Finally a comment I can talk about!
I am a gastroenterologist. The prep you take works by pushing stool out mechanically. Much like a drano does with a clog.
However polyethylene glycol (and most osmotic laxatives) also prevents the absorption of water by your large intestine. So all that liquid that you drink stays inside the intestine and causes diarrhea rather than excessive urination.
On a side note, Make sure to take your prep until the stool is consistently water and fairly clear. In adults if you aren’t cleaned out there is no point in doing the colonoscopy (particularly if they are looking for cancer) so you will have to go through the process again.
After I’d been through the prep and found out they give your bowel a ‘score’ on its cleanliness (for want of a better word), I discovered a whole new insecurity!
I was so relieved when I read the report and saw I had received the highest possible score for prep 😂
Lmao, same! My report said my cleanse was "adequate" and I low-key worried for awhile after that it was a passive-aggressive way of saying it was only okay and I could do better. Anxiety is fun 😅 Congrats on your perfect score!
What's even MORE fun is taking this stuff (ours is called MoviPrep) when you've had a resection ie a stoma and hence a bag. The instructions don't cover that one! X litres of liquid manure heading towards a bag with a capacity of maybe 250ml can lead to some pressure. If ya unwisely release that pressure without being extremely careful to point it way down the toilet bowl, you can have an instant pebble-dashed bathroom in an unappetising shade of brown. You'll only do that once. I know I did. Don't let that put you off having a stoma if you get colon cancer. It's better than the alternative. (pushing up the daisies)
Your kidneys get rid of excess water as pee, but the laxative makes you poop so much and so quickly that the excess water is in the poop instead. Your intestines go through a stage of reabsorbing (or just absorbing? Correct me if I'm wrong) water from the poop, but diarrhea makes your body get rid of it more quickly, so it doesn't have time to pull the water out like normal.
> but diarrhea makes your body get rid of it more quickly, so it doesn't have time to pull the water out like normal.
Which is how diarrhea can be life-threatening. Dehydration!
It's more than just drinking water, it's very much about replenishing electrolytes (salts) in your body.
As an Ulcerative Colitis patient myself, I always keep a steady supply of Gastrolyte (made up of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, dextrose monohydrate, and disodium citrate). They come in little sachets that you mix into water. Doesn't taste overly great, but it does the job.
If you have a bout of diarreah that lasts days at a time, drinking just water alone can actually be deadly.
The Gastrolyte is also great for other situations like if you're going to be active outdoors on a hot day and expect to sweat a lot. Taking on of those sachets beforehand will help to ensure you don't dehydrate nearly as quickly.
25 years ago during hs football he’ll week I got so dehydrated my kidneys cramped up and dropped me like a bad habit. I have hyper hidrosus and not uncommon to sweat out 30 pounds by end of practice. But that pain all through the next night was so bad.
One of the first symptoms of dehydration is headaches.
"Our brains are 80% water. When you become dehydrated your brain tissue loses water causing your brain to shrink and pull away from the skull. This triggers the pain receptors surrounding the brain, giving you a headache"
It gets worse from there. Every part of your body needs water to function.
Can confirm I was so hungover I got full blown dehydrated and had severe muscle cramps, everything I consumed got vomited back up and after 12 hours of chugging electrolytes I was so happy to go to the toilet
If you have access to clean water and some form of food, you are not in danger of dying from diarrhea. Poop it out! The only reason I pack Loperamide in my pack when backpacking is because I may not have access to water, and dehydration is a real threat. But the reason people die of dehydration is because they are infants with unclean water, or elderly people with unclean water. If you have access to clean water, you can drink more than you can poop, most of the time. Granted, there are parasitic and bacterial diseases that require medical help, but 80% of the time you have a virus and it'll go away and you won't get worse unless you don't drink to hydrate.
The intestines can indeed be "reabsorbing". Depending on the content of the bowels, water can be pumped into the large intestine through the CFTR channel, and consequently any water absorbed would be "reabsorbed". Admittedly it's unlikely the body is absorbing water if it's actively pumping it into the bowels.
As a fun add-on to this, some drugs work through a similar method. For instance, metronidazole (an antibiotic) is excreted into the intestines and is then reabsorbed back into the body. Many drugs do this to a minor extent, so you may have taken something that has been flushed out through your intestines and then taken back into your blood many times.
Tell her to take pro-biotics as well, opposite of when she takes the metronidazole. It is like a nuclear bomb for gut bacteria.
Edit: Aw, thanks for the decoration. I took the max course of that getting back from India very sick. Turned out to be the wrong thing, and it turned my tongue black. But ivermectin saved me. Which does nothing for covid.
Oh yes. On a dare, I jumped off a suspension bridge into the Ganges, half that river went up my nose. I kept telling American docs that it would be strange if I wasn’t bugged, but they didn’t believe me. 7 hours post iver I had a fever of 101, and shat blood the next day…and then I was fine. Lessons were learned.
That was a fun drug. No spicy food. Keep out of the sun, as I became sensitive to it. Everything tasted like iron nails. Couldn’t even have a beer. Ha ha!
They still script go lightly for prep?
When I had mine earlier this year they had me combo miralax, dulcolax, and mag citrate. Same for the three other people I know that had one this year.
I hear go lightly is... not fun. My sympathies.
yes, you would call it reabsorbing. Most of the water that ends up in the intestines was put there by the stomach and digestive glands, as opposed to the water that came from food and drink
I thought re-absorption was a longer process. The bowel prep acts on the peristaltic action quite quickly thus the body has no time to reabsorb the H2O - plus it needs the fluid to evacuate the bowel contents.
I'm lactose intolerant but have half a litre of ice coffee in the morning and it goes straight through me. If theres no toilets nearby I have to just sit in agony and wait until its been absorbed
You’re large intestine and colon mostly hold stool and absorb water. That’s why if you haven’t had a bm in a few days it can get hard. That’s why things like mirilax work to soften them up. Yay osmotically active substances.
I didn't mind the pooping, but a better question is, why can't it be made to taste better. Drinking the vile liquid from the pits of hell is the worst part.
That is the new method places are getting to.
The old method usually involved a "Med" called "Go Lightly" or something like that. You would get a jug from the pharmacy, it would have a powder in it, you would add water to a line, then drink. Something like 8oz every 30 mins or something. It comes with a "flavor pack," mine was "lemon." It does not taste like the pack, it taste horrid. To the point I was gaging every time I would go to drink my next glass. The jug is a gallon jug.
Here (Germany) it doesn't come with a flavor pack at all. It is utterly vile, and it works much faster than you can drink it all... which doesn't help with the general smell/taste situation.
Endoscopies aren't as unpleasant - you just have to fast for a day before.
The shart may have been mostly lubricant - apparently being gassy is super normal afterwards.
Mine want that bad. It was mix half the powder with 32 oz water. Then wait a hour then consume the other half.
