(NSFW) I am going to have a colonoscopy, on July 4th, and I need to buy something called PEG and Light Will I throw them up or is it just like drinking a cola?

The colonoscopy prep cleans out your intestines for examination. They are laxatives. You will spend a lot of time on the toilet.

Lot of time in the John ! Drink water too and make sure not to have anything with red food coloring.

I had one a few years back., the prep stuff was not bad at all.

I had it about 3 or 4 years ago. The drink I put in Gatorade. I don’t drink Gatorade and the combo of the drink plus the Gatorade was totally disgusting. I was awake till about 3 trying to drink it, and didn’t read the directions that said it all had to be drunk by midnight or whatever the night before. I stopped without drinking all of it. It was still fine.

I’ve had far too many colonoscopies and have had several different preps. My first few had me drink like a gallon of salty, limey tasting yuck. Polyethylene Glycol mixed with a little vodka isn’t too bad, but still a little salty. You won’t need to drink as much. Sometimes, the Doctor will also have you take a massive dose of Dulcolax just to make sure you are squeaky clean inside.

I HIGHLY recommend getting some moist towelettes to sooth your aching anus. You are going to be fartin and pooping for several hours. May aggrivate your hemorrhoids if you have them.

You will just be crapping a lot as people said, not throwing up. I have never heard of someone getting nauseas from it. Be warned that if you feel you are already all cleaned out and choose not to take the second set of dosing, you will not be sufficiently cleaned out. I never take all the prep, but I am not advising you not to. I feel strongly they overdose the average woman, and I have been through three colonscopies, so I know the drill and my body. Do you have an afternoon appointment? That prep is much better for afternoon colonscopies in my opinion.

@jca Were you advised to put it in Gatorade? I would think that would not be advised since the preps already have tons of potassium.

Have a jar of vasoline on hand for the chapped skin around the anus. It can get very irritated and will add to the discomfort.

@JLeslie: They gave a choice of two drinks – Gatorade and something else which I forgot at this point what that was. Just the rule was that it could not be red. I drank some blue Gatorade with the laxative in it. Nasty nasty stuff!

@jca Interesting. I think I drank ginger ale when I wasn’t drinking water.

We dispense a LOT of these prep kits from my pharmacy. It usually requires you to drink 4 litres of PEG with electrolytes and magnesium over a period of a few hours, followed by a bisacodyl suppository. Whoever named the brand GoLytely had a hell of a sense of humor!

If your stomach can’t handle all that fluid, or you have a gag reflex to the salty taste, there is a new option called Prepopik which entails drinking much less volume… but is about double the cost even with insurance.

O.K. I had it done… I’m perfect. I was told to just buy some Metamucil.