Finding out you have a food allergy can be devastating.

Finding out you have a food allergy can be devastating. I think my first thought was, "What does that mean?" You ask your doctor and he says just avoid that food. It's just a skin test. They aren't entirely accurate.

I am going to attempt to give you ideas and recipes on how to avoid corn. It can be quite the challenge.

Sorry that my blog is evolving into a little bit of everything in life.



Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Colonoscopy

For a colonoscopy you must clean your bowel!  This is the hard and most sucky part of the whole thing.  Everyone told me this!  It's true!  I live 10 minutes from the hospital.  We were gone exactly 2 hours, after 3 days of prep.  I've been home for 4 hours now and ready to relieve myself of the following information until next time.

Initially I was freaked out by the fact I had to have this procedure.  If  you are reading this because you now have to do it too, I'm deeply sorry.  I'm sure you'll be fine.  They told me so just as I was falling asleep. 

The appointment is made, and I did a bit of research on our corn allergy sites.  Corn allergy girl has a wonderful medical information sheet on her web site.  Print it out and take it with you when you pre-register and talk to the nurse.

The nurse gave me instructions to follow a procedure of taking the following medications the day before the procedure.  When I got home I called my compounding pharmacy, and had them check the following medications.

Yes- Miralax

No on these
Magnesium Citrate
Dulcolax (Bisacodyl) Tablets
Su prep kit
Colyte
Gatorade, PowerAde, Propel - We already know we can't drink these.

The nurse then had me call the doctors nurse.  She said since I can only take the Miralax to start 3 days before the procedure by taking 1 cap full 3 times a day.  My procedure was Wednesday, so starting Sunday, and Monday I took 3 cap fulls a day.  I purchased the 17 gram size of Miralax.

The nurse was also concerned that I would be dehydrated, since I couldn't drink the sports drinks.  I looked up how to make sports drinks.  Easy lemon juice, orange juice, sugar, dash salt, and water.  Earlier this year I tried lemons that my uncle grew.  I was ok with them, therefore I tried Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Juice.  At least it could be 1 citrus I could use.  I was ok with it.  I have been avoiding trying it for 6 years.  I also make my own chicken and beef broth.  I had some bones in the freezer, so Monday I stewed them all day.

Since I read other comments on Delphi about other colonoscopy where they did liquid diet for 2 days, I decided to limit my food on Monday just to be sure I was cleaned out.  Monday I only took the Miralax 2 times.  I ate eggs, toast for breakfast, and applesauce for dinner on Monday.  My bowels were moving.  I was also taking in a lot of lemon aid with a dash of salt.  This part was great.  I was missing lemon aid.  I also drank chicken, and beef broth.

Tuesday clear fluids day - I drank over a gallon of lemon aid sometimes with a dash of salt, and beef broth all day.  I took a heaping teaspoon of Tri-salts just in case.  Its a calcium supplement that has the side effect of loosing my stools, since I couldn't take the dulcolax.  At 5 pm I mixed the Miralax 8.3 ounces (weight on small kitchen scale, you could guess 1/2 17 gram bottle) to 2 quarts lemon aid with the dash of salt.  Drink 1 quart a 1 cup at a time every 15 minutes.  Then drink the 2nd quart 8 pm 1 cup at a time every 15 minutes.  By 10 pm I was clear!  I still got up 3 or 4 times through the night.

I have to say I did get dehydrated.  It was hard for them to find a vein for my plain saline IV.
Perhaps I should have drank more water until the 2 am cut off??  Or maybe I didn't need that much Miralax.

Do get the corn allergy letter from Corn Allergy Girl.  Everyone was at attention and concerned about what they can use on me.  I am not as sensitive to paper products.  I told them that but at least it made them aware.  One nurse said she had on going sinus infections.  I told her when I got off corn I stopped having sinus infections.  They all had all sorts of questions.  And now that I think back they used only fabric products.  I remember she was using a towel instead of a padded plastic pad.

After the procedure the doctor said he took out a small polyp that was sent for testing, and told me that my bowel was very clean.  :-) 

Good luck!  let me know your experience or if this helped you.


1 comment:

River Glorious said...

My doctor told me that if I used Miralax, "it's on you" if something goes wrong, as in if it makes my intestines porous and I have bleeding. He said to do research and then we will schedule. I'm concerned about prep more than what they will use for anesthesia.

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