First I will share a little background. I am very sensitive to discomfort, I get bad stomach cramps easily (eating a rich or fatty meal in a restaurant usually ends up with an unpleasant experience in the bathroom 30 to 60 minutes later). Next, I am a person who hardly drinks anything. In a typical day I barely drink a quart of any liquid and drinking a pint of water quickly, let alone a half gallon of anything disgusting, is nearly impossible to me. Finally, my father was a really brave guy who seldom complained about anything, and if a doctor would tell him that he should have surgery, he'd say, "Okay can we do it right now?" Anyway, this brave man complained bitterly about the difficulty of going through the prep before the few colonoscopies that he had during his lifetime. Based on all of the above, I was really worried that I would not be able to make it through the prep, and also worried about having a "garden hose" shoved way up inside me.
Since both of my parents had some polyps that needed to be removed, I felt like I should really have a colonoscopy to make sure that things were okay. I also felt that I should get it done now because I will be losing my insurance as of the end of this year due to Obamacare, but for the moment, the procedure would be free.
I did a lot of research online regarding different types of products and alternatives. I wondered about the possibility of doing an extended liquid diet, or getting some kind of "high colonic" as an alternative to drinking the prep solution. My doctor explained that neither of these would get the colon clean enough, especially the arm of the colon that is closest to the small intestine. Then, Eureka! I found posts and read about a newly available prep called Prepopik that was just approved in the United States in 2013. For some reason, it has been in use in Europe and Canada for over 10 years, but only now has it become approved for use in the USA.
Based on some things that I read in these forums, I decided to do *two* days of clear liquid diet, rather than the one day that is recommended. While I did enjoy eating green Jell-O and drinking chicken broth and apple juice, I will admit that I had some real cravings for something with a crunch. Oh, I forgot... you are allowed to eat gummy bears! (Well, not the red ones, but the green yellow and clear ones are okay if they are purely sugar and gelatin.) So that actually helped.
The prep with Prepopik was amazingly easy to do. You dissolve a little package of power in 5 ounces of cold water, and drink it. It tastes like something in between Kool-Aid and Gatorade… In my opinion easier to drink than Gatorade. It was really easy to drink. Then, you have two hours to drink 5 cups of your favorite clear liquids. Normally, I don't drink that much of anything, but because of the (well masked) salt content of the prep, I was actually quite thirsty, as I might be after eating a corned beef sandwich. So, it was easy to drink a couple of glasses of apple juice, a cup of chicken broth, and a couple of glasses of Arizona Green tea with ginseng and honey in way under two hours.
I was expecting some kind of bad cramps and explosive diarrhea and a long stay in the bathroom. I preemptively put some diaper rash cream around my butt and anus to protect them from any irritation (this was a good idea), and set up a laptop with lots of movies in the bathroom, expecting to be stuck in there for a long time. However, this all turned out to be overkill. I had no symptoms at all for well over an hour after drinking everything. Then there was some gurgling sounds (but felt nothing), and, after about two hours, with no particular feeling of urgency, I felt like I could poop. I sat down on the toilet, and calmly ejected some liquidy poop followed by some yellow “water”. And that was it – no pain, no trouble, no trauma, no nothing. I stayed up for a while longer to make sure there would be no more pooping, then went to bed and had a normal night sleep.
I think I made a good decision to go with a clear liquid diet for two days instead of just one day. There probably would have been a lot more solids flying out of my butt if I had been eating solid foods right up to the day before the prep.
In the morning, I got up and repeated the prep procedure (this time you only have to drink 3 cups of clear liquid after the half cup of their magic Prepopik drink) about five hours before having to go in for the procedure, so it would have plenty of time to work and finish. Again, it worked flawlessly – no pain, no cramps, and just a calm ejection of some yellowish liquid.
I was worried about the colonoscopy procedure itself, as well. I pictured some kind of garden hose being shoved up my delicate butt. When I discussed this with the doctor and asked him if there were any choices for something thinner, he mentioned the pediatric colonoscope. I asked him why not use that? He said that he uses it on adults routinely, and the only issue is that it's a bit more floppy, so that sometimes it is more difficult to guide, but we agreed that he would use it on me. He also agreed that he would do the procedure himself and not let any students give it a try on me. I recommend making sure that a really experienced doctor does it himself on you... let the interns practice on someone else...
I was hoping to stay awake for the procedure because I was curious to see how things went and watch on the TV to see what they see, so we agreed on very light sedation, with more painkiller and less sedative. Unfortunately, I got very sleepy, so I drifted out for most of the procedure, I don't remember much of it. What I can say is that there was zero pain during the procedure and zero pain afterwards. When I got dressed and walked out of the office, I did not feel anally raped, or abused in any way. In fact, I didn't feel the discomfort that I might feel after a big bowel movement, or after a prostate exam. I didn't feel any discomfort at all.
The bottom line, so to speak, is that this whole procedure was really a non-event. The prep was super easy, with no discomfort, no muss and no fuss, and the procedure was quick and painless as well. So, I can't give a stronger recommendation for Prepopik over Movi-Prep or Suprep or any of the others I've read about.... those sound quite terrible, and the Prepopik was a breeze! I think it made all the difference. I had a relaxed evening and none of the horrors that I've heard about and feared... which I probably would have experienced with the other preps.
My doctor was not familiar with PrepoPik beforehand, but he was okay with prescribing it and, afterwards, told me that the prep results were very good and he could see everything he needed to see. If I understand correctly, because this product is new in the USA, the retail price is about $200, or whatever you have to pay as a co-pay for a "brand-name" prescription. Therefore, I'll make a couple of other suggestions. One is that you can ask your doctor to get a free sample of the Prepopik kit from his drug rep for you. I did that, and it worked – I got it for free. If that doesn't work, and you don't have insurance to get the price down low enough for your liking, you can get the exact same thing from one of the Canadian mail order pharmacies you can find online for about $25-$30. In Canada, the same stuff is sold under the name of Pico-Salax (or Picolax in the U.K.).
I normally wouldn't take the time to write all of this or sign up for a website forum, but I thought it was worthwhile to share my experience, which was unexpectedly fine, even for a sensitive discomfort-hater like me... and to share the techniques that I researched, found, and employed that made it go so smoothly. Now you don't have to worry...
Presumably I will have to have another colonoscopy in 5 or 10 years, and next time I won't put it off or be worried because it was soooo easy with this prep.PS: No, I don't work for Prepopik! and I think it's crazy that they can charge so much for two little packs of 3 kinds of salt mixed together with a nice flavoring... glad I didn't have to pay for it, especially not retail. But this stuff was great, and potentially a lifesaver.
One final suggestion… If you are still really anxious, even after hearing how well this went for me, there is nothing wrong with taking a little Xanax or Valium just before the prep or going in for the procedure. And, by this, I mean very little, and of course you should clear it with your doctor.
I hope this helps someone else. If I had read something like this, it would've saved me weeks of unnecessary worry and a lot of research. Oh... and my results... everything was totally fine: no polyps, no abnormalities - which is really nice to know!
If all the GI's would standardize on these simpler less extreme colonoscopy preps, and word got out that it isn't as bad as all that perhaps more people would not suddenly find themselves at stage iV!!!!! 
