Evac-Q-Kit

Does anyone remember a product called Evac-Q-Kit?

Apparently it was readily available at US drug stores in the 1970s, for between $4 and $5. It was in a single red and white box.

It apparently contained a bottle of magnesium citrate in bright red color. Might have been the cherry flavor, which is the flavor I find most difficult to keep down. It also contained 4 tablets that I understand were generic Dulcolax, but were red in color, 2 large suppositories and an instruction sheet.

In the 1980s it was changed, and used 1 smaller suppository instead of 2 larger ones.

The subject came up recently when I was at my father's house, and the subject of a system cleanout arose. We had discussed my Mom earlier in the conversation. He mentioned that my Mom's system cleanouts, When he first got to know her usually involved an Evac-Q-Kit. She once had him buy one for her.

Any familiarity with it?

Any one ever used one, or bought one for an SO?

On the web I found a physician group called Midwest Digestive Diseases Specialista that uses a prep for flex sigs called : .Evac-Q-Kwik kit: includes – 10 oz. bottle of Citrate of Magnesia, three laxative tablets and one suppository. That may be what you are thinking of.

The reason your post caught my eye was some years back I used a laxative/purgative by a similar name that i liked. It was different , though. It was a small plastic jar of dark thick liquid. I suspect that it was molasses being used as a carrier for a stimulant laxative. I liked it because it went through you fast ( a few hours on an empty stomach ) and then resulted in a single very very strong set of cramps with an irrestable single large complete poop.

I much preferred it to something like castor oil that gives me a case of the runs that may start to leak out before the main event. It was also much faster than the stimulant pills now available.

While I don't use laxatives very often the several times I used that stuff were memorable.

Yes, Lisa, this kit was available during the 70s and 80s along with various others that also included a disposable plastic enema kit and castile soap packet along with various types of oral laxatives and a suppository or two. I became quite familiar with the various kits that were available when I was hired to do follow-up phone interviews of patients that had gone through the preps by a survey company in the early 80s. Before the use of PEG for many bowel preps manufacturers were trying to come up with some kind of prep that people would more consistently do correctly and also were effective in really clearing the bowels for various exams. As the colonoscopy started to gain momentum it was imperative that people having them done truly cleared themselves well since the cost for a colonoscopy is high and the need to repeat one for a non-cleared patient was usually at the providers expense since many insurance companies would not pay for a second procedure.

As with all medical things, especially medications, every person seemed to have some slightly different reaction to the procedure. Mostly the biggest complaints on using the kits came from excessive cramping from the oral laxatives followed by complaints about having to do the enema or two. The least success for a really clear prep was just the oral laxative and a suppository or two. The need to do many procedures a second time mostly came from that type of prep which is the one you describe using the oral laxative and a suppository or two. The reason for that mostly seemed to stem from the fact that the patient would not hold the suppository long enough for it to be really effective since the oral laxative was still working on them and retention was both uncomfortable and very difficult.

I can tell you that I heard all kinds of stories and lots of excuses for why people didn't do the prep process correctly. Some were quite legitimate such as severe anal pain from 'roids and others were the more common, 'I just hated the feeling' types of comments. What was also interesting is that I did find some people that once they'd used one of these kits did actually purchase them since they were an over-the-counter product for their own system cleanouts, just because they wanted something handy and quite effective which I assume had something to do with your mother's using them?

Yes, I did try a couple of the kits myself. One for curiosity and the other for a legitimate need. Without a doubt the kit with the bag type disposable enema was the most effective from my perspective which also confirmed what was being learned by the medical profession as they did exams. I think I may have made a post about some of the patient comments way back on zity and now that this topic comes up again I need to dig back through my notes if I can find them and post some of the more interesting responses to the survey if people on zity are interested.

