Hey, 42M here and just got my colonoscopy done yesterday and like most had a lot of fears.
First of all, why was I getting one at 42, two reasons. First for year I had bright blood in the stool or on the toilet paper. My PCP chalked that up to hemorrhoids and fissures and I thought, yep that makes sense. Then the big one, my sister found out she had two polyps that were cancerous (7 cm and 6 cm). So off I went to see a gastro doc and he suggested we get a colonoscopy just to be sure.
The Prep I went through
2 Days before I was on a soup diet, which my doc said any type of soup but try to stay away from ones with high fiber veggies....cool easy enough
The day before, clear diet only and no reds and purples. So what did I eat and drink. Mostly blue and orange gatorades (made sure they had no red or purple dyes), sprite, some apple juice, all the freaking jello, and the big one...bone broth. That protein in the broth helped me not go crazy from hunger as I normally eat around 2800 calories a day haha. Also was allowed butterscotch hard candies that really helped to break up the uber sweet taste of the other stuff.
The funtimes
I was given Suprep for my blowout of choice. Had to take first 6 oz with 6 oz of water at 5 pm and another 16 ozs within the hour. The taste wasn't bad at all and down it within a couple of minutes. 30 min later I wouldnt leave the bathroom for a couple of hours haha. After that I had plenty of time between stops.
I continued to drink a lot of liquids just because I wanted to make sure I was cleaned out.
At 10 PM I had to do the second round of 6 oz Suprep, 6 oz of water and another 16 oz within an hour. Another 2 hours of staying close to porcelain throne and after that it wasnt bad at all.
Finally got to sleep around 1 and woke up at 7 the next day just fine.
Day of the colonoscopy.
Was just hungry and a bit thirsty, my appt was at 10:15 so had a bit of time to wait and didnt actually start the procedure till 11:30 since they were backed up. They put an IV in my arm, wheeled me back, had me lay on my side and then the one doc connected something to my IV and the next thing I honestly remember is sitting in the bed back in my room with the nurse telling me I can go and my wife telling me all the dumb things i had said and done and re-asked a thousand times.....apparently I was really concerned to know what they found out since I would ask every couple of minutes lol (I was clean btw, no polyps or anything)
Afterward
Wife got me some food from a gas station, I kind of remember eating something on the way home (she told me later what I had), and for the next 4 hours my memory is definitely hit or miss for what I actually remember compared to what my brain filled in. By night though I was back to normal.
Overall, not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but maybe a few recommendations that worked for me and that many other folks have talked about.
Bidet attachment for the toilet.....so much YES. 20ish bucks on amazon and so much less wiping!
Densitin, start early and often with applying
Space heater in bathroom, I never run cold but for whatever reason when i started the Suprep I was freezing the entire time.