Recently on February 9, 2024 I had my most recent colonoscopy. Overall the report was good and I had a 10 millimeter polyp in my descending colon however all other areas were normal. This makes sense given I rarely have had issues with my Crohn's since my last colonoscopy which I discussed here.
Just like the last time I had my colonoscopy I decided to use Sutab bowel prep. Overall, I have been happy with the Sutab bowel prep given the other bowel preps leave an awful taste in your mouth that you literally never forget!
I started taking the Sutab pills around 4:30 P.M. (even though I was instructed to take them at 6 P.M). Before I took the Subtab pills I took one Zofran pill for any anti nausea possibilities. My view is "hey as long as it gets through the system right?". There are two rounds for Sutab (one the day before) and the other round is the day of the procedure. Each round has 12 pills that you take with 4 16 ounces of water.
Around 8 P.M. is when I started to feel the salt water storm in my stomach and was in the bathroom off and on for about a dozen times between 8:30-10:30 P.M. Since I had the second round early in the morning I decided to wake up at 12:45 A.M. (again recommended time was 2 A.M.) however since my appointment was at 7:30 A.M. I was well within the 8 hour window Sutab recommends. Before I took my second round of Sutab pills I took two Zofran pills which really helped me out and felt good after that. I was up for probably an hour and at that point consuming more water was a little more of a challenge but still fairly easy compared to the alternative. Overnight I probably went through two rolls of toilet paper and for protection had 3 layers of Depends underwear to protect any leakage (it did a fairly good job in protecting me) I actually slept fairly well given all this and woke up around 5 A.M. to get ready, shower, and hop into the car. The interesting thing is at the beginning of the night my rear hurt a little but throughout the night it didn't hurt as much as it had in the past. Taking that hot shower in the morning before the colonoscopy always feels amazing.
My procedure started around 9 A.M. and I was out by 10 A.M. After the colonoscopy I went to a local diner for a CLT (cheese, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich with some fries that had seasoning on them! I opted not to have dessert just given the amount of calories. After lunch I got a flat white coffee and felt pretty decent. Compared to my last procedure I felt as if I wasn't as tired and not sure if that is because I started the process earlier, in better physical shape (since I have been working with a personal trainer), or more accustomed to waking up earlier (since I have some personal training sessions at 7 A.M. during the week (so usually am up 6 A.M.). Also my last colonoscopy was at 10 A.M. so the hunger pains truly set in and messes with the body. I remember after the last colonoscopy I slept for a couple of hours and was still tired and was sleepy for the next couple of days.
This past weekend was pretty relaxing and I didn't do too much. On the night after I had the colonoscopy 7 P.M. felt like midnight! Overall for the weekend I felt I slept really well. On Saturday (one day after my colonoscopy) I was able to work out without any issues. I did notice some lose bowel movements which for me is pretty rare. My weight got down to 168 pounds (mostly due to the bowel prep and just losing water weight). My appetite was in full force and I had a burger on Saturday afternoon and Tex-Mex on Sunday so I am sure I have gained all the water weight back.
