PRE-OP BOWEL PREP??

48hrs away from my surgery....and wondering about the bowel prep.  I'm suppose to take 3oz of Phosphate-soda the day before, but the bottle says not to exceed 3 tablespoons in a day!! How am i suppose to take 3oz.  Did anybody out there have to take this nasty stuff?? thanks guys Joshua674

Well, the dosage on the bottle is probably for treatment of routine constipation.  Your higher dose, I'm sure prescribed by your doctor, is to make sure you are really cleaned out. It's actually not THAT bad -- tastes like drinking really salty 7-up.  It works fast, in an hour or so, but isn't too bad in terms of cramping.  I've had it a couple of times for colonoscopies, etc.  There are other products that are worse.

Is that stuff like Go-Lytely?   I had to drink like a gallon of that stuff the night before a lower GI scope one time ..  It made syrup of ipecac taste like manna ..   ewwww   &;-o~~ ~ ~   I was able to tolerate it by mixing sugar-free Tang in with it (the doc said the orange color would not affect the view w. his scope) ..  and sucking on one of those little round red & white-striped mints in between gulps .

Just went through this a week ago as I had my surgery Wed, 2/20. Take the one little bottle....it exceeds the recommended daily dose but that's for general use.  You are using it as a "full throttle" flush for your system, similar to what they do before a colonoscopy.  It just cleans everything out before you go in. TWO MAJOR POINTS TO REMEMBER 1. Whatever you do, don't go very far from a bathroom.  The results come in about an hour or two and last for about the same amount of time. 2.  Most importantly----be sure you MAX OUT your water intake to compensate for what's being flushed out.  You could rapidily become dehydrated if you don't refill your system and you don't want to go into surgery on the edge of hydration.....so as you dump, refill the pump!  Good luck my friend!!!!

No fun.  Some people say it may be the hardest part of the whole process.  The Surgery part is fairly easy.  With that stuff I would sip some, then drink some plain water.  Sip some, then water.  Hope that helps.  Brian

One more suggestion. Before taking your dose, liberally spread some vasalene around the sensitive parts of your rear end. If you are like me you will have several explosive bowel movements and the vaselene prevents the area from become sore. I know it sounds silly, but I would highly recommend it.


Good luck on your upcoming surgery.


Life is great, Rick

I second Rick's suggestion. I did this when I had my surgery (1 week ago) and it was a blessing. We had to drink a 10oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate though.  heh..  Didn't taste that bad at all, but definitely loosened up the bowels =)