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Comment by drewg123 | Hacker News Reader

the bowel prep is easy and painless

Bullshit. I've got Crohn's, and have had more colonoscopies than I can count since age 13. About 75% of the time, I'm throwing up due to the prep. The prep is the WORST part.

It has gotten better over the years. If you go for one, do NOT let them give you the jug full of powder. I've had much better luck with prep-o-pik.

The other PITA is they generally won't let you go for the procedure by yourself, since you're under anesthetic and don't trust you to get home OK. That means you have to find a friend who is willing to wait 2+ hours for you.

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Yeah, drinking a gallon of anything that fast is no fun, but the laxative they gave me was terrible. The worst part was that I tried drinking it cold, which made it sit in my stomach and build up, so I ran out of space to drink more. I heated it up, which got things moving again, but made it taste even worse.

I will say though, after having the colonoscopy, my general bowel symptoms(never ending gas, mostly) improved dramatically. I'm thinking about doing a chemical cleanse every year just to keep things working fine.

You reset your microbiome; I think this is what the colon cleanse people are trying to achieve. I usually try to take good probiotics and eat right (avoid processed foods, especially sugar) after to try to establish good gut bacteria.

I've tried all kinds of probiotics, different kinds of fiber, I regularly eat yogurt and kefir, even prebiotics. I've had normal diets, and low-carb diets(not keto). Nothing ever made a significant difference until I did the cleanse. It wasn't even a natural cleanse. It was 2 gallons of chemicals.

I'm a firm believer that, sometimes, chemicals are the right answer.

My doc. said he always uses the pills with water to prep for his own colonoscopies. I did the same (I believe the pills were named OsmoPrep) - 4 pills every 15 min with 8 oz of lukewarm water. Not pleasant but quite tolerable for me, and I will again ask for pills the next time.

My prep was a stimulant, I think Bisacodyl, followed by a gallon of polyethylene glycol solution (they had me use sport drinks that weren't red).

I didn't particularly enjoy it, but it wasn't a problem.

I think people will have different tolerances to different protocols.

Good advice, and I've edited my comment above to clarify. I've only had to two rounds of bowel prep so far - albeit on two different types of prep stuff. Had the jug the first time. I'm sorry to hear about your experience with it.

Thanks, I appreciate that. The prep is one of my pet peeves, so I'm sorry for the violent disagreement above!

The laxatives make you puke? Is it from the flavor/consistency or something else?

After a while, its like your system realizes what you're putting into it and just eventually rejects it. Its not a squeamish thing. I can always swallow all of it. Its just that it comes back up some time (~1 hour) after drinking when I'm near the end of the prep.

Depends on what you use of course, but mine tastes like oil. Definitely puke-inducing after a few liters.

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