independence and strength.
I am due for a colonoscopy procedure later this month, maybe next,; yet to be confirmed.
Until equipment arrives at home, my bowel cares are now required to be carried out on my bed. Therefore I have similar concerns as you do. My carers are not 24/7 and I seek no pleasure in the very likelihood of lying in my own excrement for any longer than minutes, if at all.
I informed the medical people that there is no way that I will be doing the preparation while in bed at home, then making my way to hospital for the colonoscopy. That plan would be too fraught and involve logistics that my home cares cannot fulfill.

Overnight in hospital or however much time is required to complete the cleanse. Then a short(?) bed ride to the theatre for the colonoscopy.

Can you arrange for the same where you are?

**pfcs49** · 23 Jan 2021, 10:12 PM

Reading through this, I am SO glad I got the colostomy! Just splice a 10 gallon garbage bag to my colostomy bag and wait!

Sorry if I'm gloating.

**Tim C.** · 23 Jan 2021, 10:19 PM

Hang in there Treez
You’ll be through it soon, small sacrifice and then you can rebuild your electrolytes etc. and begin enjoying yourself again, get back into your bowel routine again and you’ll be just fine. Once you get back on plan shower well no muss no fuss you don’t have to carry around stink with you.

**vjls** · 23 Jan 2021, 10:23 PM

me i kinda quit eating for several days before then did it i had a shower chair but its the best tthing next to sp makes my life much more independent aas a quad. plus i went dow tje river the colorado for a week could not have done that with out it the colostomy no worry about accidents. go for it i just wish they had told us about it in rehab. i have enough hands and pinch i can change and take care of myself . good luck

**tvot** · 24 Jan 2021, 1:21 PM

Who do you listen to? I listen to myself and did not take the doctors advice and everything worked out fine. This was 10 years ago at age 50. BTW I cross referenced with John Hopkins and some other hospital. I can't remember the name but everything worked out fine in the end, pun intended. Your concerns were the same as mine. It's all about the timing. If I listen to the GI doctor I would've been s******* all over that hospital that morning. First off let me say I had constipation issues mostly all my life. So there was a massive amount of poop doing this prep. I started at 7 PM with just this https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-Ma...10-Oz/34772430. At about 8 PM the pressure started building, at that point I used an Enemeez. After that I started going I kept drinking hot tea every hour. I must have drank about 6 quarts so it took from say, 7 o'clock till about 2:00 to 3 AM and I was finally done. I might add I did this all while laying on my left side I believe laying in bed helps a lot to relieve the pressure. So I went to the hospital about 9 AM I totally cleaned out I got to watch the scope on the monitor, but I had to fight to stay awake to watch it everything. So with that said good luck and relax don't listen to the alarmists here.

**baldfatdad** · 24 Jan 2021, 2:55 PM

You haven't said why you're getting the colonoscopy? My responses should be tempered by me not having had one in 38 years and I'm 74. I don't go looking for trouble.

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