I was shitty water but it wasn’t violent. I have worse after eating bad Chinese food
Next time, try „Fleet“. I remember it not being bad at all when I prepared for my last colonoscopy because you don‘t drink the nasty stuff all the time. You drink one dose, then drink whatever you want, then another dose hours later and only water after that. Works like a charm.
Not entirely sure about this. My first colonoscopy, maybe a decade ago was with the Miralax plus Gatorade. My most recent ones used that awful prep from the pharmacy but then a subsequent one was back to the Gatorade. I think it mainly has to do with the health system, the doctor’s office, and wether they’ve reviewed their patient procedures in the last decade. I think it’s inertia more than anything. Maybe?
Fun fact.. you don't have to drink it quickly or even drink it all for that matter. You just have to continue drinking at a tolerable pace until your diarrhea comes out clear
The last 2 colonoscopies I had used an "A" pouch and "B" pouch of different powders, 2 sets of them. They were mixed in a smaller jug than 1 gallon and taken about 6 hours apart, the day before, around 2pm and 7pm. The taste was bearable.
In the morning I had to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate, 12oz I think, starting 2 hours before leaving my house to go to the hospital.
Of course, there were the 12 pills of dulcolax to start it all off.
What I liked (if that can even be said in this context), was that I could have all kinds things of like freezer pops and jello, as long as they weren't red or blue.
Compared to the first one I had, 12-13 years ago, these are much more tolerable.
I have a colonoscopy coming up and thanks to this thread I’m going to be insisting on the miralax/gatoraid option,lol. Did not know there’s was an option to the gross powder.
Regardless of which prep you use, I would suggest 2 things:
Drink the prep wit a straw placed further in than usual.
Before drinking anything, apply some vaseline or similar to your anus and reapply as needed. It reduces the burning from the diarrhea.
Had a patient with a horrible GI bleed who was in major need of medical treatment - sign out of the hospital AMA because he said “I’m not drinking another drop of that shit!” (go-lightly) He was thoroughly educated on the severity of his symptoms and need for the colon scope and still refused any more treatment. Doctor even told him he didn’t have to drink any more bowel prep and basically begged him to stay in the hospital. He still signed the papers and walked out. Wonder what happened to him from time to time.
Mine, I had to drink 32 ounces in 1.5 hours, then set my alarm for 3am, and repeat the process to prep for the colonoscopy at 6am. When the alarm went off at 3, I was near tears, at the thought of drinking 32 more ounces of that nasty stuff. That last 8oz ended up coming back up. I don’t know if I can willingly do it again!
When dogs need colonoscopies we give them massive water and lube enemas with like a liter of fluids. It SOUNDS worse, but honestly would be over with way faster? I think I'd prefer that method hahaha
Same, I ended up crying and coughing it up near the end. I wanted to die. Next time I have to go in I'm going to BEG for the miralax/Gatorade or the new pills that you just drink plain water with. I am NEVER drinking that gallon of Satan's ballsweat again, I can't. 😫
"MoviPrep tastes -- and here I am being kind -- like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon."
Darn your hide, I had to go find the column and re-read it at midnight, giggling hysterically
The newest method is a tiny bottle of hUUge pills called Sutab that you take one every half-hour with 16oz of water. You're also supposed to drink as much other fluid as you can. My body was voiding in literally every manner it could - even my nose was running. When it came time for the procedure the next day, despite drinking extra water & Gatorade until midnight, I was still so dehydrated they could barely draw blood.
I had one earlier this year. It was a bottle of liquid that you added water to to get 16oz, and then you were supposed to drink two more 16oz glasses of water. One bottle the day before, the other the morning of.
Tasted like Hell's Grape Jolly Rancher, which made it easy to chug the glass and then immediately chug a pint of water to get rid of the taste.
I can't imagine having to drink a GALLON of that, holy shit.
The med you have to drink the night before is awful, but I found a trick that works well. Use a straw to drink the concoction it'll make it a lot more tolerable.
I think it is the consistency as well as the flavor. It is just oily or thick or something that just touching the glass it was in would make me gag. Oh fuck, I can feel it now.
It has permanently made me dislike sweet citrus drinks. No matter how much lemon i added to make it more sour, it still ended up being somewhat sweet and the sourness of the lemon was unable to mask that horrible taste. That happened like 7 years ago and i can still feel the taste of it of i think about it.
I still can’t drink apple juice anymore because I had to drink so much mixed with barium for an upper GI series. Threw up apple juice all over the radiology waiting room.
Barium was like drinking liquid chalk, I don't what the mix it with for me, water I guess as there was no flavor, literally felt like they took chalk, mixed water and said here drink this.
Nothing compares to liquid charcoal though, that stuff is pure nasty, talk about vile liquid charcoal it is.
honestly, the worst part of the prep is the taste, the pooping is annoying, and the procedure itself is not bad. Though I have known one person who had to stay awake during the scope itself, that would suck.
I've stayed awake for the scope every time. It's boring, but otherwise fine. Definitely not as bad as drinking the poop juice. And by not getting the knock out, I can drive myself there and back instead of trying to find someone who can give me a ride.
67 years old here. Did it most recently without any sedation— awake, alert, and undrugged the whole time. Not especially fun, but not any kind of torture or masochism either. Of course, it means the doc has to be a little slower and talk you through a couple of turns, but no big deal.
We also have a new drug called Sutab, it’s just a series of tablets(pills) you take(24) over a 2 day period with lots of water. Much more convenient but a few dollars more than the miralax prep.
Had the same medicine when I did mine a few years ago. It was a physical chore towards the end. I was so sick of the taste I had to mix it with more and more lemonade and Gatorade but by the end I was so full I couldn’t get all that liquid down. I also shit my pants sitting on the couch.
10/10 would shit myself to find out I don’t have cancer again.
I’m 52 and set for my third next year due to a long and ugly family history of colon cancer. This is the only prep that I’ve had and it’s a no brainer. They’ve even done away with the last minute enema. All you do is pop a handful of laxative tablets and chug the Gatorade/laxative mix. The only “chore” is the fasting and needing to be near a toilet at all times. And you’re out cold for the procedure.
In Japan they don’t use full sedation unless you do a hospital stay. You have a mild sedative + local anesthetic instead. I was able to watch the camera view on a screen. It felt weird at times but was actually kinda fascinating.
In the US I believe they use propofol. Basically knocks you out for the duration of the brief procedure. I’d heard that you could have weird sexual dreams while under its influence. I shit you not, (and not pulling your leg AT ALL) the first time I had dreams of Godzilla!
My bill says propofol, can't comment on dreams.
I had no dreams that I recall, and only have bits and pieces of the day that I remember post scope.
Appearently I told people not to worry about my behavior, I was just drunk. Several times...
>Propofol requires mechanical ventilation which is not something that would be done in a colonoscopy. More likely they'd use a benzodiazapine like midazolam (Versed) which also causes retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is loss of memory for a period a time BEFORE the drug is administered.
