Advice Needed - Colonscopy Prep

Hi Everyone,

Hope you can give me some of your best tips and tricks for getting/keeping the colonoscopy prep solution down. This is my second colonoscopy and I will be using Miralax/Gatorade. The first one was in 2013 and I used Suprep - which was nasty and I don't know if this is normal, but I got extremely cold - my hands and feet were like ice blocks and I could not get warm for a few hours. I had a hard time keeping it down too but I did it - with a few dry heaves (and lots of mantras - "you will not throw up" "If you throw up you will have to do this again" "do you really want to taste it coming back up"). I hate Gatorade, so any suggestions on the best flavor or alternatives would be greatly appreciated since my doctor put the kibash on mixing it with beer, he's no fun! I have done some research on this site and found that some people mix 2 containers - one with Gatorade and another with apple juice but I am concerned about dehydration. Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks!

Thanks for the great ideas, I am going to try the broth, gloves and hard candy. I did the straw last time but I plan to get a larger diameter one so it goes down faster, at least that's the plan and the hope!!

CCinPA, thank you! I feel so much better, I love the idea of splitting it up, it seems less intimidating and most of it, for me, is mind over matter.

Please keep the tips coming!

I have done the Miralax for the past 5 or so years. (I get scoped annually.)
My doctor just says to mix it with any clear, non-carbonated liquid. I have started to mix the whole thing with water (64 ounces - do check the "gallon" thing as noelhelp mentioned) and then I, too split it up. I add different crystallight or "iced tea packet" things to the different containers. The last two times, I drank a lot of it just with water! (It does taste a bit like plastic.)

I, too, get cold in the way you describe. That's the thing I hate the most about it all! So, especially when it is winter, I do not refrigerate the mixture, just leave it all out on the kitchen counter. This past week I still got cold, but not quite as bad. I also drank hot herbal tea (about 8 cups of it, different kinds) sipping the prep and then the hot tea.

Good luck and I hope all this helps some!

I dilute the miralax 1/2 as much as recommended. Then I drink 4oz. of the miralax solution followed immediately by 4oz. of plain water. That washes the taste out of my mouth and gets the right mix in my stomach. Keeping it cold does help with the taste too.

I just did the miralax prep I had done the moviprep before but I vomited every last drop of it and none made is past my stomach
this time I did miralax mixed it with diet sprite because I knew there was no way that I would be able to drink all of that gatorade

if you drink at least one glass of liquids each hour when you get up than dehydration should not be an issue
the more fluids you drink the more effective and easier the prep will be
you can also drink some pedialyte or similar
you can even add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar to your water to help with hydration

as for the prep I also got freezing cold I didnt realize that its common

start doing a low residue diet a week before prep.
eat lightly for a few days before the prep

day before scope:
take two dulcolax tablets at 9 am
take two more at noon
start the prep at least two hours before recommended to give you time to clear out

premeditate thirty minutes before prep with zofran (optional)
charge your phone fully
put some kind of cream on your bum and put more cream in the bathroom along with soothing wet wipes

Drink the prep chilled, with a straw
when it got to be too much fluid I sipped some really salty broth to help make me thirsty for more fluid. the warmth also helped calm the nausea
pretend like you are just drinking a normal glass of whatever the drink is that you are mixing the prep with
if you like cofee you can chase the prep with that, it will also help stimulate your bowels and help clean you out more quickly.

doing a split dose (meaning half in the evening and half the morning of the procedure) cleans you out more effectively. It is also much easier because drinking four glasses of prep twice is much easier than 8 glasses at once

(if you dont want to mix all of the miralax and drink at a time it is roughly 30 grams of miralax and 8 oz of fluid per cup)

good luck

Don't just use one flavor, divide the mix into two or three flavors so you don't have drink the the same one throughout.