Movicol experiences - is it supposed to be this awful?!

[Kirova]

I have been prescribed Movicol to take for reasons I don't need to go into. Was advised to stay home after drinking it, so I drank it all down first thing this morning.

First of all, my stomach has got so bloated and gassy that I actually had to undo my trousers, and then take them off entirely. I can hear my insides gurgling and rumbling and I've got the most awful stomach cramps - but nothing else has happened.

Is this normal? Is it meant to feel so uncomfortable and horrible? I'm feeling so awful and I wish I'd never actually taken the stuff 😥

It would help to know why you've been prescribed it.

Is it for a bit of constipation, impaction ( ie, severe), or to take with new meds like Codeine or Morphine to offset possible constipation?

What dose were you told to take?

Are you eating and drinking?

When was the last time your bowels moved and was it normal?

It's for chronic constipation - I was told to take 2 sachets daily. It's probably about a week since I've had a normal bowel movement - mainly just leaking little bits or occasionally passing small hard bits. Sorry, very tmi!!

Very gurgly, very bloated and quite bad cramps but nothing else has happened yet! I've been drinking pretty normally I think, but my appetite has been quite poor over the last week or so.

It sounds awful. I had similar experience with prep for surgery. Keep sipping fluids, have warm drinks and try a hot water bottle on your tummy. It helps with the gas.

2 is not much.. my 6 year old needed 12

I don’t know how it feels as never taken it myself, but given it to children I cared for before and it can often take a few days before it takes effect. 2 sachets is still a fairly low dose, usually for constipation I was instructed to give 2 sachets on day one, then 3 sachets on day 2, 4 sachets on day 3 etc until it works.

Two sachets is a maintenance dose. As the PP says we were advised to increase daily. Ds aged 8 got to 12. Then had a much higher maintenance dose for a while as he had been constipated so long his bowel had stretched.

Yes like PP say for disimpaction you need to go up 2 sachets a day until you get runny tea like poo. Then you can go down to maintenance dose. My 8 year old is on 2 sachets a day for maintenance but in the past has had up to 8 sachets a day for disimpaction (although I think adult dose is twice the strength of kids dose)

My daughter takes a similar product (laxido) and if the daily dose is 2 sachets she takes 1 in morning and 1 at night. It's supposed to reduce bad side effects

Oh gosh - I must be very intolerant that I'm already moaning so much having taken 2 sachets! I can't imagine taking 12.

I have had a spinal nerve injury (cauda equina) and had surgery a few weeks ago - possibly triggered by pregnancy/birth. Because of the compressed nerves, I've had loss of bladder and bowel function which has resulted in constipation. I'm a bit worried by the idea of it being completely liquid stool because I can't really feel/control bowel movements at the moment and I'm scared that it would end up just leaking out uncontrollably! Sorry that's a bit gross.

With osmotic laxatives you have to make sure you drink plenty of water through out the day as they work by drawing water into the bowel to soften the poo. But yes they can take 1 or 2 days to start working.

Just to say, the people talking about children taking 12 sachets...those are half as strong as the adult ones... Do not take 12 adult sachets! The adult disimpaction regime is 4 sachets day 1, then 6 sachets day 2, then 8 sachets day 3 and until clearing.

Thanks for this suggestion, btw - I've made a hot water bottle and it's definitely helping a bit with the cramping and gas!

I know it's not glam but if you have no sensation, get some tena pants in so at least you aren't worried about a leak. You almost certainly need to keep taking til watery stage. It'll only be for 24 hours though because you can reduce the dosage after.
If it's really unbearable do speak to the Dr though.

DH takes Laxido daily (essentially the same thing). Anything between 2-6 sachets depending on how he is. Not sure if it will be relevant but he gets on much better with Laxido than Movicol in terms of less bloating etc.

He has various bowel issues (resulting in hospitalisation at times) but mainly severe constipation. You have my sympathy as DH is in bed almost crying with pain at times.

https://www.health.com/fitness/beat-bloat-with-yoga

Try some of these

Sorry you're going through this op ☹️
I can't help wondering if an enema would be a better solution?

UP I think you're getting this all wrong. If you have impaction, take 8 sachets within 6-8 hours and then drop to 1/2 a day when you have had the first ' proper' movement. It's easier to make up a huge jug of the stuff and then take glasses from it every couple of hours. You'll feel horrendous at first with the over inflated, stretched belly, but after a few hours you'll have an overwhelming urge to go and then whoosh. Tmi, but it won't all be runny, you'll also pass a large solid ' brick'. At the moment you're describing leaking, as your bowels are struggling to bypass the obstruction which needs removing. The relief is immense if you do it properly. Long-term chronic constipation sufferer here!

I'm upping the dosage pretty much as you said on the nurse's recommendation! It's feeling pretty horrible at the moment - like someone has inflated my stomach and filled it with liquid, but still not much action apart from the leaking. I usually have a pretty high pain tolerance, but this is just so uncomfortable 😣

I was on it years ago and no, I didn't have the horrible side effects you're getting. However the bloating and gassiness could just be your bowel preparing for a movement. Hopefully once things get going and your system is clensed then you'll feel better while taking the sachets.

(Sorry for talking in code - trying to be delicate!)

If it's blocked up it will get very uncomfortable

It can take up to 48hrs fro the movicol to work

Hot water bottle and lots of exercise might help relieve the pain

Good luck OP, I do sympathise it's the most horrible uncomfortable pain and you can't really talk about it with others! If you can get yourself to those 8 sachets ( might be more, might be less,) if will work I promise you. It's just important that you drink those sachets within a relatively short time frame . Like the pp said if you don't manage to ' go' tonight, it may be in the morning after rest. By any chance you still haven't found relief , drink more sachets tomorrow but 8 in a day usually does it for me when I get really bad. Hope you feel better soon

Ha, exactly! It's not a great topic for polite conversation!

I've had my lot of sachets for this evening and my stomach now looks like I've swallowed a football, but I'm still only getting odd bits of leakage. I feel like I'm full of gas and I can't pass it! Hopefully something will change with it tomorrow because I'm so fed up at this point!!

Just to say that I got there... In the end! Thank you for all the advice !😏

Oh fab to hear! What a relief! Least you'll know what to do if there's a next time 😀

There's literally no difference in strength between movicol pediatric and movicol half... where did you get that information from? I have both at home and compared the both of them, and there is absolutely no difference in strength...