Yesterday started off really good. Donny had seen an estate sale on estatesales.net and mentioned that he wanted to stop by before I had to start my colonoscopy prep. It was in a gorgeous neighborhood that we had never driven through before. Besides that house that was having the sale, the house across the street was also for sale. Yes please.

It was the second day of the sale, but I managed to find this antique frame with hand drawn flowers and a piece of vintage Mexican pottery. Donny found some saw horse things for the greenhouse that is actually going up today.

Since I’d been on a clear liquid diet since 6:00 the night before my stomach was growling. Loudly. The only thing I’d had that morning was black coffee. My prep started at 10 that morning so when we got home I had some jello and took the first 4 Dulcolax. I was fine until about an hour after and then the nausea hit.

I tried to drink some peach flavored water, but my stomach was not having it. I thought, well it’s not TOO bad. Boy was I going to find out just how wrong I was.

At 2:30 I took my second dose of 4 Dulcolax. I was still feeling nauseated so I did some comfort reading by one of my favorite authors. Easy, mindless reading to keep my mind off how I was feeling.

And then at 3:00 the fun started and by fun I mean sheer hell. Like I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

This is a WHOLE bottle of Miralax mixed with 64oz of Gatorade. You have to drink 8 oz every 10 minutes. Just looking at the picture makes my stomach sick. And as luck would have it, I hate Gatorade. I’m not going to sugar coat anything. This was awful. I couldn’t leave the bathroom and after a few hours I was throwing up and had a massive headache. I was feeling so bad that I was seriously considering canceling the whole thing, but I had come this far and just told myself that I could push through.

I could feel myself becoming dehydrated, but I just couldn’t drink anything. Donny ran to Sonic and got me an extra large cup of ice. That was the best ice I’ve ever had. About 9:30 I went to bed but was up every hour to run the to bathroom.

I made it through the night. We left for the hospital at 5:40 with me still having to use the bathroom every 20 minutes. I was so relieved to be called back and get my saline IV. It made me feel so much better.

To anyone who is afraid of the actually colonoscopy, don’t be. You are completely asleep with the most wonderful drug. They woke me up afterward and I had no idea where I was. Everything went well and just like that they were discharging me. My discharge notes said the procedure took 8 minutes and also my prep was excellent. It damn well had better been.

Here are some suggestions to make the prep easier.

Don’t take 8 Dulcolax even if that’s on the instructions. Trust me on this. 2-4 is fine. Eight is overkill and I think that’s what caused so many of my issues.

Get some depends or something like that. You will need them. I didn’t have any so I stuck a puppy pee pad into my underwear like a saddle. My husband was laughing so hard and begged me to let him take a picture. That was a no.

You may have to make a bed in the bathtub. It’s just practical. You can thank me later. This only works if you don’t have to sit on the toilet and puke into the bathtub.

If you like Gatorade, pick the flavor you dislike the most because you won’t want to drink it ever again.

You will be starving when you’re released, so don’t worry about calories and eat what makes you happy.

And here’s a happy picture of my welcome home

P.S. – this post is not to put anyone off on getting a colonoscopy. If I had to I would do it again, I would, but I’d use my tips and do a little more research into the prep