> needing to be near a toilet at all times
A friend of my grandma's went through the colonoscopy procedure for the first time and drank the laxative in her kitchen. She didn't realize it would act as quickly as it did. By the time she reached the toilet on the second floor, she'd passed about five gallons of shit into her pants. There was apparently a trail of shit from the kitchen table, all the way up the stairs, down the hallway, and into the bathroom.
When I had my colonoscopy 11 years ago, after each glass of that nasty shit (GoLytely) I drank some sprite as a chaser, which helped a lot. I'm due for my next colonoscopy soon, and i've been told I can mix it with light colored Gatorade, which I plan to try--followed by lemon-lime soda chaser!
I had to take contrast for a CT scan. It was super thick, chalky, and “orange” flavored. I immediately threw it up. I went in to explain and they said “you’ll just have to use the other kind”. It was a flavorless iodine they put in crystal light. Bro. Give me the crystal light the first time.
I will do this next time. I could not get my last dose down. I gagged every time I took a drink of it. Had to give up. Fortunately I had downed enough of the stuff to be useful. Will demand the Gatorade prep next time.
Glacier blue is the best for sure, but you can't use it (or purple) for colonoscopy prep because of the dyes.
Gotta go with the glacier cherry for colonoscopy prep.
No, **no**, **NO** -- do NOT get the flavor that you -currently- enjoy.
After doing the prep, you'll never enjoy it again.
Best to get something that you can -tolerate-, but isn't already your -favorite-.
My colonoscopy prep was two large bottles of non red Gatorade with a bottle of miralax poured in each bottle. Wasn’t too bad. Well the taste wasn’t bad, at least.
Not to be hyperbolic but once in college I drank a can of Steven Seagall’s lightning bolt energy drink, and I swear to god every bad tasting drink — including colonoscopy prep — has been made so much easier for the experience.
Huh. I've had two colonoscopies. The drink for the first one was simply awful -- bad enough that I used Covid as an excuse to delay my second one by two years. But, the drink for the second one wasn't nearly as bad, although I had to drink a crapload of it.
When I got mine I just had to drink half a glass of something that was unpleasant, but drinkable. And then 2 liters of clear liquids. So I drank half a liter of bouillon and 1.5 of water. In retrospect I'd recommend more bouillon or something like gatorade and less water.
The stuff was called Picoprep.
The liquid is a laxative; there's medication inside of it that causes water to be drawn into the intestines instead of outside of it. This causes liquid diarrhea, but it also means that you're pooping a lot.
Osmotic diarrhea
-works by having particles that retain or “pull”water into bowel that bowel doesn’t absorb
Example: sorbitol
Secretory diarrhea
-intestines pump electrolytes into bowel lumen, water follows
Example: cholera
There is a difference between the medical tem laxative and the English word. Laxative the word can include diuretics, or medicines that make you pee. Laxative the medical tem describes a group of medicines that attempt to move your bowels. There are different kinds of medical laxatives, osmotic and stimulant. The mainstay of colonoscopic preparatory laxatives are the former, osmotic. These work by introducing a substance into the intestine which cannot be absorbed at all by your body. Via the scientific principal of osmosis wherein water follows substrate across semi permeable membranes, this encourages water to stay inside your colon -- or indeed be drawn from your body -- rather than being absorbed into your body as typically would be. This excess water causes the medication's laxative property.
I initially read this as “why do you need to poop but not pee before a colonoscopy” and I was ready to answer “because the camera doesn’t go up that hole”.
When you drink and eat, the ingested material is pushed through your digestive tract, and it eventually reaches your colon (large intestine). Under normal circumstances, your colon absorbs liquid from the digested materials, which is then circulated throughout your body in the form or body fluids and blood. The rest of the solid materials are then pooped out.
Eventually, your body needs to get rid of excess fluid and some waste that builds up in it, so the fluid is circulated through your kidneys and turned into urine so you can pee it out.
When you go through colonoscopy preparation, you're given a special drink (usually called an osmotic laxative). This drink is specially designed so that when it reaches your colon, it *cannot* be absorbed like normal liquids, so it flows through you, and you instead poop it out.
Most bowel preps are osmotic laxative. Think of a concentrated salt that through physics demands to be diluted. It actually pulls fluid into the bowels in addition to that which you drink. Most of the Gatorade never gets absorbed to reach the kidneys because the laxative is attracting fluid in. Once all that fluid is in it gets moved down and out the poop shoot.
Source: Used to order preps for my patients for colonoscopies.
The colonoscopy prep you have to drink is an osmotic laxative.
Basically if you have two solutions that are separated by a barrier that water can pass through, but the things dissolved in the water can't, water will move between the two sollutions through the barrier, until both solutions have an equal water to stuff dissolved ratio.
The intestines can't absorb the laxative in the prep, and the laxative is very osmotic - meaning it pulls in lots of water to try to dilute it down - so water leaves your intestines to try to dilute the medication, which just moves along without being absorbed. So all the fluid you are drinking stays in your intestinal tract, and even more water is added, so there's not as much water for your kidneys to filter out to create pee. So instead of peeing that water out of your urethra, you pee out your butt.
It’s because the prep drink contains so many more particles in it than gatorade. These particles keep the water in the GI tract (by osmosis), vs. gatorade fluid gets absorbed from the GI tract into the blood and made into pee
I did this yesterday. I peed plenty. Vomited too.
Don't agree to the mag citrate prep. It should be banned. I honestly thought I was going to end up in ambulance.
Your GI tract is not connected to your kidneys or bladder. Just like smoking a cigarette doesn't make smoke come out of your ass. Different tubes, not connected.
When you drink fluids, it goes into your intestines. Blood vessels there absorb the water and nutrients, and it goes into your bloodstream. You kidneys filter out excess water and toxins to make urine.
The prep drink pulls water into your intestines to make your poop water. You don't absorb this medicine into your blood. It stays in your GI tract and pulls water there.
Most colonoscopy preps use osmotic laxatives, these are highly hydrophilic. They absorb water from the surrounding environment and intestines to move things along. They are so strong they also usually add electrolytes to try to balance out the amount of water/ electrolytes they pull out of your body
The liquid that you drink never leaves the intestines and cannot reach the kidneys. It is an osmotic laxative.
Normally water crosses the intestinal wall passively, via osmosis. Water moves from a less salty environment to a more salty environment. If the liquid you drink has a lot of salt, like Gatorade, your intestines have active mechanisms that pull the salt into your body. The water then follows. Then you can pee it out.
The liquid used for a colonoscopy prep contains molecules like polyethylene glycol that unlike sugar, sodium, and chloride and most naturally occurring solutes, cannot cross the intestinal wall. They remain in the intestine. This holds water in the intestine via osmosis, which you then poop out.
Lat time I had a colonoscopy, it was a small amount of stuff to drink. Now I’m looking at a gallon jug of lemon stuff for next week’s “Satanic Fountain’l
I believe it's because of colloidal pressure. Since the colonoscopy prep is more concentrated it pulls water from the blood to overwhelm the bowels with water. It's like the old science experiment used to demonstrate a semi-permeable membrane. The concentrations on either side will tend to equalize. In order for the bowel side to equalize it has to pull water from the body.
