The Healthy Celiac Podcast

Is Your Celiac Disease Colonoscopy Prep Safe? Ep. 81

October 31, 2022 Belinda Whelan Season 1 Episode 81
The Healthy Celiac Podcast
Is Your Celiac Disease Colonoscopy Prep Safe? Ep. 81
Show Notes Transcript

Would you believe that many people are getting glutened when they prep for their routine colonoscopy? Today I'm sharing some tips to help keep you safe for if or when you next need to prep for a colonoscopy.

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Speaker 1:

All right, welcome back to this week's episode. So in this week's episode, I am talking about colonscopies. Now<laugh>, for any of us living with celiac disease, we totally get, this is just such a normal conversation to talk about. So thank you for tuning in and choosing to hear me talk to you about colonoscopy preps and to give you some tips, because from what I'm learning, there are so many people that are getting sick from their colonoscopies, and they're also taking it into their own hands and doing more harm than good. So I wanted to give you some little tips in this episode so that you don't make the wrong decision, or that your doctor or your gastroenterologist doesn't do the wrong thing by you. Now, the main reason that I wanted to record this episode for you is because there are people that are getting glutened when they're going for their colonoscopy. It's insane, but it has happened to so many people that I really thought it was important to chat about this and to share this information. Now, how this is happening is when people are being booked in for their routine colonoscopy. So everybody's different. So majority of people get a colonoscopy done to confirm their celiac diagnosis, whereas some people don't. So if you haven't had one, then that is perfectly fine. You may have one in the near future as a follow up, or you know, just to check how things are going. You may have heard my story in the past where I talked about my diagnosis was not from a colonoscopy. My blood levels were through the roof that it showed without a shadow of a doubt that I had celiac disease, But I did have to have a routine colonoscopy a few years back when there was gluten had snuck into my diet from bacon. So I had a routine check just to see that my bowel was okay and that there was no damage being done. So that may happen to you. Your doctor or your gastroenterologist may do some routine bloods and find that gluten is sneaking in and that they wanna do a routine check. So the problem that some people are facing is when they go and they get told that they're going to have a colonoscopy, they get given their prep kits, and their prep kits aren't gluten free. This just blows my mind that this happens. But again, this is where it falls on us that we have to be responsible for checking everything, right? So we have to read the labels of even what our doctors give us, prescribe us the things that they are giving us. We still need to check that it's safe for us, okay? Because your doctor isn't doing his job or her job if she's he or she is giving you a colonoscopy prep kit that's got gluten in

Speaker 2:

It. It because yes, you need to clean your bows out, you need to get everything out of your system, but we don't wanna do it with gluten. We need to do it in a safe way that we are not damaging ourselves. So that's the number one thing that I want you to make sure that when you are going for a colonoscopy, when you get given your prep kit, that you make sure that there is zero gluten in that prep kit. So that's gonna be from asking your doctor, your gastroenterologist straight away, What is in my prep kit? Is this safe for me? Because they prescribe this all the time, or give it to their client customers, whatever patients that they, they miss things, okay? They miss these simple little things that we think is their responsibility, but they miss it time and time again. So I want you to make sure that your prep kit is a hundred percent safe for you before you leave your doctor's office on that day with your prep kit. All right? Some people get given a prescription and have to go and pick up their prep kit from a pharmacy. So again, check with your pharmacy. When you go to pick it up, check with the pharmacist, rather, make sure that it's a hundred percent gluten free and that you are not going to be doing damage in the preparation for your colonoscopy because it's super important as we know that we wanna avoid gluten at all times. Now, another thing that I'm hearing people doing is they're boycotting those prep kits that they're being given and they're making up their own prep kits.<laugh> scary because there's a reason that all of those ingredients are in a prep kit, and one of those is electrolytes, because you are losing a lot of electrolytes when you do your colonoscopy prep because you are basically evacuating everything out of your bowels, and you need to make sure that those electrolytes are being returned to your body so that you don't get dehydration. So it's very important that you do use the prep kit that is safest for you. And I can pretty much guarantee that the prep kit that people are making for themselves are not safe because they're not putting in back in what they need back into their body. So the whole idea of a prep kit is to clean out everything out of your bowels. So depending on what your doctor or your gastroenterologist has prescribed for you, normally what happens in the lead up to your colonoscopy is you will start to cut back on certain foods. You will be given a list of exactly what foods you need to cut out and what you are allowed to eat. Now, I remember just having very plain foods, very just white foods, and it wasn't enjoyable at all. I can tell you that it's not an enjoyable experience because if you do generally feel hungry and you miss the foods that you normally

Speaker 3:

Eat, but it's very important that you follow the instructions and eat what you've been advised to eat in the leader. Now, when you start to have your prep kit, that's when the diarrhea hits and it completely cleans everything out. And I would say without a shadow of a doubt, follow the strict time instructions that you've got for drinking those different, um, part of your prep kit. Make sure that you drink them at those certain times that you've been given so that you're feeling comfortable when you go to bed and things like that in the lead up to your colonoscopy, because you know, you don't wanna be stressing that you're gonna be in bed and need to rush to go to the toilet. So very important that you follow those instructions there. Now, I have had some people reach out into, to me in the past when I've talked about colonoscopies and I've, I've said, They don't hurt. You don't feel anything afterwards. That's my personal experience. And from the majority of people that I speak to, they have had that same experience that it's one of those things you get, you get put under and you go in and that procedure is done and then you wake up and then afterwards things feel normal, feel fine. I have had a couple of people reach out to me and say, That wasn't their experience. So just a heads up, you, you may have that very rare occurrence of it not being comfortable for you, for you feeling uncomfortable afterwards, and for whatever reason, it, it, it may happen to you. But just know that the majority of people, they have an experience that's fine. And that it's, it's something that most people do go into feeling quite scared and apprehensive about, and it's just normal. It, it's hard for us to feel, I guess, excited about something like this when we know we're about to be put under and it's your body is in someone else's hands. So just know that it is normal to feel anxious and it can be scary, but I want you to feel safe in that you're doing something for the goodness of your body. You know, you are, you are going in to make sure that everything is fine with you and it's worth it to find out that everything's safe and everything's fine, or to be told that, you know, something else is going on. So for me, in my instance, when I had my, um, most recent colonoscopy, I was also told, then I had lactose intolerance. So they could tell from my colonoscopy that I had lactose intolerance and had to cut out lactose from there. So kind of had an inkling that that was going on for me. But<laugh> I guess I chose to ignore it because, you know, there's just another thing to cut out. But anyway, it, it's good to now feel much better and know that, you know, my

Speaker 4:

Gastroenterologist was able to give me that information and I was able to move forward and, and take that information. So, you know, it's there for a reason. We do these things for our health and yeah, it's just, it's just part of living with celiac disease. And if you do it once, you'll know what to experience and the next time it'll be much easier because you know what to expect, I guess. Um, yeah. So I hope that helps. It's just, it's just something that I thought that would be worth talking about. Obviously, I can't give you all the exact details of what's going to happen in the lead up to your colonoscopy because every situation is different. You know, different countries have different procedures as far as the lead up and what foods they want you to have will be completely dependent on your doctor. So I want you to take the advice from your doctor, but I want you to really be focused on making sure that you're using the prep kit that's best for you, and that it is gluten free. So they're my probably my biggest tips that I wanted you to take away from today's episode, and I really hope that that helps you in the near future if you have to go in for a colonoscopy. So, yeah, thanks so much for tuning in, and I look forward to sharing more with you a very, very soon.