bowel prep?

[meggander]

ok, one more question..it is standard to have to do the bowel prep before surgery?  I have had 7 colonoscopies so I know the drill but it would be a double whammy to have to do that and then have surgery!

[silver&gold]

Hi,
I did have to do the bowel prep before surgery , I was told that it was incase they nick the bowel (very very rare so don,t worry ) and the contents leak into the blood stream , this could cause septicaemia . I hope everything goes well with your surgery .
  Take care  , best wishes Angie

[marie3B]

I was shocked that I was not given the bowel prep before my surgery. I think it is safer to have the prep even though my surgeons thought it not necessary. I didn't have any trouble, though w/o the prep. I hope things go well for you. Marie

[ireneo]

I didn't have a bowel prep but then again, I only had a laparoscopy done to remove my ovary and cyst. Made me nervous though to do without so I put myself on a liquid diet the day before and tried to empty out as much as possible. I figured if they were going to be pushing my bowels around,  I wanted to make it as easy as possible.

[dawnlyn]

I had to have bowel prep before surgery.  My surgery was on Feb. 20th so on Feb. 18th I started on liquid diet, then on the 19th I drank that stuff (pronouced go-lghtly) not the best tasting stuff, but you can do it.

Good luck on your surgery, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Take care,
Dawnlyn

[meggander]

Thanks for the info.  I have been treated for IBS for 20 years and have to have a colonoscopy every 2-3 years.  Based on this, it is possible that I have endo there and that causes some of my issues so I guess I will just expect that they want to do it.  I have my appointment tomorrow and will ask.  I get flu like symptoms every time I do the prep, chills, occasional fever etc. will make for a long night but I probably won't sleep anyway. :)

[vegas2cr]

No bowel prep for me.. I wasn't allowed  ANY food except broth for 5 days before surgery....

[Sandymac]

Gosh, that surprises me (that you didn't have the prep) I also had the laparoscopic but did have the ghastly prep... then about a month later, I had to have a colonoscopy .. was due for one and they wanted to see what that pain was... They gave me the other stuff: .(phospho soda) which I thought was worse than the citrate of Magnesia.. You'd think I'd have lost weight but no way...Anyway, good luck with whatever they decide for you !!
Sandy

[PF_PVD]

Ha!  I can top that!  No bowel prep for me...I wasn't allowed ANY food or even ice chips for 8 days before surgery, so I was clean as a whistle. : )  No kidding, when I was told I was to have colon surgery, my first thought was OMG that phosphasoda, not OMG surgery!  Paula

[SimplyStar]

There are several reasons for the bowel prep,  One of course is to empty the bowel and as much of the large intestine as possible to make more room in the belly for the surgeon to work in,  another one is to try to keep as sterile as possible the operating field, in other words  so we don't mess up the table ,  the nicking of the bowel is also considered to prevent peritonitis,  aides in preventing constipation  after surgery,   The main reason behind this is a hold over from the "olden" days,  your muscles all relax under anesthetic and  there is nothing more upsetting to the operating personel than to have a BM occur  during surgery, the danger of EColi  and other unwanted "pests" laying out there  to increase the dangers of wound infection. As a surgical nurse  it was often my "duty" to clean up these accidents,  not a pleasent thing to do, believe me.  These accidents are usually accompanied by the expelling of gases also,  in the confined area of  the room , this causes  an unpleasent odor  and usually from the surgeon a  quick order to "get it cleaned up now"   so take your bowel preps and "save a nurse"   telling you this from the other end of the table.  Marty

[Tybear]

I've had a laproscopic surgery before, and did not have to do the prep - only nothing to eat after midnight th night before. When I had my laparotomy, I had to do the prep on Tuesday and was told no solid food and clear liquids only, until Friday morning. Mine was "go litely" too...should have been called "go quickly"...I haven't felt so sick in my life!
I guess everyone is different, but thank goodness I did the prep -  had to have a bowel resection because the cancer had spread.
It tastes awful....I wish you the best of luck!!
Becky
p.s. drink it with a straw...it seems to help!

[cirella]

Marty!  You're too funny.  
Ronni, I don't know what's worse...the broth or nothing.  
Paula...I'd rather do the bowel prep than starve for 8 days!  That's just torture.
Sandy, I think the phospho soda is worse, too.  

