Colonoscopy: tips from an endurance athlete (wannabe). TMI

Note: this will definitely be a TMI type post (Too Much Information); so if you are revolted by discussion of lower gastrointestinal functions, don’t read this.

When to schedule this: off season probably works best, if possible. But don’t do it the week of your goal event!

A week prior: I recommend taking your “cleansing” prescription to your pharmacy then because your store might be out of it; this will give them time to order some.

Also: note that you’ll have to get off of aspirin and NSAIDS 5 days prior to your procedure. So if you are nursing an injury or other aches and pains, I’d recommend getting some ice packs and using them after your workout.

Two days prior I was able to train normally, but I ate a little bit less than normal as I wanted to have less to clean out. It is a good idea to pay attention to hydration.

The day before I’d recommend doing your workout in the early morning; note that you’ll be on a “clear liquid” diet. I used apple and white grape juice; next time I’ll add broth to the mix (for the salt).
Then at noon or after, you’ll start your “cleansing”

Note: I think that this stuff takes like crap (no pun intended). You have to drink a LOT of it; 3 liters worth over a 4 hour period. I recommend starting this as soon as possible (per your doctor’s instructions) as it is good to have this over for a few hours prior to sleeping.

You’ll get diarrhea which will be the usual “loose bowels” at first; eventually it will get clearer and clearer until you are basically peeing out of your butt. I recommend wearing some old underwear during this period. Don’t plan on doing anything that you need to concentrate on; and don’t be too far away from the bathroom!

Having some Tuck’s pads might be nice to have; you might get sore.

The morning of the procedure
You’ll probably have to finish yet another liter of your cleansing fluid 3 hours prior to your check in time. You might think: “why, I am already clear” but you probably aren’t; I started off “brownish” and eventually got clear again. You won’t be allowed to take anything else so coffee addicts (like myself) will suffer a bit.

Note: when I woke up in the morning, I was 5 pounds down.

Doctor’s office

That went very smoothly; I was given the “don’t remember anything” drugs. I woke up babbling.

That afternoon: forget working out; I was groggy and really didn’t want much except….coffee!!!! I ate about 50 percent of my usual intake at meals that day.

Note: you’ll go home and spend most of the time trying to pass gas. The problem is that it will be hard to tell what is gas and what isn’t; I recommend wearing old underwear; maybe two pairs.

I also “slept it off” for much of the afternoon.

Next day
Experiences vary here. I woke up almost in a hung over state with grogginess, slight body-aches and a mild headache. Coffee solved the latter but the grogginess and body aches persisted for a few hours after waking up. Still I was able to swim a normal workout, stretch, etc, and that actually made me feel a bit better. It was a bit like trying to recover from a very mild cold; the bowels were much improved but not 100 percent.

Eventually: 3 days later: I participated in an 8 hour trail race. While my performance was, well, pathetic, I wasn’t limited by the colonoscopy.
Still, I came in a bit dehydrated so I’d recommend not scheduling one the week of an important “goal” event.

22 May 2011 (early am)

I am getting ready to go swimming in a bit. Yes, I am very sore; those hills trashed my legs.
Lesson: I am going to have to hit the trails for at least one 10 miler every week, and perhaps again for a shorter trail run. My quads are weak.

Posts

This point will not be made with statistics, but this shows what can happen when someone is unemployed and doesn’t have insurance.

Paul Krugman Comments that cranky ideas are still cranky no matter how “serious” the media makes them out to be:

Politico writes that

In this Republican primary season, no economic or monetary policy is too unorthodox for an electorate hungry for change.

There’s not much new in the story, but it does remind us that Tim Pawlenty — who is supposed to be a non-crazy– has declared his opposition to fiat currencies — i.e., demanded a return to the gold standard (although he may not know that that’s what it means).

What Politico doesn’t include, but should, is the lemming-like rush to endorse the Ryan plan, which, although Very Serious, is also complete crank economics, with its insistence — in the teeth of all the evidence — that privatizing Medicare can somehow provide adequate health care at much lower cost. And then there’s the recent rise of default denialism — hey, let’s signal to everyone that we’re a banana republic, what harm can it do?

