Will I be able to go to school while preparing for a colonoscopy?

My friend did it. However she actually wore an adult diaper just in case. I know it sounds crazy but you don’t want an accident.

It depends upon how close you are to a restroom, and how comfortable you are with having to get up and down repeatedly in class, potentially disturbing others and annoying the professor. During an exam I fear you might get accused of cheating as well. I think, it is worth sharing the situation with the professor. They usually understand medical situations. Make certain to get a note from your doctor, just in case attendance is part of your grade.

Reschedule the scope, if possible! I hope all goes well. I have had it three times already (the procedure) and I am only early 40s! Good luck!

There are two (that I know of) test prep procedures. One will need you to keep close to the toilet for an entire day before the test. The one they gave me last time made me stay close to the toilet from around 3:00 in the afternoon until the test the following morning.
When you are prepping there is no time to find a bathroom. You need to get there in less than a minuet. (In my experience. )

Take the day off.

You really won’t be able to attend classes or take exams during the prep period. From what I hear, you’re pretty much sitting on the toilet. Don’t make yourself miserable; postpone one or the other.

I can’t speak personally, but my boss recently had one and had intended on coming into work. He didn’t. It was apparently extremely uncomfortable and he felt dreadful.

I have had three colonscopies, here is my advice, but I am not a doctor, and every individual is different.

1. Have the colonscopy done in the afternoon. The prep is much easier, especially concerning fasting. You will be fasting mostly over night. You will be able to eat one time the day before in the morning. If you have a morning colonscopy you fast all day the day before. Once you start taking the medicine, assuming you are taking the liquid, you must stay near a bathroom. So, if your last meal is breakfast and then yiu start meds in the afternoon, you could go to a class in the morning.

2. The day you have the colonscopy you absolutely cannot plan on anything except finishing your prep (which includes being in the bathroom) going to where you are having the procedure, and the rest of the day you will be too medicated to do anything that takes real attention. You cannot drive, you shouldn’t plan on studying, making important decisions, nothing like that, you will be somewhat impaired.

If you are taking pills like ducolax for the entire prep and not the liquid, those pills take about 6 hours to start kicking in but do not cut it close, because once it starts it is big time living on the toilette.

I personally never take the entire prep. I figure they give the same amount to 220 pound men and I am 140. @Rarebear could verify if that is true or not I am just guessing. I assume @Rarebear will not agree with me to adjust your dose though, and you do risk not getting cleaned out well enough if you do. I have never had a problem and I usually take about ¾. I can tell once everything coming out of me is coming out basically like yellow pee that I am cleaned out. But, the first 12 hours you might get that way, but then after some rest and you start taking the second shift of medicine solids can start coming out again, so don’t stop halfway and not start up the meds again. If you take certain drugs it can make yu more constipated and harder to clean out, like if you regularly take narcotics, and then you need more meds then the average person.

The doctor will provide you with the instructions for the medicine, you can ask if he has different schedules for morning or afternoon procedures if you think one will suit you better and compare them.

If this test cannot wait I assume there is an immediate concern. I think your professor will let yu take the test a different day with one of his other classes.

Rarebear is giving you free medical advice; “Take the day off.”

I can offer the same advice as a two-time participant: “Take twenty-four hours off from the first sip of the prep.”

Depends™

Reschedule the whole thing, don;t have it during finals week. Wait until you’re done with your exams.

Why are you having it? If your stool is very narrow and it is very difficult to go to the bathroom do not postpone. If it is for some other symptom then maybe you can just postone a week. Discuss it with your doctor.

You could go to school, but as others suggest, take the day off. The prep and actual procedure, though not terrible, are a bit unsettling, even for those of us who have had more than one. You ought to give yourself a chance to relax beforehand.

I had it done very recently, by what I presume is the most current prep method. I could not have gone anywhere or done anything during the 24 hours preceding the procedure or about 12 hours afterward (by which time it was midnight).

You must explain the situation to your doctor. If the colonoscopy is too urgent to be postponed, then you will have to reschedule the exams. It’s not possible to do both.

I had a colonoscopy last month.

The day before, I worked a normal day and I ingested only water, coffee and chicken broth.

At 6pm that night I started drinking the prescribed gallon (literally 1 gallon!) of laxative, and you can imagine how I spent the rest of the evening.

The day of the colonoscopy I did not work. The procedure was at noon and I was back to normal at about 3pm.

There are different preparations, though, your prescription may be different than mine, so find out ASAP what they will give you and read the directions thoroughly.