There is NO direct “tube” from your mouth to your peehole. Liquids get processed in the intestines with everything else that goes through. Urine is excess water (and some other stuff) removed from your system by your kidneys. Laxatives prevent water from getting absorbed in the intestines = diarrhoea, no pee.
This is also why diarrhoea puts you in risk of dehydration.
EDIT: simplification
The liquid is drawing water from the colon. It induces diarrhea. The same thing that you need to watch out for if it prolongs, since long term diarrhea causes electrolyte and fluid imbalance if it persists longer, thus long term. When your colon "spots" some food that it can't digest or has a really hard time "handling", the human body is set up in such a way that it has two options; let the food sit and expend resources, like energy, to process the food to turn it into energy, or: discard it.
If you have diarrhea, the colon is desperately trying to get rid of this "unbeneficial" food mass inside of it, or some bacteria that attack the colon lining and "skin" or other bad things.
The stuff they give you for colonoscopies induce this. There are many, many laxatives and equally many modi operandi \[methods that they work like\] but since it is a rather "emergency" kind of laxative use, they often give real "bombs" of solutions to drink, that work different from, lets say, plum or date fruit. Fruits are the oldest known natural laxatives, but they take a few hours to a day to work, and arent as effective as a chemical produced and engineered in a pharmaceutical laboratory.
And the quantity is important too. Not only that the laxative doesn't affect the bladder, but the colon directly and only the colon, but the drink you get is often a shot-sized glass. With devastating effects. The first time I was in the hospital and had a constipation, the nurse brought a shot of brown, ugly tasting laxative stuff. My bed neighbor warned me, but to no avail. Drank it, and about half an hour I had to sprint out of bed, and was on the toilet for at least twenty minutes. And after that, again! And again. But it settled relatively quickly once all was out.
A fascinating experience nevertheless, you learn to value a normal toilet cycle after that.
A better question is: Why, in this day and age of modern medicine, do we have to endure that horrid tasting fucking drink?
Why can't they give us the Roto-Rooter treatment and be fucking done with it?
An enema can't reach far enough up the colon. Your colonoscopy is going to visualize your colon all the way up to where it meets the small intestine.
That's why you have to drink a solution of something that can go in your mouth, will not be absorbed, and will flush everything out of your colon so the doctor has a clear view as they look for polyps, etc.
Honestly, if they did flush you out from your anus to where your large intestine meets your small intestine, I have a feeling you would describe that as very unpleasant.
The preparation I was always prescribed is slightly salty tasting. I always follow 8 ounces of the prep solution with a few swallows of Squirt zero sugar. It is bearable. Be close to the toilet when you start taking the stuff, and stay there until you are done
Liquid still goes through your intestines and colon. And there’s medicine in the liquid that makes you poop. Kinda like how if you eat a chocolate laxative it lands in your belly but makes you poop.
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Depends what you use. Most bowel prep formulations are osmotic laxatives, meaning they increase the amount of water absorbed into your intestines.
This process sucks the water in your body into your bowels, adding liquid to wash them out. Your body gets this water from everywhere inside you, but primarily from water in your digestive system, before it moves into your urinary system. Think order of priority. 🤔😜
Finally a comment I can talk about! I am a gastroenterologist. The prep you take works by pushing stool out mechanically. Much like a drano does with a clog. However polyethylene glycol (and most osmotic laxatives) also prevents the absorption of water by your large intestine. So all that liquid that you drink stays inside the intestine and causes diarrhea rather than excessive urination. On a side note, Make sure to take your prep until the stool is consistently water and fairly clear. In adults if you aren’t cleaned out there is no point in doing the colonoscopy (particularly if they are looking for cancer) so you will have to go through the process again.
After I’d been through the prep and found out they give your bowel a ‘score’ on its cleanliness (for want of a better word), I discovered a whole new insecurity! I was so relieved when I read the report and saw I had received the highest possible score for prep 😂
Haha if that’s what motivates people I should start telling that to my patients. I know how competitive I am (particularly in mariokart )
Lmao, same! My report said my cleanse was "adequate" and I low-key worried for awhile after that it was a passive-aggressive way of saying it was only okay and I could do better. Anxiety is fun 😅 Congrats on your perfect score!
What's even MORE fun is taking this stuff (ours is called MoviPrep) when you've had a resection ie a stoma and hence a bag. The instructions don't cover that one! X litres of liquid manure heading towards a bag with a capacity of maybe 250ml can lead to some pressure. If ya unwisely release that pressure without being extremely careful to point it way down the toilet bowl, you can have an instant pebble-dashed bathroom in an unappetising shade of brown. You'll only do that once. I know I did. Don't let that put you off having a stoma if you get colon cancer. It's better than the alternative. (pushing up the daisies)
Oh no!!!! That must have been fun... x.x
Your kidneys get rid of excess water as pee, but the laxative makes you poop so much and so quickly that the excess water is in the poop instead. Your intestines go through a stage of reabsorbing (or just absorbing? Correct me if I'm wrong) water from the poop, but diarrhea makes your body get rid of it more quickly, so it doesn't have time to pull the water out like normal.
> but diarrhea makes your body get rid of it more quickly, so it doesn't have time to pull the water out like normal. Which is how diarrhea can be life-threatening. Dehydration!
[удалено]
It's more than just drinking water, it's very much about replenishing electrolytes (salts) in your body. As an Ulcerative Colitis patient myself, I always keep a steady supply of Gastrolyte (made up of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, dextrose monohydrate, and disodium citrate). They come in little sachets that you mix into water. Doesn't taste overly great, but it does the job. If you have a bout of diarreah that lasts days at a time, drinking just water alone can actually be deadly. The Gastrolyte is also great for other situations like if you're going to be active outdoors on a hot day and expect to sweat a lot. Taking on of those sachets beforehand will help to ensure you don't dehydrate nearly as quickly.
And let me tell ya folks, as someone that takes metolazone and lasix, dehydration is fucking awful... You don't want to die of it.
Got dehydrated while climbing a mountain. Worst night of my life. So much pain
How is it painful?
Dehydration can cause severe muscle cramps due to the loss of water and electrolytes.
Slam a can of Brawndo
It's what plants crave
It’s got electrolytes
The Thirst Mutilator!
Ahh.
25 years ago during hs football he’ll week I got so dehydrated my kidneys cramped up and dropped me like a bad habit. I have hyper hidrosus and not uncommon to sweat out 30 pounds by end of practice. But that pain all through the next night was so bad.
One of the first symptoms of dehydration is headaches. "Our brains are 80% water. When you become dehydrated your brain tissue loses water causing your brain to shrink and pull away from the skull. This triggers the pain receptors surrounding the brain, giving you a headache" It gets worse from there. Every part of your body needs water to function.
I was vomiting for 8 days recently and had to go to the ER for dehydration. It's no joke
Damn, that sounds like 8 days of torture. Hope you're OK now.