My Mother used an Evac-Q-Kit on me on the advice of a pharmacist when I was about 18 years old and got severely constipated. To start with I had to eat a light lunch of clear broth, a hard boiled egg, and Jello at noon and have nothing else to eat until the next day. At 1 pm. I had to drink the 10 oz. bottle of cherry flavoured Magnesium Citrate (Evac-Q-Mag) from the kit. Then I had to drink a full glass of water at 2 pm. At about 3 pm I had to run to the toilet and I passed a huge watery liquid bowel movement brought on by the Magnesium Citrate. At 4 pm I had to drink another full glass of water and take the 2 red Evac-Q-Tab phenolphthalein tablets from the kit. When I read the ingredient list later on I learned that the 2 tablets combined contained as much phenolphthalein as 3 Ex-Lax tablets. I had to drink more water at 6 and 8 pm and then 1 hour before bedtime my Mother inserted one of the 2 Evac-Q-Sert Suppositories from the kit into my rectum. I had to hold it until I felt a strong urge to go, which was about 20 minutes, and then it made me pass another very large watery liquid bowel movement that burned and irritated my rectum and anus as it came out. First thing in the morning my Mother inserted the second Evac-Q-Sert Suppository into my rectum and after about 20 minutes I had a small watery liquid bowel movement that also burned and irritated. Over the next few hours, I kept having to pass more small watery bowel movements about every 20 minutes until finally the effects of the phenolphthalein and the suppository wore off. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, but it certainly cured my constipation.

There were actually 2 products, that existed in 3 versions. IIRC, all we made by Warner-Teed. The two products were Evac-Q-kit and Evac-Q-Kwik. All versions consisted of a 10 oz bottle of Magnesium Citrate, laxative tablets, and 1 or 2 suppositories. The original Product (Evac-Q-Kit) was 10 oz of Magnesium Citrate, 2 x Phenolphthalein tablets (2 grains each), and two suppositories that are very similar to CEO-TWO suppositories today. In terms of Phenolphtalein dose, IIRC, Feen-a-mint contained 1 grain of Phenolphthalein, Ex-Lax was 1.5 grains per tablet. The hefty does of Phenolphthalein usually meant a lot of trips fo the bathroom (as anyone who was given Ex-Lax already knew).

Problems with the supply of the suppositories lead to the replacement of CEO_TWO like suppositories with a single Bisacodyl suppository. and I believe the product name was changed to Evac-q-Kwik.

Still later versions replaced the Phenolphthalein tablets with 3 or 4 5mg bisacodyl tables (Dulcolax). That probably didn't cause as many trips to the bathroom, but probably resulted in a lot more cramps.

Warner-Tweed is headquartered in Columbus and I remember seeing their kits in pharmacies. These were marketed as a replacement for multiple enemas, which most patients were not willing to do at home, or enemas til clear. They'd do one or two flushing's and quit, leaving an unclean bowel. This happened when hospitals stopped doing the day before admissions for clean out with Mag. Citrate and enemas til clear.

I haven't seen these kits in years and I believe that the PEG solutions replaced them.

I hope your scoping results in no findings, so you wound have to do another one for 10 years.

Listen to mattheww50; he really know his stuff on these things.

I think the ones Mom was using were the version with the Cherry flavored Magnesium Citrate, the 4 bisacodyl tablets and the 2 potassium bitartate suppositories.

Back in the late 70's I was having some problems with bleeding from the rectum and the doc kept ordering me to have barium enemas to find and correct the problem, To get ready for the BE's, the doc order me to use the Evac-Q kits to clear the lower bowel of any contaminates that cold cause problems with the test. I don't remember that much about the kit, only that it was orders by the doc, and had to be used the night prior to the test.

I remember these! I was looking for a Fleet Prep Kit 3 and bought one of the ones with the effervescent supps. and Phenolphthalein tablets. I choked down the cherry Mag. Citrate and promptly threw it up! After this experience I always stuck with Fleet Phospho-Soda and bisacodyl, follewed up with large volume enemas for my clean outs! (Much like a Fleet Prep Kit 2)

Soggypaws - I remember the thick liquid prep you describe! It is/was called X-Prep and contains approx 130 mg senna in a syrup base. I remember its effects exactly as you describe!

Cherry flavored Mag Citrate isn't quite as bad if you have it on ice with shot of Southern Comfort. The Lemon/Lime is good with vodka and a twist.

Happy Hanukkah

Someone once said (on this forum?) that those kits were being given gratis in hotels in a place like Indonesia, and that was where s/he had their first encounter with a bisacodyl suppository

I actually have an unused Evac-Q-Kit. It came in a white vertical rectangular box with minimal styling consisting of some blue lines and labeling in a Roman-like font. In other words, it looks like it really means business.

