Colonoscopy Day

Polyp 0116, originally uploaded by Buck Cash.

Okay, so today I had my first ever colonoscopy. Seeing as how I'm 54 years old, it's a common thing for guys my age anyway, but mine was triggered by something spotted on my recent PET scan, which was a follow-up to my Stem Cell Transplant for my Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Anyway, prep for it started yesterday, when I went on a liquid diet at about noon. At 11:PM I took 3 Dulocolax/Bisacodyl tablets, sold off the shelf at Walmart. At 6:AM this morning I started drinking a mixture of lemon-flavored Gatorade and Miralax. Over the course of 3 hours, I drank 96 ounces of Gatorade mixed with 357 grams of Miralax. The rest of my morning was spent running to the bathroom to vacate my colon. Over and over. And over.

All in all, it wasn't too bad at all. I like Gatorade, and the Miralax didn't seem to do much to the flavor. It was just quite a bit more in a 3 hour period than I was used to, and of course the many bathroom breaks because of it.

At 2:PM, I showed up at the hospital, filled out a form, and they ushered me right in and had me change into a hospital gown. Then I got onto a gurney, got an IV installed, and got wheeled into the room where the procedure was to be done. A nurse shot a little something into my IV port to get me relaxed, and the doctor explained what to expect. I was rolled over onto my left side, knees pulled up towards my chest, and I could see what they were seeing on the big monitor I was facing, which I found pretty interesting.

They found and removed 3 polyps. One was the size of a golf ball, and I heard the doctor tell the nurses, "You might see one this big every 25 years." After removing it, he placed two metal clips to stop the bleeding on a severed artery, and that pretty much wrapped it all up.

The photo is of my golf ball sized polyp before we went our separate ways.

All in all it went pretty well, and it went really easy. The doctor said to have another colonoscopy in about 5 years, add fiber to my diet, and have a great day.

I guess that's about it till next time!