My Non-Colonoscopy Experience...

I just went through a harrowing experience while prepping for that dreaded colonoscopy. First let me say, that I ended up NOT having the colonoscopy done. Complications occured during the preparation. It was the worst and longest night of my life.

Wednesday I was drinking lots of water and eating jello and popsicles as instructed but in the evening I just started to not feel very well. I drank the last concoction at 10:00. BTW, the stuff I had to drink was fine. Unlike what everybody else was telling me how you have to drink this whole gallon of terrible tasting stuff, all I had to do was pour this small package of stuff into an 8 oz glass of water and drink it.....and it was tasteless. Easy as hell to drink like in 5 seconds. That part was no big deal.

Anyway, I drank the last pack of 3 at 10:00 and shortly after that the nausea started. I was to then drink 3 more 8 oz glasses of water before midnight. It was getting harder to drink them. I think by midnight I only drank about 16-20 oz by slowly sipping it down. I was feeling sicker and sicker. And then the vomiting started. But after midnight I couldn't drink any water at all. I couldn't sleep. I suffer from insomnia anyway and was afraid to take my usual sleep aid, so I was awake most of the night suffering. The more I got sick, the more dehydrated I was getting and the thirst was getting unbearable. By 2:00-3:00 I was so miserable. I almost wanted to just drink something and say to hell with it and cancel the whole thing, but I didn't. I was getting such a headache and kept putting a cold washcloth on my head.

At some point, I finally dozed off and woke up at 5:00. The headache was still there and there was this roaring in my ears and I was getting unsteady on my feet and feeling really dizzy and shaky. The nausea was still bad and I was still getting sick. After 6:00 I knew I had to go downstairs and start getting dressed to go. We had to leave by 7:00. My husband was up and when he saw me, he became alarmed and said that there is no way they are going to do the procedure in my condition. I was stumbling around. I had trouble walking. I had trouble even talking. My hands felt tingly and weak. I could barely get dressed. My mind was in a very confused state.

By 7:00 we left the house and my body was shaking uncontrollably by then. I was having trouble forming words to even tell my husband where to drive. Luckily, he knew the way. When we got to the Surgery Center, I was stumbling in the building making no sense at all to the receptionist and shaking so bad. She ran and got the doctor. I don't remember a whole lot after that. I know there seem to be alot of people around me. Someone gave me a juice box. I heard someone say "Call 911". Then paramedics were there asking me questions. I tried to get words out to answer but the shaking and trembling was bad. At some point, they put me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital. They connected me to an IV, I'm assuming. I don't remember much at that point.

I was basically crashing bad....

At the hospital ER, they determined quickly that I was suffering from Hyponatremia....my electrolytes were down; my sodium level had dropped to a dangerous level of only 115! Normal is between 135-145....anything below 125 is not good. At that point, I could have easily went into a coma and died. They hooked me up to another IV with sodium and potassium. They put about 5 blankets on me and one of the nurses kept telling me to breathe slowly. The shaking started to subside and I started to be able to talk better. They eventually gave me ice chips, then water and juice.

I was admitted to the hospital. They needed to slowly bring my sodium levels back up to a normal range. By evening, I was feeling so much better.

I was there for the night and they released me yesterday. I'm still not feeling 100%. I still seem to have a slight headache. With all the sodium, my blood pressure seems to be on the high side, so I'm working on getting that back down with my pills. I'm drinking Gatorade which is what I should have been drinking during the prep instead of just water and 7-Up.

I have nobody to blame but myself for what happened. Prior to prepping for this colonoscopy, I have been on a crazy diet and not eating much and using laxatives on almost a daily basis to help with weight loss. I guess using a bunch of laxatives prior to a prep involving alot of laxatives is NOT a good idea! They said at the hospital that with my personal overuse of laxatives my sodium level was probably already on the low side and when I did the prep, it pushed it to a danger level.

And there were other issues like not drinking Gatorade....but also one of my prescriptions with my blood pressure pills is a water pill. They knew at the Surgery Center what my prescriptions were. They should have instructed me to NOT take the water pill prior to the prep, but nobody told me that. So with the water pills in me, that also contributed to the dehydration problem.

So that was my experience....

I still have to reschedule the colonoscopy at some point. But I will be doing things different. I'm not using laxatives anymore...period. I won't take the water pills. I'll drink lots of Gatorade. Plus, I'll know the signs and symptoms. If I start to feel nausea or shaky or headachy....I'll simply quit the prep and drink water and eat and just call and cancel in the morning. But I'm sure, it'll be fine next time. I just screwed up. But God....I still hate the thought of going through that prep again with the fasting....UGH!!