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What do any of you recommend for dehydration? I can literally drink a gallon of water a day and still be dehydrated. My doctor keeps telling me to go to the hospital to get IV's of water. I wasted a whole day waiting to get in, and felt no better. My doctor says to be re-evaluted in the ER but does not agree with the things they tell me! I can not hang out at the hospital, and after awhile they really treat you like you are crazy. It is too expensive also, and I cannot keep missing work. Even without the runs I still am so dry. Constantly thirsty, dry skin, leg cramps.

I work at Walgreens and know almost everything we have over the counter. I would not know where to look for these re-hydration packets. Do they have a name brand that is recognizable? Do you know what section I would look in? I will try to get more salt. I eat bananas daily but I need more potassium.

Dioralyte is a UK brand, but Pedialyte is American. Walgreens do stock it according to google, but where exactly you'd find it I'm not sure: I would suggest looking in the diarrhoea relief or children's health sections. There may be other brand names, but Pedialyte is the one I've seen mentioned most often on HW.

Failing that you can make your own solution for pennies (or cents).

www.provident-living-today.com/Rehydration-Formula.html

Failing even that, just eat a salty snack with a glass of diluted fruit juice or Gatorade. Or just drink a 500ml bottle of Gatorade with half a teaspoon of salt added to it. I got a stomach bug last week, which turned me into a salt-eating fiend. I ate spoonfuls of Bovril neat from the jar, added salt to everything, etc. Wouldn't recommend going that far, but I certainly would advise increasing your salt and, preferably, potassium intake. Too much plain water will just wash the electrolytes out of you, making a mild electrolyte imbalance worse.

EDIT: There are a couple of types of dehydration. If you have electrolyte imbalance, your urine needn't necessarily be dark, particularly if you are drinking a ton of liquids. My urine is never dark, but that doesn't mean my electrolytes didn't get sorely out of whack during my recent bout with norovirus. Being thirsty can be a sign of diabetes, but usually you are also urinating far more often as well.

PS: Just to add, even before I came down with norovirus, I'd been feeling chronically thirsty for a long time. Dry skin, too, and occasional foot cramps in bed. I have an ileostomy, which basically means that water and salts run straight through you without a colon to absorb them. I now think that feeling of chronic thirst was down to mild dehydration, and I'm going to increase my salt and potassium intake: plain water just wasn't cutting it for me before.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 1/12/2015 2:40:19 PM (GMT-7)

The doctor said if I started having leg cramps I should be worried about dehydration because I was having loose stool every time, and/or just going way too much. I do not urinate that frequently either, and last week after prepping for my colonoscopy, I got very dehydrated. They gave me water before the procedure.

I am not diabetic. A lot of dry mouth, dry throat. We do have Pedalite, but I did not know adults every used it. It is not cheap. This disease is costing a lot of money. Things are better since I narrowed my menu to only about 15 things recommended to only eat to help ease Chrones disease symptoms. But I have also lost thirty pounds. I am afraid to eat much.

Large meals and fast eating cause just as much trouble as eating the wrong foods. Gatorade now makes my stomach hurt. I did my prep with vitamin water. They say I have gastritis. Doctor will not commit to Chrones, says it is hard to diagnose, when it is not. I have all the symptoms, and I have had six obstructions. I have to make a follow up with him.

My blood test came up suggestive of Chrones but nothing came up with my biopies. Not sure what that means. My urine is mostly clear these days.

In the past couple months a lot has changed. I used to have to worry about constipation and blockages, now it is dehydration and diahreah. I used to only avoid a lot of fried foods, soda and popcorn, but now I have to follow the diet people with Chrones follow. If I have one piece of chocolate or the wrong kind of cracker, or (anything that I miss eating!) things go terribly wrong, and sometimes nothing will stop it until it has run it's course. Soup no longer agrees with me either lately. Only snacks that seem safe are hard candy and sherbet. It has only recently become this way, in the past couple months.

He only has me on a pill for acid.

I can't add to what kazbern said really. Has your small bowel been assessed for disease? Colonoscopies can examine the colon and terminal ileum, but not any higher than that.

Please push for small bowel testing if you haven't already had it. CT scan isn't enough; you really need an MRI scan or a small bowel barium follow-through. (As it seems like the barium meal wouldn't agree with you, I'd try to get an MRI instead.)