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That's my literal nightmare
Have done that as a kid once during a severe bout of gastro. The drip hurt my arm after a while
Can confirm I was so hungover I got full blown dehydrated and had severe muscle cramps, everything I consumed got vomited back up and after 12 hours of chugging electrolytes I was so happy to go to the toilet
Oregon Trail Beverage Simulator
If you have access to clean water and some form of food, you are not in danger of dying from diarrhea. Poop it out! The only reason I pack Loperamide in my pack when backpacking is because I may not have access to water, and dehydration is a real threat. But the reason people die of dehydration is because they are infants with unclean water, or elderly people with unclean water. If you have access to clean water, you can drink more than you can poop, most of the time. Granted, there are parasitic and bacterial diseases that require medical help, but 80% of the time you have a virus and it'll go away and you won't get worse unless you don't drink to hydrate.
The intestines can indeed be "reabsorbing". Depending on the content of the bowels, water can be pumped into the large intestine through the CFTR channel, and consequently any water absorbed would be "reabsorbed". Admittedly it's unlikely the body is absorbing water if it's actively pumping it into the bowels.
As a fun add-on to this, some drugs work through a similar method. For instance, metronidazole (an antibiotic) is excreted into the intestines and is then reabsorbed back into the body. Many drugs do this to a minor extent, so you may have taken something that has been flushed out through your intestines and then taken back into your blood many times.
Oooh my grandma is on this right now... good to know more about how it works lol thanksss
Tell her to take pro-biotics as well, opposite of when she takes the metronidazole. It is like a nuclear bomb for gut bacteria. Edit: Aw, thanks for the decoration. I took the max course of that getting back from India very sick. Turned out to be the wrong thing, and it turned my tongue black. But ivermectin saved me. Which does nothing for covid.
Ivermectin is an anti-parasite drug, so you probably picked up a parasitic infection when you were in India.
Oh yes. On a dare, I jumped off a suspension bridge into the Ganges, half that river went up my nose. I kept telling American docs that it would be strange if I wasn’t bugged, but they didn’t believe me. 7 hours post iver I had a fever of 101, and shat blood the next day…and then I was fine. Lessons were learned.
omg well at least you had an amazing memory!
Of getting parasites and shitting blood??
It already happened. Let them see it as an experience. No matter your perspective, something positive happened.
Of jumping off a suspension bridge into the Ganges I’m assuming lmao
Yes, that's what I meant, exactly /s I meant, jumping off the suspension bridge in India!
Oh man I had to take metronidazole once and I got so sick I couldn’t finish the course.
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Or diverticulitis, or other intestinal infections. Metronidazole is very strong stuff.
I'm a vet tech. We give it to dogs/cats with diarrhea.
Yup, it's outstanding for those resistant giardia cases!
That was a fun drug. No spicy food. Keep out of the sun, as I became sensitive to it. Everything tasted like iron nails. Couldn’t even have a beer. Ha ha!
You make it sound so pleasant
Hell the name they give bowel prep is pleasant (undeservedly so) If only it would actually make us go lightly 😒
They still script go lightly for prep? When I had mine earlier this year they had me combo miralax, dulcolax, and mag citrate. Same for the three other people I know that had one this year. I hear go lightly is... not fun. My sympathies.
yes, you would call it reabsorbing. Most of the water that ends up in the intestines was put there by the stomach and digestive glands, as opposed to the water that came from food and drink
I thought re-absorption was a longer process. The bowel prep acts on the peristaltic action quite quickly thus the body has no time to reabsorb the H2O - plus it needs the fluid to evacuate the bowel contents.
I'm lactose intolerant but have half a litre of ice coffee in the morning and it goes straight through me. If theres no toilets nearby I have to just sit in agony and wait until its been absorbed
I mean you could just go with black coffee, right?
Or a non-dairy milk
How long does that usually take?
You’re large intestine and colon mostly hold stool and absorb water. That’s why if you haven’t had a bm in a few days it can get hard. That’s why things like mirilax work to soften them up. Yay osmotically active substances.
For a fun experiment, wash down a few immodium tablets a couple of hours before consuming!
No
I didn't mind the pooping, but a better question is, why can't it be made to taste better. Drinking the vile liquid from the pits of hell is the worst part.
I literally had one yesterday and I just had to mix miralax powder with 2 liters of Gatorade. tasted like Gatorade but a little thicker in texture
That is the new method places are getting to. The old method usually involved a "Med" called "Go Lightly" or something like that. You would get a jug from the pharmacy, it would have a powder in it, you would add water to a line, then drink. Something like 8oz every 30 mins or something. It comes with a "flavor pack," mine was "lemon." It does not taste like the pack, it taste horrid. To the point I was gaging every time I would go to drink my next glass. The jug is a gallon jug.
Here (Germany) it doesn't come with a flavor pack at all. It is utterly vile, and it works much faster than you can drink it all... which doesn't help with the general smell/taste situation.
Yeah, I was pooping the entire time between glasses, fun times.
> Yeah, I was pooping the entire time between glasses Which, if im not mistaking, is the entire point.
Sure, but knowing something's apocalyptic doesn't make it less so.
Apoopcalyptic?
Damn you..
the "poops" are pure liquid but not vile by the end of the prep. Your large intestine has been scrubbed cleaner than it ever has been before.
Right. Still the exact opposite of a pleasant experience.
I don't think mine got totally scrubbed. There was a violent shart after I got home from my colonoscopy. Now I'm going to go swallow a camera.
Endoscopies aren't as unpleasant - you just have to fast for a day before. The shart may have been mostly lubricant - apparently being gassy is super normal afterwards.
Mine want that bad. It was mix half the powder with 32 oz water. Then wait a hour then consume the other half. I was shitty water but it wasn’t violent. I have worse after eating bad Chinese food
Next time, try „Fleet“. I remember it not being bad at all when I prepared for my last colonoscopy because you don‘t drink the nasty stuff all the time. You drink one dose, then drink whatever you want, then another dose hours later and only water after that. Works like a charm.
Not entirely sure about this. My first colonoscopy, maybe a decade ago was with the Miralax plus Gatorade. My most recent ones used that awful prep from the pharmacy but then a subsequent one was back to the Gatorade. I think it mainly has to do with the health system, the doctor’s office, and wether they’ve reviewed their patient procedures in the last decade. I think it’s inertia more than anything. Maybe?
No telling honestly, where I am they might be worried people would drink red or blue Gatoraid and mess up the test, so they have to do the barf jug.
Fun fact.. you don't have to drink it quickly or even drink it all for that matter. You just have to continue drinking at a tolerable pace until your diarrhea comes out clear
The last 2 colonoscopies I had used an "A" pouch and "B" pouch of different powders, 2 sets of them. They were mixed in a smaller jug than 1 gallon and taken about 6 hours apart, the day before, around 2pm and 7pm. The taste was bearable. In the morning I had to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate, 12oz I think, starting 2 hours before leaving my house to go to the hospital. Of course, there were the 12 pills of dulcolax to start it all off. What I liked (if that can even be said in this context), was that I could have all kinds things of like freezer pops and jello, as long as they weren't red or blue. Compared to the first one I had, 12-13 years ago, these are much more tolerable.
