Picolax

[JeanOsborne]

Hi just wanted to know of people's experiences with this. How long did it take to have an effect? Are the cramps really bad? Etc any advice is greatly welcomed.

[carolineeballard]

This is just my personal experience. But the cramping from picolax is nothing compared to my endo and period pains.

For me the first one took 4 hours to work. I thought I would get loose stools, but honestly it was just liquid. And I was on the loo for about 10 to 15 minutes. After that, that was it, until I took my second sachet. The second dose took about 30 minutes to work and again it was like a tap had been turned on.

I recommend staying close to your bathroom because when the urge comes you'll need to speed walk to the toilet lol. Also baby wipes! I didn't use any paper because I knew it would make me sore and uncomfortable.

It just felt like a bad case of food poisoning. Some people do throw up, I was lucky and I didn't. But my mouth was filling up with water. So I would get a bucket ready by the toilet incase you do get sick.

And once it is all done you don't have pain. Well just hunger pain! I remember feeling really drained of all my energy. Plus the taste of the stuff is foul, people say it is better ice cold.

Good luck. And if you want to know anything else just ask x

[JeanOsborne in reply to carolineeballard]

Thank you Hun.

[mablesky]

I've had pico lax three times now fir me it started Working within an hour or two of starting .i had no cramps at all just a sense of urgency to go!!!

Good advice.....have some Vaseline to put around your bottom as the liquid coming out can make you a little sore.

It really wasn't a pleasant experience but for me was nothing like a stomach bug or anything like that just a mad dash to the loo for a few hours

Good luck!!

[JeanOsborne in reply to mablesky]

Thank you for the advice. Before I was on Zoladex I would get extreme diarrhoea so I'm hoping it it won't be too bad.

[confusedandworried]

For me the first sachet had no effect whatsoever. It wasn't until about 2 hours after the 2nd sachet that it began which for me was 11 at night, which added to the stress as I was convinced it wasn't working & surgery would be cancelled. I didn't get any cramps or nausea &, similar to you, used to get extremely bad diarrhoea with my endo - much worse than I experienced with the picolax! The next morning whilst waiting for my surgery I felt another "surge" & went a couple more times. Fortunately I didn't go into theatre until 3pm anyway so it didn't matter. So my advice would be, if possible, to start taking it earlier (I couldn't unfortunately due to travelling some distance for my op & having to have a preop assessment at 3pm the day before surgery). Also flushable wet wipes as others have mentioned, magazines, some sort of entertainment maybe on your phone to keep your mind occupied whilst you're glued to the loo & if you're short like me & your feet don't reach the floor 🙊 then a footrest is helpful for comfort sake as you could be on the loo for a while. Chilling the mixture of picolax in the fridge before drinking it also helps if your not keen on the taste. It was my first bowel prep & I had gotten myself a bit worked up about doing it after reading horror stories & convinced myself I wouldn't be able to keep the picolax down as I have a very strong gag reflex. Sadly if I don't like the taste of something it has a tendency to come straight back out again 😝. I had a small mouthful of ginger ale or Coke after each cup of picolax just to get rid of the taste which again wasn't too bad anyway as I had chilled it before drinking it. I can honestly say the whole experience wasn't bad &, whilst obviously I hope I won't ever have to, I wouldn't be worried if I had to do it again now. On a side note when my diarrhoea was at its worst with my endo I used to have it several times a day for one week before my period & the week during my period. It was so bad I could not venture far from a toilet & sometimes was late to/couldn't go to work as I couldn't get off the toilet . I started taking a supplement whilst living in Australia called Ethical Nutrients IBS Support & found after a month they helped enormously with the diarrhoea. In fact I still take them now & get them shipped over from Australia. Not cheap but definitely worth it as they changed my life. I don't know if it was endo causing my diarrhoea or IBS or whether IBS even exists (my consultant says it doesn't & believes it's all endo). I would add that I never did have endo on my bowel, although plenty of endo near it. But even though the other endo symptoms persevered until I finally had excision surgery the supplements resolved the diarrhoea at least. Best wishes

[JeanOsborne in reply to confusedandworried]

Thank you so much this was really helpfulness I'm worried it won't have the desired effect. Had to have enema last for a colonoscopy which really didn't work. Hopefully these will.