I started my preps in early evening; by 3:00 AM., I simply settled in on the bathroom rug with a pillow, blanket and crank radio. By 5:00AM, I stayed on the toilet seat while drinking down the dregs.

The one thing I forgot was to keep a tube of Desitin on hand for the dreadful diaper rash I developed.

Personally, I found that having it done the earlier in the morning, the better. Having to wait until afternoon would have been much worse.

I vehemently disagree with @JLeslie the prep has nothing to do with the weight of the patient and everything to do with the quality of the exam. Intestines are more or less the same length whether or not you’re 90 pounds or 290 pounds.

I can’t tell you how many colonoscopies I have done and have had to abort because people did not complete their prep and their colon was dirty.

@Tequila, please listen to @Rarebear.

I had to drink the fluid in two sessions of two hours each, at a specific time. It took me the full two hours each time just to get through drinking the stuff, sipping pretty steadily the whole time. The timing is important.

I followed all directions exactly, used the flavor packet provided, chilled the liquid, sipped it through a straw (a suggestion I got here), and didn’t combine it with anything else, including ice. I drank all of it, right to the last drop. And everyone who spoke to me at the clinic prior to the procedure asked me if I’d drunk it all. The doctor emphasized the importance of that beforehand.

Full confession: less than a minute following the last drop, I knew it was coming back up. I lost about the last pint or maybe as much as a quart. But I already knew I was completely empty by then . . . and at that point there was nothing at all that I could do about it anyway.

Believe me, you don’t want to go through the prep twice because the first one wasn’t done right.

During the prep process you will almost certainly learn the meaning of ‘Never trust a fart’ I wouldn’t even think about taking any tests on prep day nor test day.

Oh, and don’t use red or orange Kool-aid to flavor it. It turns everything red in the colon. We don’t like red.

@Rarebear Do you at least agree the afternoon colonscopy is a better schedule for the patient? I knew you would disagree with my other statement.

@Jeruba They asked me if I drank the whole prep too, and I was completely honest. The nurse looked at me in disbelief.

Not to preempt @Rarebear‘s answer, @JLeslie, but why wouldn’t that be a matter individual to the patient? First thing in the morning might be 7:00 a.m. for some people, just for an example, but for me it’s 1:00 p.m.

@Jeruba I absolutely agree. I am generalizing with assumptions about what time people tend to wake and sleep. However, I will say that morning is typically usedto mean before 12pm. Afternoon would be after noon. The time an individual first wakes up might vary, but if you said, “I am going for an exam in the morning,” everyone around you would presume you mean before noon. Wouldn’t you agree?

Would a 9am colonscopy be better for you, just curious? Since you consider morning 1pm?

Also, knowing what came out of you while still sipping the last two cups of the prep that you drank, would you still say they were necessary? I am not in any way trying to convince the OP to not follow directions from her doctor, I think she should, I was just conveying my experience and I agree with @rarebear all too often people are not cleaned out enough.

Early morning was much more palatable for me. I would not extrapolate from my experience and needs to anyone else, in this or any other medical matters.

Just a reminder, I did tell the OP to look at the various prep schedules and decide for herself. If she wanted to squeeze a class in before she started the prep.

@gailcalled Why? Were you given an option?

I’ve had it a couple times, The worst thing is the laxative. Then to make sure that you are totally humiliated you get an enema in the short procedure unit before you go into the operating room. They give you a light anesthetic and you wake up in a recovery room. You have to sit around for a while and fart because they fill you up with air. When you feel ready they let you go home. You need a driver or a bus. You might feel o.k. but it takes the anesthetic a few hours to wear off completely. They may remove some polyps so there may be a little bleeding but nothing serious. The doctor that did the procedure will tell you the results and what, if anything, is next. With any luck you won’t have to do this for at least another 5 years.

@JLeslie I do not agree at all. Morning colonosocpies are way better as generally the prep is fresher. By the afternoon, many people who have finished their prep hours before get their right colon covered in biliary staining making flat adenomas hard to see.

If you do an afternoon colonoscopy it’s much better to wake up very early in the morning to do your prep.

And frankly, it’s no use debating me on this one. I have done literally thousands of colonoscopies, and if there’s one thing I know intimately, it’s assholes.

@Rarebear Interesting. I am not trying to debate. Honestly. I was interested in your answer. My parents and I all prefer the afternoon prep, and I know a lot of people who are not even given the choice. The prep ends the same amount of hours before the procedure, there is no difference when we have it done. Well, more or less.

I also think some people lie when they say they drank the whole thing, don’t you?

But, I have the example of my aunt who was just 100 pounds, took what they prescribed and still was not clear. Too many narcotics in her system is likely the cause in her case.