It includes a bottle of cherry soda purgative called Evac-Q-Mag, two phenolphthalein laxative tablets called Evac-Q-Tabs (they resemble generic Advil), and two large white suppositories called Evac-Q-Sert.

The instruction sheet begins,

"Your physician is preparing you for an X-ray examination that requires thorough clearing of the intestinal tract. He is using this routine to make the procedure more comfortable for you. BE SURE TO FOLLOW EACH STEP AND COMPLETE ALL INSTRUCTIONS OF THE ENTIRE X-RAY EXAMINATION MAY HAVE TO BE REPEATED.

"IMPORTANT: A high fluid intake is essential to the success of this regimen. You MUST take a large glass (8 oz) of liquid at the specified times. Drink only black coffee, plain tea, strained fruit juice, soft drinks or water at the times indicated. NO MILK OR CREAM."

Human Jet Pack,

Welcome to the group. It sounds like you are going to have quite a time with your Evac-U-Kit. Let us all know how everything comes out..

Dan

I actually heard about it the first time just about a year ago now. I went to my Dad's house for something totally unrelated. While I was there he had a laundry basket sitting in the corner of old spiral notebooks. I asked him, "What's that all about?" He said, "That's most of the notebooks for the classes I took in middle and high school, the ones I almost burned the day after high school graduation but changed my mind at the last minute! In retrospect I SHOULD have burned them!"

I said, "Dad, you know you don't mean that!!"

He said, They ARE trash, though, no reason to keep them!"

I said, "Well, at least let me go through them, and just see if there is anything worthwhile before you trash them!"

He said, OK, but get them out of HERE, I need the space!!

I hauled them to the trunk of my car.

They were in no particular order, and I picked up one that was from an English Class he had his Junior year, right after he got his Drivers license.

I was already aware that he and my Mom already knew each other, but they were not in the same grade, Mom, would have been a sophomore.

In the days before "Texting/Sexting" High school students actually used hand-written notes to get messages back and forth when they were not likely to physically meet. Sort of antique-style texts!! they actually had some cleaver ways of getting them back and forth. My parents were no different.

While I was looking through them, I came across a piece of notebook paper folded up in the pages that was obviously a different notebook paper than that notebook. I unfolded it. It was written in the Cursive, which I have never been taught, and obviously not Dad's cursive. Unlike his cursive it couldn't "stop a moose at 40 paces!!", in fact I was able to actually read it. I have since learned that the particular forms of cursive used identify it as having been written by a teenage girl.

It simply said, "Did you get the Evac-Q-Kit?"

there was another one a page later,that was almost identical, may have been torn from the same sheet of notebook paper, said, " Tomorrow, My house,6AM??"

That was when I got curious and tried to find out what an Evac-Q-Kit was. I went back to the old shoe box where Dad stuck all his other notes from Mom. He waited until I was engaged and admitted to him I was no longer a virgin before he ever gave me that shoe box. The hand writing was clearly Mom's

I hit the web trying to find out all I could about an Evac-Q-Kit.

I have since this posting been able to establish that my mother got a Barium enema at the age of 14, when she was living in Toronto. Why so young? Still not sure, but the X-Ray still exists and shows only the type and amount of permanet distention you might expect in a femal that age given excessive numbers of large-volume enemas. No other abnormalities.

It would explain how she knew so much about the Evac-Q-Kit. Aparently had a personal experience a few years before.

... and shows only the type and amount of permanet distention you might expect in a femal that age given excessive numbers of large-volume enemas.

Enemas don't cause permanent distention. There are a number of conditions that do, and were frequently treated with enemas though.

The idea of a barium enema is to distend the colon during the procedure so that the radiologist can see any abnormalities in it. This distention is only temporary.

Sounds like a condition known as megacolon, which I believe does cause distention.

Fleet actually made 2 different type prep kits. They contained different items, but I believe both contained the bagenema.

Fleet actually made 6 kits in all. 2 with Bisacodyl enema, 2 with bisacodyl suppository, and 2 with bagenema.

The main 'event' was either PhosphoSoda or Castor Oil, each followed by bisacodyl tablets. the 4,5 an 6 kits which were castor oil based were not on the market very long.