He goes on to slam Reagan’s “supply side” advisers.

He also talks about the subprime mortgage mess and points out that the non-government related subprime mortgages were far riskier than anything Freddie and Fanny put out:

Though I’d like to know what percentages of the mortgages are we walking about (e. g., it might be true that the non-governmental backed mortgages were far riskier, but what percentage of the defaulted mortgages did these comprise?). I’ll have to look this up.

Crud 8 Hour (and 24): quality event but too much for me now…

Today I participated in the Crud 8 hour trail “run” (I walked most of the time, though I mixed in some jogging during the first 2-3 hours).

The event itself: the race directors go all out. The trail is interesting and superbly marked; even *I* couldn’t get lost (and that is saying something!) The aid station (which you see every 3.5 miles) is well stocked. The swag is generous (shirt, canvas bag, finisher’s award which you can see below).

They also offer a 24 hour event which starts at 4 pm on Friday afternoon.

The course: a 3.5 mile trail loop with a 1 mile “end of the race” loop for those who finish their last “long” loop after the “45 minutes to go” mark. This year, there was only 1 really muddy spot (shoe sucking) and a couple of “somewhat avoidable” mud spots and two minor stream crossings. But the race directors, while giving you plenty of shade from the sun, also gave you several quad burning hills. This is NOT an easy course!
The vast majority of the course is single track; there are some “road like” parts and some “triple wide” stuff near the end of the loop.
There are a few rocks and roots but not many; these were never a factor for me. It can get muddy if there is lots of rain.

It is pretty though (and set in Jubilee State Park; here are my photos of that park but much of the trail I show is NOT on the race course)

My race: simply pathetic. I had dreams of finishing beyond a marathon (7 loops plus 2 one mile loops); I ended up with 6 full loops and 1 one mile loop.
(note: loops are 3.5 miles ( 5.63 km), and 1 mile (1.6 km)). Yes, it got a bit warm

(via Weather Underground)

My laps: 57:11, 1:02:46, 1:01:37 , 1:06:07, 1:38:16 (hell), 1:30:29 (6 minutes at the aid station), 24:12 for the last “1 mile” loop.
The first two laps saw me mix a little jogging in; lap 3 had maybe a couple of one minute jogging breaks early but was mostly walking.

What happened to me: basically my right leg (knee) went south on me on the “lap from hell”: lap 5. I couldn’t straighten my knee at all (not even close!) and I had pain behind my knee. It was killing me for a while. I stopped…and what turned it around is that after slowing to a crawl, I found a fallen tree, sat on it and stretched the afflicted leg out. That really helped! Ironically 3 other runners stopped and we all chatted. I got back up and finished out the lap, thinking that I would bail. But I had 2.5 hours left and I wasn’t feeling that bad (overall) and my knee had stopped hurting.

So I stated lap 6 thinking “ok, I’ll make up time”. Wrong….I found out that there was a reason my knee stopped hurting: I was going slow! So I slowed down to a pace that was pain free for my knee and just swallowed the embarrassment when the other runners would ask me if I were ok.

Though I got tired, I really never got into the “serious exertion” zone; my knee wouldn’t let me. Sure, my quads were trashed and that is why my knee got painful to begin with. My quads were not trained for these hills and when they became fatigued, the support that they gave my right knee (the one I got operated on last July) vanished, hence the pain. Were I in better shape, I doubt that this would have happened.

So the upshot is that I did NOT get nauseated nor did I get overly tired. My legs did get fatigued; my piriformis didn’t bother me. Today I was limited by my knee and quad conditioning (lack thereof).

I remember getting very cranky at times; I cursed my body and I had to pull over to let someone faster pass me many, many, many times. But the other people (runners, race officials and volunteers) were so friendly and nice; it warms my heart to think about them.

And back to the course: the hills were not as steep as McNaughton nor were they as numerous. But there weren’t the long “stretch your legs” sections either; McNaughton has lots of those.

I’ll post some photos and results when they become available.