This month I will be having my first colonoscopy. I am almost 49 years old.

My grandmother on my dad's side died of colon cancer at age 66.

My dad was probably very close to colon cancer at age 55, as they found a precanerous polyp in him which looked "super close" to going cancerous. That was his first colonoscopy, so he probably dodged a bullet by a narrow margin, and thankfully is still alive today.

Now I'm only about 6 years younger than he was. I should have had a colonoscopy already, but I just haven't. I was going to in early 2020, but these were shut down during the early coronavirus days, and I didn't reschedule near the end of the year, putting my appointment in about 2 weeks.

I am electing to use propofol (shout out to Michael Jackson). I have heard the colonoscopy without the propofol is awful, so I'm not doing that, even though I really really really hate the idea of being put under.

I am doing the Miralax + Gatorade prep. They tried to prescribe me the awful, salty SUPREP, which everyone seems to hate. I said fuck no, give me the Miralax one, and they switched it. From my research, the two are about equivalent in effectiveness, so I don't know why they don't just direct people to the easier one by default.

Since a lot of people here are old, I imagine some of you have had one.

If you have had a colonoscopy, please post about your experience.

1) Did you use SUPREP or Miralax/Gatorade?

2) What advice would you give to a first-time person doing this?

3) Did you use propofol? What was that experience like?


Interested to hear these answers.

For those of you that don't know, colon cancer is 100% preventable if you get colonoscopies at recommended intervals. This is because polyps grow very slowly, so they can keep finding them and cutting them out before they can do you harm.

My mom has never had a polyp yet, nor has anyone on her side of the family, so I've got that going for me. My dad's side, not all that good. This is apparently very hereditary.

No trolling or junk posts here, please.

Once I have the colonoscopy, I will post about my experience and answer any questions people have.