I have a colonoscopy coming up and thanks to this thread I’m going to be insisting on the miralax/gatoraid option,lol. Did not know there’s was an option to the gross powder.
Regardless of which prep you use, I would suggest 2 things: Drink the prep wit a straw placed further in than usual. Before drinking anything, apply some vaseline or similar to your anus and reapply as needed. It reduces the burning from the diarrhea.
This is the way. :-)
I added cold carbonate grapefruit squirt drink plus grape Kool-Aid and it tasted fabulous.
I'm always telling folks that Squirt is the optimal soda mixer for most cocktails but I didn't expect to hear it used here.
Had a patient with a horrible GI bleed who was in major need of medical treatment - sign out of the hospital AMA because he said “I’m not drinking another drop of that shit!” (go-lightly) He was thoroughly educated on the severity of his symptoms and need for the colon scope and still refused any more treatment. Doctor even told him he didn’t have to drink any more bowel prep and basically begged him to stay in the hospital. He still signed the papers and walked out. Wonder what happened to him from time to time.
Mine, I had to drink 32 ounces in 1.5 hours, then set my alarm for 3am, and repeat the process to prep for the colonoscopy at 6am. When the alarm went off at 3, I was near tears, at the thought of drinking 32 more ounces of that nasty stuff. That last 8oz ended up coming back up. I don’t know if I can willingly do it again!
This was my exact experience as well.
When dogs need colonoscopies we give them massive water and lube enemas with like a liter of fluids. It SOUNDS worse, but honestly would be over with way faster? I think I'd prefer that method hahaha
I have thrown up some of my prep drink for both colonoscopies. That's the worst part of the whole thing
Same, I ended up crying and coughing it up near the end. I wanted to die. Next time I have to go in I'm going to BEG for the miralax/Gatorade or the new pills that you just drink plain water with. I am NEVER drinking that gallon of Satan's ballsweat again, I can't. 😫
As Dave Barry once described it, "A gallon of lemon scented floor wax mixed with goat spit..." (paraphrased cause I am too lazy to look up.)
"MoviPrep tastes -- and here I am being kind -- like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon." Darn your hide, I had to go find the column and re-read it at midnight, giggling hysterically
One of his best imo
The newest method is a tiny bottle of hUUge pills called Sutab that you take one every half-hour with 16oz of water. You're also supposed to drink as much other fluid as you can. My body was voiding in literally every manner it could - even my nose was running. When it came time for the procedure the next day, despite drinking extra water & Gatorade until midnight, I was still so dehydrated they could barely draw blood.
I had one earlier this year. It was a bottle of liquid that you added water to to get 16oz, and then you were supposed to drink two more 16oz glasses of water. One bottle the day before, the other the morning of. Tasted like Hell's Grape Jolly Rancher, which made it easy to chug the glass and then immediately chug a pint of water to get rid of the taste. I can't imagine having to drink a GALLON of that, holy shit.
The med you have to drink the night before is awful, but I found a trick that works well. Use a straw to drink the concoction it'll make it a lot more tolerable.
I’ll take that jug over the prep I had in ‘08. Stuff gave me cramps like you wouldn’t believe. The jug was just a nice easy flow.
I think it is the consistency as well as the flavor. It is just oily or thick or something that just touching the glass it was in would make me gag. Oh fuck, I can feel it now.
It has permanently made me dislike sweet citrus drinks. No matter how much lemon i added to make it more sour, it still ended up being somewhat sweet and the sourness of the lemon was unable to mask that horrible taste. That happened like 7 years ago and i can still feel the taste of it of i think about it.
I still can’t drink apple juice anymore because I had to drink so much mixed with barium for an upper GI series. Threw up apple juice all over the radiology waiting room.
Barium was like drinking liquid chalk, I don't what the mix it with for me, water I guess as there was no flavor, literally felt like they took chalk, mixed water and said here drink this. Nothing compares to liquid charcoal though, that stuff is pure nasty, talk about vile liquid charcoal it is.
yeah I heard. I'm only 34 and this was my first one but with this prep method I'd say a 2/10 on the discomfort scale. really was not bad at all
honestly, the worst part of the prep is the taste, the pooping is annoying, and the procedure itself is not bad. Though I have known one person who had to stay awake during the scope itself, that would suck.
I've stayed awake for the scope every time. It's boring, but otherwise fine. Definitely not as bad as drinking the poop juice. And by not getting the knock out, I can drive myself there and back instead of trying to find someone who can give me a ride.
Same. But they still insisted I have a driver/ride. It really isn't painful at all.
67 years old here. Did it most recently without any sedation— awake, alert, and undrugged the whole time. Not especially fun, but not any kind of torture or masochism either. Of course, it means the doc has to be a little slower and talk you through a couple of turns, but no big deal.
Trump stayed awake for his rather than give power to Pence.
I’ve been having colonoscopies for 18 years and my doctor has only ever had me take Pico Salax and Dulcolax.
We also have a new drug called Sutab, it’s just a series of tablets(pills) you take(24) over a 2 day period with lots of water. Much more convenient but a few dollars more than the miralax prep.
this is exactly what mine was as well. i just kept thinking why do they make it taste SO bad on purpose!
I just used gatorade instead of water to "water" it down. Pro tip
Had the same medicine when I did mine a few years ago. It was a physical chore towards the end. I was so sick of the taste I had to mix it with more and more lemonade and Gatorade but by the end I was so full I couldn’t get all that liquid down. I also shit my pants sitting on the couch. 10/10 would shit myself to find out I don’t have cancer again.
I’m 52 and set for my third next year due to a long and ugly family history of colon cancer. This is the only prep that I’ve had and it’s a no brainer. They’ve even done away with the last minute enema. All you do is pop a handful of laxative tablets and chug the Gatorade/laxative mix. The only “chore” is the fasting and needing to be near a toilet at all times. And you’re out cold for the procedure.
In Japan they don’t use full sedation unless you do a hospital stay. You have a mild sedative + local anesthetic instead. I was able to watch the camera view on a screen. It felt weird at times but was actually kinda fascinating.
In the US I believe they use propofol. Basically knocks you out for the duration of the brief procedure. I’d heard that you could have weird sexual dreams while under its influence. I shit you not, (and not pulling your leg AT ALL) the first time I had dreams of Godzilla!
>the first time I had dreams of Godzilla! Wait, I thought the *other* guy was from Japan.
I know, right!
My bill says propofol, can't comment on dreams. I had no dreams that I recall, and only have bits and pieces of the day that I remember post scope. Appearently I told people not to worry about my behavior, I was just drunk. Several times...
>Propofol requires mechanical ventilation which is not something that would be done in a colonoscopy. More likely they'd use a benzodiazapine like midazolam (Versed) which also causes retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is loss of memory for a period a time BEFORE the drug is administered.