Woah… thanks for all the responses. I’ll be taking the day off. I have had a 20 lb weight loss, chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, etc. My family doc actually suspects Crohn’s disease but since I have had high dose radiation to the bowels for a previous (liver) malignancy, they want to rule out cancer ASAP. I’m skeptical about taking the full amount of laxatives and stuff too, (although I certainly will)... I poop so much already and hardly eat, I’m probably pretty empty anyway.

“I also think some people lie when they say they drank the whole thing, don’t you?”

I can always tell when they lie.

@Tequila With your history you certainly would not want to take any chances. Let us know how it all goes, hopefully all is well. Don’t plan to take any tests the day of prep, the day of the procedure or the day after if you feel you need to study right before you final. You will not be able to study for hours after the procedure.

@Rarebear I believe you can. So they do though, right?

GA, @Rarebear.

@JLeslie Maybe you should quit while you’re ahead. :-)

How full of crap are you?

@JLeslie “I believe you can. So they do though, right?” I’m not understanding this.

@Rarebear, I believe @JLeslie is responding to this statement of yours:

I can always tell when they lie.

I think her question means “I believe you can tell when they lie. So they do lie, though, right?” In other words, some people don’t drink all the fluid, but they tell you that they did: true?

I’m sure she’ll set me straight if I’ve misinterpreted.

My last colonoscopy untied my balloon knot. I <TMI ALERT> now have Hemorrhoids when I previous had none before the procedure. BUTT, they did find no polyps.

@Jeruba @JLeslie Ah, I understand. Didn’t understand the context of the question. :-)

I was half kidding when I said I could tell if they lie. But I can always tell if they’re not prepped well.

I really did write a poor sentence. I am packing up my house to move to FL, well they are here packing, but I have been getting ready for the packing, and it is chaotic.

@Rarebear What I wonder is, did you mean the people who are not prepped well, you can tell if they lie?

What about the people who were prepped well, do you know if they lie? Does your practice ask every patient if they completed the prep when they arrive for the procedure? I think a lot of people would lie and say yes, and then if they actually only did ¾ of it and were sufficiently cleaned out you would never know. Not just you, doctors in general. I am almost tempted to say it might be better if doctors ask after the test. That way if everything went well the pt might be more inclined to tell the truth. My first and second time was with the same doctor, his office only asked if my bowel movement were basically clear and like water, not if I finished the prep. The third one I had they asked specifically if I finished the prep.

Everyone talks about the discomfort of living by the bathroom, but there is also a small percentage of people who have very negative consequences from the medicine. I seem to remember, but correct me if I am wrong, the prep that used to be used caused kidney damage in some people. The electrolyte prep can be a problem for some people also. I am sure it is a very small percentage that have very negative consequences, but if the dose was smaller and still effective, they might have a smaller chance of any sort of catastrophy.

The people who did not prep well, if they are lying, they are lying, we can’t get accurate info from them. Unless maybe it is done anonymously maybe. Maybe they took the first dose, thought it was good enough and never did the second. I can see how people might do that, and why it is a huge problem.

@JLeslie I don’t care if they take the whole prep or only part of a prep, as long as they are clean. It’s just that in my not so insignificant experience, those who don’t take the whole prep have dirty colons. If someone refuses to do a whole prep and has a dirty colon, I tell them that I may have missed something because of their poor prep. It’s the patient’s responsibility to follow directions, and if they don’t follow it, it’s not my problem. Their loss, not mine. I move on to the next case.

When I have my screening colonoscopy done in a couple of years I will probably do a double prep because I want to be damn sure I’m not coming back for 10 years. I will also want to be the first case of the day.

The fleets phosopho soda preps used to cause renal failure in rare occurances. But nobody uses it any more as not only are there better alternatives, but the phospho soda caused annoying petechial artifacts in the colon. The PEG preparations now do not have that risk although they are a bit like putting a garden hose down your esophagus and turning it on high.

@Rarebear So you have no interest in the medical establishment gaining information that might give a more comfortable dose of medicine that is still effective to patients? I don’t mean that you should take on the responsibility to gather tye data or analyze it, I am only talking about it from a gain knowledge for better medicine standpoint.

My memory fails me, so correct me here too, isn’t the last dose of meds at night for the early morning colonscopies?

Oy. I give up.

Ok.

I have not had this procedure yet, but I never really thought about it. I suppose there may be some “leakage” afterward. I don’t think I would run out and buy a whole package of adult liners, but maybe you can tuck a bit of toilet tissue in your underwear. And I would advise listening to a lot of relaxation music before you go in!