Chapter 23: Colonoscopy #3 Recap

WARNING:  GROSS POST AHEAD.  DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T LIKE STORIES THAT INVOLVE BODILY FUNCTIONS...

Yesterday I had my third colonoscopy.  By the way, I'm 27 years old and always the youngest one by far in the waiting room.  It's pretty amusing.

I have to say that it actually gets easier every time.  I know what I'm doing now...I'm not nearly as nervous, and the process really isn't THAT bad.  That being said, this time the prep that I used did NOT work.  Ugh.  It made for an interesting experience to say the least.

The last time I had a colonoscopy was in 2012.  I couldn't do one last year because I was pregnant and unable to be put under anesthesia.  Anyhow, the last time they offered to let me try a different prep rather than the Golytely (pronounced "go lightly"--what a horrible joke) jug of nastiness .  This prep included 2 Dulcolax tablets (which are essentially laxatives) followed by an entire bottle of Miralax (14 days worth of poop juice in 8 glasses of Gatorade in only 2 hours!!) 

I jumped at the chance to try it because the Golytely junk is horrendous and makes me want to barf with every drop that I try to drink.  Like, it literally makes my eyes water, I gag, and just want to crawl into the fetal position and cry.  Not so helpful when you have a newborn.  Well, it worked like a charm two years ago.  This time: not so much.  I drank the entire thing by 8:30 last night.  I did not start "going" until 3:00 in the morning, and then I was up every half hour.  But apparently it just didn't do the trick and my poor GI doctor had to do some....suctioning.  EWWWWWW.  I guess when that happens they also have to pump extra air into your colon during the procedure too.  Let's just say that any extra air that goes IN must eventually come OUT.  Uff da.  It literally takes a special individual to do colonoscopies for a living....you couldn't pay me enough. 

Oh well.  It's done with for another year.  (All you old lucky people that only have to get them every 5-10 years, I am so jealous!) 

He did say that everything looked pretty good...there was evidence of mild to moderate ulcerative colitis because I am in a flare right now, but the Prednisone that I am taking is definitely working he said.  There was no evidence of massive ulcers like when I was first diagnosed.  He did lots of biopsies, and we will get those results back within the week (this is just standard procedure, so I'm not worried).  

We also made the decision to move my infusions closer together.  Normally I get them done every 8 weeks but now I will go every 6 weeks (to hopefully prevent any future flare-ups).  I think that's a good idea, so I'm happy with the decision.  When I went to the Mayo Clinic the doctor there warned me that the only other option I have left is to have infusions more often if I were to have a flare.  In addition, she explained that typically if one biologic treatment loses its effectiveness then other biologic treatments (like Humira for example) wouldn't be as effective either, so even though my GI doc put that out there as another possibility, that's probably not a realistic option in my opinion.  

I feel like we are eventually coming to the end of the road on these biologic treatments.  I do want to continue with Remicade treatments as long as they will work.  Essentially my last option is surgery to remove my colon....we'll just cross that bridge if/when we get there!

For now, I'm glad that Colonoscopy #3 is "behind" me.  :-)

And if you read this whole thing, kudos to you.  I'm super impressed.  I really write some of these blogs for my own personal memory, so I'm very flattered that there are people interested enough in my story to read about my never-ending poop saga.