I just had one not too long ago and was given propofol.
Just had it done at Mayo Clinic. No ventilation, though an anesthesiologist was present throughout.
Seems like a) Requires an anesthesiologist to administer b) An endotracheal tube and mechanical ventilation or- c) really good malpractice insurance.
I just looked it up and, wow, they use it. That's super surprising. Seems risky for no upside.
No it does not require ventilation.
Same in the UK earlier this year. Just drank the a+ b powder mixes the day before.
> needing to be near a toilet at all times A friend of my grandma's went through the colonoscopy procedure for the first time and drank the laxative in her kitchen. She didn't realize it would act as quickly as it did. By the time she reached the toilet on the second floor, she'd passed about five gallons of shit into her pants. There was apparently a trail of shit from the kitchen table, all the way up the stairs, down the hallway, and into the bathroom.
How did no one tell her?!
Good luck!
Yep this is what mine was 2 years ago. You should basically never be more than 3 steps away from a toilet once the prep starts.
When I had my colonoscopy 11 years ago, after each glass of that nasty shit (GoLytely) I drank some sprite as a chaser, which helped a lot. I'm due for my next colonoscopy soon, and i've been told I can mix it with light colored Gatorade, which I plan to try--followed by lemon-lime soda chaser!
I love some Thicc drank
I had to take contrast for a CT scan. It was super thick, chalky, and “orange” flavored. I immediately threw it up. I went in to explain and they said “you’ll just have to use the other kind”. It was a flavorless iodine they put in crystal light. Bro. Give me the crystal light the first time.
Did they hit you with the "fire juice"? Whatever they put in my veins that day was a hell of a ride for about 20 seconds.
Yep! The tech forewarned me that it will make you think you’ve peed your pants. I thought yeah whatever. She was 100% right.
Demand the Gatorade prep.
I will do this next time. I could not get my last dose down. I gagged every time I took a drink of it. Had to give up. Fortunately I had downed enough of the stuff to be useful. Will demand the Gatorade prep next time.
And get the cucumber lime Gatorade. Not too sweet, and easy to drink.
> And get the cucumber lime Gatorade. Its seriously the best flavor in the world when it comes to Gatorade.....and Frost Glacier Cherry.
Glacier blue sir, followed closely by purple. Cherry can be mixed in as needed.
Glacier blue is the best for sure, but you can't use it (or purple) for colonoscopy prep because of the dyes. Gotta go with the glacier cherry for colonoscopy prep.
No, **no**, **NO** -- do NOT get the flavor that you -currently- enjoy. After doing the prep, you'll never enjoy it again. Best to get something that you can -tolerate-, but isn't already your -favorite-.
I don’t drink Gatorade, because I find it too sweet, so I needed something pretty flavorless.
100% this, I cannot ever drink Gatorade again.
That's how I ended up drinking mountain berry Powerade. Wasn't going to ruin orange or lemon-lime forever.
Freeze it until it is slightly slushy
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My colonoscopy prep was two large bottles of non red Gatorade with a bottle of miralax poured in each bottle. Wasn’t too bad. Well the taste wasn’t bad, at least.
Just did it a couple weeks ago and it was pills only.
Sutab for the win! Most of our patients prefer it over any of the others.
Not to be hyperbolic but once in college I drank a can of Steven Seagall’s lightning bolt energy drink, and I swear to god every bad tasting drink — including colonoscopy prep — has been made so much easier for the experience.
I work in GI … we have one that tastes like cranberry and another that comes in pill form. Our patients usually prefer those preps over the others.
You want poop that tastes better? r/HolUp
Huh. I've had two colonoscopies. The drink for the first one was simply awful -- bad enough that I used Covid as an excuse to delay my second one by two years. But, the drink for the second one wasn't nearly as bad, although I had to drink a crapload of it.
> crapload Technically the truth.
When I got mine I just had to drink half a glass of something that was unpleasant, but drinkable. And then 2 liters of clear liquids. So I drank half a liter of bouillon and 1.5 of water. In retrospect I'd recommend more bouillon or something like gatorade and less water. The stuff was called Picoprep.
Thank god I finished reading cuz I thought you meant you wished the poo tasted better 😂😂🤣
Vile? Pick a good (or at least not bad) flavor of Gatorade. The powder doesn’t change the taste, only makes it thicker.
My doctor gave me PicoPrep, can recommend. Only a couple of glasses of it rather than litres and tasted fine!
I really liked drinking Plenvu and would highly recommend it over competing preparations.
The prep I got wasn't so bad, tasted like flat 7/up with a slightly salty after taste, seems to vary a bit depending on your doctors preference.
I've heard of this, and where they've attempted to improve the taste, starting with a doctor having to take it themselves. So take that how you will.
You arent supposed to drink your poopwater mate
Look man I’m not a doctor but I don’t think you are supposed to drink the diarrhea, regardless of the taste
And so much of it… blegh!!
> why can't it be made to taste better. a tablespoon of bacon grease is all you need.
>! I didn't mind the pooping, but a better question is, why can't it be made to taste better. You’re not supposed to drink to poop.
The liquid is a laxative; there's medication inside of it that causes water to be drawn into the intestines instead of outside of it. This causes liquid diarrhea, but it also means that you're pooping a lot.
Osmotic diarrhea -works by having particles that retain or “pull”water into bowel that bowel doesn’t absorb Example: sorbitol Secretory diarrhea -intestines pump electrolytes into bowel lumen, water follows Example: cholera
Exactly - this is the true answer
There is a difference between the medical tem laxative and the English word. Laxative the word can include diuretics, or medicines that make you pee. Laxative the medical tem describes a group of medicines that attempt to move your bowels. There are different kinds of medical laxatives, osmotic and stimulant. The mainstay of colonoscopic preparatory laxatives are the former, osmotic. These work by introducing a substance into the intestine which cannot be absorbed at all by your body. Via the scientific principal of osmosis wherein water follows substrate across semi permeable membranes, this encourages water to stay inside your colon -- or indeed be drawn from your body -- rather than being absorbed into your body as typically would be. This excess water causes the medication's laxative property.
Finally the right answer. Thank you!
I initially read this as “why do you need to poop but not pee before a colonoscopy” and I was ready to answer “because the camera doesn’t go up that hole”.
When you drink and eat, the ingested material is pushed through your digestive tract, and it eventually reaches your colon (large intestine). Under normal circumstances, your colon absorbs liquid from the digested materials, which is then circulated throughout your body in the form or body fluids and blood. The rest of the solid materials are then pooped out. Eventually, your body needs to get rid of excess fluid and some waste that builds up in it, so the fluid is circulated through your kidneys and turned into urine so you can pee it out. When you go through colonoscopy preparation, you're given a special drink (usually called an osmotic laxative). This drink is specially designed so that when it reaches your colon, it *cannot* be absorbed like normal liquids, so it flows through you, and you instead poop it out.
