Mirilax/movicol Problems -- Anyone Else With Bad Reaction

[blueskies]

Hi I'm in Australia and we call mirilax, movicol here. I get mine from a compound chemist so it has no flavourings etc. Essentially it's polyethelene (sp?) glycol or macrogol 3350.

I"ve never tolerated it all that well but have had to return to it over and over as other forms of laxatives have done a number on me causing cause 'intolerance' reaction adverse reactin. One cause an 'anaphylactoid' reaction.

Each time I took movicol I'd have some redness and then sunburned burned feeling. So I'd use it to get my bowels going for a week or two then swich to glycerine suppositories and occasional fleet enema. I had an abdominal xray about 6 weeks ago and it showed that constipation was at a moderate to marked level. I now have an appointment with my gi in early June. Last time I took the movicol it made me feel very ill. So I'd been avoiding it for some months and just using the suppositories etc. Last Wednesday, though, I knew I had to take it, I was afraid I might have left it too late actually, I took it over 3 days. Skin getting progressively redder and hotter. On the night of the third day (I'd taken it in the evening -- usually I take it in the )) about 3 hours after taking it I went to bed and found it really difficult to get to sleep as my guts were more uncomfortable than they'd ever been taking this stuff. I got to sleep but woke Friday night/Saturday morning abou 1am feeling really sick. Each of the three nights i'd woken up feeling unwell but the third night was markedly worse. I remember waking up and saying 'oh, i'm really sick,' thinking I had some sort of virus (as I do -- never blame pots or meds first?). I got up to go to get some water and go to the bathroom (I do this a few times during the night as I will dehydrate if I don't drink regularly even during the night and then I have to pee regularly too). I had that sever sunburned feeling and it took me quite a few minutes to get up out of bed -- just raising my head was tough and this sort or reaction is not something I get with pots anymore.. When I stood up walking was more difficult than it has been for a long time. I was staggering. My breathing felt strangely affected -- I feel it might have been an allergy reaction, maybe, not sure. My head felt like it was twice it's normal size and had a familiar feeling that I had cement in my head. I made it to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and face, chest arms etc were red as were the whites of my eyes. Breathing felt a bit laboured but not asthmatic and I had no puffer to use as my son had borrowed mine (it was a brand new one) that day and taken it with him.

Anyway, it wasn't until this morning that I have started to feel a bit better. I did do a bit of research on the movicol/mirilax and read a lot of responses written by people who had used it. Overwhelmingly they were positive reports on the laxative. Only a couple were negative. One of them expressed his reaction exactly like I felt. He said he'd felt 'deathly ill' from it. And that's how I felt.

I'm wondering if anyone else has a problem with this medication. macrogol 3350 is in a lot of medications as a filler or tablet liner I think -- not sure in what form, really. I know it's in one of my medications I take but obviously in not large enough doses that effect me -- not yet anyway.

I can't risk taking it again so I'm just going to have to muddle on until early June until I see my gi. Or end up in hospital first with a burst colon, one of my greatest fears.

blue