I'm in the middle of colonoscopy prep, it's 5 am and my head is killing me.

My GI prescribed MoviPrep for me this time. The last time I had a scope (4+ years ago) I passed out from dehydration and had to be given IV fluids before the scope. This time I have been drinking juice and water as much as my body can hold, and still I have this awful headache and I am not done drinking the darn prep.

The instructions say to call my DR if I have any signs of dehydration, such as headache. Do I finish the drinks and then call? Do I really need to wake him up at 5 am and tell him I have a headache? Anyone BTDT?

Oh gosh this sounds awful! Try pinching the skin on your hands (between the wrist and the fingers) for a couple of seconds then let go, if it doesn't go back to its place quickly this means you are pretty dehydrated. Also, check your pulse, if anything more than 90 beats per minute then thats also a sign of dehydration (less water=less blood volume=heart has to beat faster to work with the little blood you got).
Drink lots of rehydration fluids like gastrolyte or gatorade; water isn't enough. Leave the prep and do this for 20 minutes and if your headache hasn't eased up then i'd say call your GI. You don't wanna pass out...
Keep us updated

I just went with my pounding head! Told them when I got there.

For my last prep, I drank a bottle of mag citrate. Then I could only get through about 1/8 of the nu lightley jug. I physically couldn't handle anyone. I was throwing up with each sip. I went to the store (don't recommend doing that in the middle of a prep!) and got Dulcolax. I took 2 at midnight and 2 at 4am and hoped I'd be cleaned out enough. I was!

Hope all went well for you.

Did you basically "starve" for the day or so before doing the prep? That would for sure give me a headache...from the liquid low residue "diet".

The gallon preps are the best, I've never had a headache from them...ever. Golytely has one without flavouring in it, and the NuLytely has flavour packets to add.

q

Kazbern,

So sorry you felt so lousy!

Did you end up by calling up the doctor?

How did the colonoscopy go?

 

You'd be surprised, i bet you just had caffeine withdrawal. Those kinds of headaches can be so incredibly painful. Just wean off your coffee and pop a week before you get scoped.

Sorry to hear about all that you've been through! But that's great news about your colon! :) Hopefully the biopsies come back with no problem as well. Take care.

Oh, and I heard my GI telling DH that even tho my colon looked good, the pain I've been having could be IBS. I hate those three letters. I scheduled this scope a month ago, in the midst of a flare that lasted about 2 weeks. I don't know what brought it on, and I don't know how it stopped, but I do know that at the worst point I had 12bms in one day, my right side was soree to the touch and my right knee and right hand were achy. Bloodwork taken then showed nothing. Sigh.

AM preps always seemed retarded to me.. Preferred drinking Miralax the day before.

Quincy and Brian - thanks.

Yes, the hormonal headache was a constant topic of conversation in the pre-op yesterday.  All the middle-aged female nurses agreed with me that perimenopause sucks the Big One and that there are no good options.  I went to a neurologist a few years ago (a woman about 10 years younger than me) to pursue some headache solutions and she told me she never heard of a hormonal headache.  Needless to say I did not return to her for a follow-up.  I do need to see someone though - between hormonal issues and sulfazine and living in the subtropics where allergies are awful, I have a lot of headaches.  Not too many are like the one I had yesterday, though.  I totally blame the prep.  Something in that solution triggered a migraine.  Maybe it was the aspartame, like someone said.

The demerol totally worked on the headache but left me nauseated for the next 12 hours. I ended up calling in for phenergan so I could go to sleep. No solid food could pass my lips without me gagging until this morning, and even then I was still nauseated. I finally got hungry around 11 am. I resent being so fricking sensitive to these sedative drugs. On the other hand, while all my friends were getting high and drunk in hs and college I just said "no thanks" after my first experience of vomiting through a hangover.

I took one phenergan at 10 pm and slept through my alarm clock, woke up at 7. I think I was awake for a total of 10 hours yesterday. ugh.

about the right sided pain - my GI has offered me antispasmodics several times, but I already feel like my motility is compromised and I don't want to take anything that will make it worse. Plus I hear they make you sleepy - see the above part of my post. I'm sure they would completely knock me out.

My experience with fiber supplements has not been good, although the last time I tried them was when I had active inflammation in the colon and ileum and it was just too painful. Perhaps I should try again. I do keep a lot of fiberous foods in my diet (fruit, veggies, brown rice, oatmeal, raisins), but perhaps half a metamucil capsule would be ok (the cookies have gluten).  Meanwhile, I'm taking miralax every other day to keep my stool moving.  Would it be ridiculous to add fiber and take miralax??

I was most pleased to hear that there was no inflammation in my rectum. That had been the hardest to clear. At my last scope (2008) there was still inflammation so I kept up with my rectals. At some point I stopped - probably around the time in 2009 that our house got struck by lightning - I don't really remember. The box of enemas I still have in my bathroom expire in 2013. I used one in the midst of that microflare last month, but honestly I haven't felt like I have any proctitis in a long time. So no, I am not using any maintenance rectal meds.

The right side pain appears to be linked to how much stool is in my bowel. For years I have told my GI that instead of feeling rectal pressure when it's time for me to go, I feel pain under my ribs on my right side. We have examined my gallbladder, done an abdominal CT and now a scope, to try and figure out what is going on. The miralax, which is safe to take indefinitely, softens the stool enough so that I have a bowel movement every day, or every other day, and my stool is never hard. I only take about a 1/4 dose of miralax anyway. Without it, I was skipping two days or so of bowel movements, then having an awful day of multiple bms and terrible cramps.

When I had the abdominal CT in January of this year, my GI did not tell me to prep my bowel. This was before starting miralax and the results of the CT were compromised because my colon was so full of stool that the contrast could not get into the bowel. That was frustrating to hear. Anyway, the scope this week demonstrates that I don't have any visible inflammation in the transverse colon, or a stricture, which is what concerned me most, since I have had an esophageal stricture and I worry that strictures are a feature of my disease.

The issue of motility for me is very frustrating. There are many similar stories on the Crohn's forum, and I have come to believe that the chronic inflammation we suffer with damages the motility of the bowel. Before I started using miralax regularly, I experimented with senna, which causes bowel constrictions. It worked really well for me, producing a bowel movement whenever I took it. This kind of laxative is not considered safe for long-term use, though, so I stopped it and switched to miralax. But this experiment pointed out (in my mind anyway) that there's an issue with my colon not squeezing enough or at the right time or whatever. I'm considering doing a sitz mark study just to get a better picture of things, but I'm not sure what the point of that would be in the end.

And yes, I drink 1 cup of caffeinated tea every morning. It does help a little bit, but not enough, to move my bowels. Yoga helps also, because twisting stretches can squeeze the colon, as can belly massage.

So sorry to hear you had a hard time with your prep! Hope you're feeling better today!