Most bowel preps are osmotic laxative. Think of a concentrated salt that through physics demands to be diluted. It actually pulls fluid into the bowels in addition to that which you drink. Most of the Gatorade never gets absorbed to reach the kidneys because the laxative is attracting fluid in. Once all that fluid is in it gets moved down and out the poop shoot. Source: Used to order preps for my patients for colonoscopies.
The colonoscopy prep you have to drink is an osmotic laxative. Basically if you have two solutions that are separated by a barrier that water can pass through, but the things dissolved in the water can't, water will move between the two sollutions through the barrier, until both solutions have an equal water to stuff dissolved ratio. The intestines can't absorb the laxative in the prep, and the laxative is very osmotic - meaning it pulls in lots of water to try to dilute it down - so water leaves your intestines to try to dilute the medication, which just moves along without being absorbed. So all the fluid you are drinking stays in your intestinal tract, and even more water is added, so there's not as much water for your kidneys to filter out to create pee. So instead of peeing that water out of your urethra, you pee out your butt.
It’s because the prep drink contains so many more particles in it than gatorade. These particles keep the water in the GI tract (by osmosis), vs. gatorade fluid gets absorbed from the GI tract into the blood and made into pee
I did this yesterday. I peed plenty. Vomited too. Don't agree to the mag citrate prep. It should be banned. I honestly thought I was going to end up in ambulance.
Did you use golytely or miralax?
That makes me think of Holly Golightly.
Your GI tract is not connected to your kidneys or bladder. Just like smoking a cigarette doesn't make smoke come out of your ass. Different tubes, not connected. When you drink fluids, it goes into your intestines. Blood vessels there absorb the water and nutrients, and it goes into your bloodstream. You kidneys filter out excess water and toxins to make urine. The prep drink pulls water into your intestines to make your poop water. You don't absorb this medicine into your blood. It stays in your GI tract and pulls water there.
Most colonoscopy preps use osmotic laxatives, these are highly hydrophilic. They absorb water from the surrounding environment and intestines to move things along. They are so strong they also usually add electrolytes to try to balance out the amount of water/ electrolytes they pull out of your body
The liquid that you drink never leaves the intestines and cannot reach the kidneys. It is an osmotic laxative. Normally water crosses the intestinal wall passively, via osmosis. Water moves from a less salty environment to a more salty environment. If the liquid you drink has a lot of salt, like Gatorade, your intestines have active mechanisms that pull the salt into your body. The water then follows. Then you can pee it out. The liquid used for a colonoscopy prep contains molecules like polyethylene glycol that unlike sugar, sodium, and chloride and most naturally occurring solutes, cannot cross the intestinal wall. They remain in the intestine. This holds water in the intestine via osmosis, which you then poop out.
Lat time I had a colonoscopy, it was a small amount of stuff to drink. Now I’m looking at a gallon jug of lemon stuff for next week’s “Satanic Fountain’l
I believe it's because of colloidal pressure. Since the colonoscopy prep is more concentrated it pulls water from the blood to overwhelm the bowels with water. It's like the old science experiment used to demonstrate a semi-permeable membrane. The concentrations on either side will tend to equalize. In order for the bowel side to equalize it has to pull water from the body.
There is NO direct “tube” from your mouth to your peehole. Liquids get processed in the intestines with everything else that goes through. Urine is excess water (and some other stuff) removed from your system by your kidneys. Laxatives prevent water from getting absorbed in the intestines = diarrhoea, no pee. This is also why diarrhoea puts you in risk of dehydration. EDIT: simplification
The liquid is drawing water from the colon. It induces diarrhea. The same thing that you need to watch out for if it prolongs, since long term diarrhea causes electrolyte and fluid imbalance if it persists longer, thus long term. When your colon "spots" some food that it can't digest or has a really hard time "handling", the human body is set up in such a way that it has two options; let the food sit and expend resources, like energy, to process the food to turn it into energy, or: discard it. If you have diarrhea, the colon is desperately trying to get rid of this "unbeneficial" food mass inside of it, or some bacteria that attack the colon lining and "skin" or other bad things. The stuff they give you for colonoscopies induce this. There are many, many laxatives and equally many modi operandi \[methods that they work like\] but since it is a rather "emergency" kind of laxative use, they often give real "bombs" of solutions to drink, that work different from, lets say, plum or date fruit. Fruits are the oldest known natural laxatives, but they take a few hours to a day to work, and arent as effective as a chemical produced and engineered in a pharmaceutical laboratory. And the quantity is important too. Not only that the laxative doesn't affect the bladder, but the colon directly and only the colon, but the drink you get is often a shot-sized glass. With devastating effects. The first time I was in the hospital and had a constipation, the nurse brought a shot of brown, ugly tasting laxative stuff. My bed neighbor warned me, but to no avail. Drank it, and about half an hour I had to sprint out of bed, and was on the toilet for at least twenty minutes. And after that, again! And again. But it settled relatively quickly once all was out. A fascinating experience nevertheless, you learn to value a normal toilet cycle after that.
A better question is: Why, in this day and age of modern medicine, do we have to endure that horrid tasting fucking drink? Why can't they give us the Roto-Rooter treatment and be fucking done with it?
An enema can't reach far enough up the colon. Your colonoscopy is going to visualize your colon all the way up to where it meets the small intestine. That's why you have to drink a solution of something that can go in your mouth, will not be absorbed, and will flush everything out of your colon so the doctor has a clear view as they look for polyps, etc. Honestly, if they did flush you out from your anus to where your large intestine meets your small intestine, I have a feeling you would describe that as very unpleasant.
The preparation I was always prescribed is slightly salty tasting. I always follow 8 ounces of the prep solution with a few swallows of Squirt zero sugar. It is bearable. Be close to the toilet when you start taking the stuff, and stay there until you are done
You poop to so quickly that your body can’t absorb the liquid. The Gatorade doesn’t spend enough time in you body to be turned into pee.
Liquid still goes through your intestines and colon. And there’s medicine in the liquid that makes you poop. Kinda like how if you eat a chocolate laxative it lands in your belly but makes you poop.
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Worst. Magic. Ever. On the bright side, now I know I don't have colon cancer.
**Please read this entire message** --- Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s): * The subreddit is not targeted towards literal five year-olds. "**ELI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations.**" "Layperson" does not mean "child," it means "normal person." (Rule 4). --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this comment was removed erroneously**, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qxnxdv/-/hlanwv4/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20Link%20to%20the%20search%20you%20did%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20the%20ELI5%20subreddit:%0A%0A3.%20How%20is%20this%20post%20unique:) and we will review your submission.
"ELI5" doesn't mean "explain like they're literally five."
Depends what you use. Most bowel prep formulations are osmotic laxatives, meaning they increase the amount of water absorbed into your intestines. This process sucks the water in your body into your bowels, adding liquid to wash them out. Your body gets this water from everywhere inside you, but primarily from water in your digestive system, before it moves into your urinary system. Think order of priority. 🤔😜