I didn't have to do the prep for my first lap/ovary removal but did for the hysterectomy. I asked my GYN before surgery why he hated me so much.  LOL  

Nope, never TMI here!  LOL

[meggander]

Looks like I opened up a can of worms with this question.  The nurse just called me to confirm my appt for tomorrow and she said they don't do the prep anymore :)  I was spared this time, woo hoo!!

[crecco]

Sorry meggander I do not mean to down play you at all. But I could not help but laugh when I started seeing the posts about "Go Lightly" (thanks dawnlyn for making sure that it would be pronounced right) A few of you may remember me telling you about it at the cyber party a few weeks ago. When I had my surgery I also had to do the bowel prep and had to drink the Golytely (remember - Go Lightly) When I got to the hospital the next morning the admitting nurse asked if I had done a bowel prep. When I told her I had, she asked what kind I did and I told her, Golly-Telly. She just sat there and looked at me till it dawned on her, Oh ok Go Lightly. I wanted to crawl in a hole. Nobody told me what the name of it was, just to go to the pharmacy, pick up the bowel prep and take it as per instructions. Well it looks to me like it says Golly Telly.........

[kimmywah]

Oh my Lord I, if I ever have surgery again Marty, I am not eating even if they tell me I can!!
Meggander, drink it with Ginger ale, it makes it slightly better.

Peace and love

Kim

[gma718]

I also had to do the bowel prep for my Laparotomy...it was the first time I ever did that and I was so anxious before the surgery that I worked myself up for nothing..It really wasnt as bad as I thought...I was able to eat a light breakfast and start the prep in the afternoon...I had to drink 2 bottles of the citrate of magnesium and take a few Ducolax but I wasn't hungry or even wanting to eat.  I also mixed it with Ginger Ale and Sprite.  Good Luck.....Gia :)

[gma718]

Also, last May when I was having my surgery a few months before that they had a warning on the news regarding the Fleet Phososoda...something to the fact that it can affect the Kidneys....My Surgeon had originally told me to do the Phososoda and then switched me to the Citric....Gia :)

[Tybear]

I guess it all depends on what you have. The "Go Litely" is in a 4lt jug that you add water to. You have to drink a glass, every 10 minutes (or something like that, I can't quite remember) until it's gone. It tastes like thick salt water...my trick was to drink the glass, then shove about 10 pieces of cinnamon flavoured gum in my mouth to distract my tastebuds from the flavour. The best part was, on the bottle it says it should take effect within the hour...more like within 5 minutes! I don't think my feet touched the ground:) It is a riot though, to listen to the unbelievable sounds your stomach makes...I was in hysterics!
That being said, if I ever did have to do surgery again, I think I'd cry if I had to drink another jug of that...it's evil.
Becky

[Sandymac]

Re. the phosphosoda.. did you read the insert???? Lordy, it will put the fear of you know what in you !!! Actually it tells you that Phosphosoda is NOT for bowel cleansing, etc. etc. .. really a "CYA" sort of thing.. The thing is that you MUST drink loads and loads of fluids all day long if you're doing that one.. I even was silly enough to go online wondering what all the fuss was about.. seems there really have been a lot of problems with it. And my Dr. was really emphatic about the fluid thing.. every hour I had to drink 8 oz. of fluid. But, I wonder if it's not a little more thorough because I had a colon polyp last year, also had one this year and since I heard they grow very slowly, wondering if it got "missed" last year (when I had the Citrate and enema) . .. I haven't tried to Golitely" . I mixed the phospho with ginger ale and It will be a long time before I will want ginger ale again, that's for sure...

[CaydensMommy]

I had to do bowel prep before both of the surgeries that I had. The first was an emergency laparotomy and the tumor that I had caused me not to be able to keep any food down. I had bad pain and food started coming up Thursday, was admitted to the hospital on Friday, was sent home on Saturday, and told to do bowel prep for my surgery Monday evening. It wasn't that bad. I guess there wasn't much to clean out since I hadn't eaten in so long. My second surgery was a laproscopy and the doc. told me to do bowel prep, but then I couldn't remember what to do so I called the doctor's office. When I called, the nurse said that she wasn't sure that I even had to do bowel prep, but if the doctor said so then she told me to not eat and drink a whole thing of magnesium citrate at 2:00 PM the day before surgery. That was it. No complicated instructions. I did actually think I was going to have an accident in my pants on my way to the hospital the next morning--so different from my first bowel prep experience.
Good luck to you! I hope everything goes well.