Just picked up a patient who appears to be having a nasty reaction to 'Picolax' which is a laxative used to prepare the bowel before a colonoscopy.I've given a fair amount of this stuff in my previous life as a nurse and can't ever remember anyone having this particular reaction.
As we took the patient into the hospital we were met with disbelief – the patient in the next bed had exactly the same symptoms from the same use of the drug.
Weird.
It's currently being reported to the people who look after this sort of thing under the 'yellow card' reporting proceedure. Perhaps it's a bad batch, both patients were given the drug by the same hospital, maybe it's just a coincidence.
I wonder if there will be any more this shift…
-=-=-=-=-
Sent from a mobile phone, probably from the cab of an ambulance.
-=-=-=-=-
Had an almost identical call on the other side of London. Horrible to see this elderly type having such an awful reaction. And on the same day too. Never heard of this Yellow Card thing though. Any ideas how I go about reporting it?
Interesting – bad batch? wrong dose? wrong drug? Will watch out for it myself!
I can't help but wonder what the reaction was, but I know I don't really want to know… Hope they'll be OK.
Too much Si interfering with their oxygen sensors?
wrong type of exhaust methinks :o) lol
I've certainly had picolax be bad enough that I may have considered calling for urgent medical attention had I not been in hospital. The last two times I took it, however, it was almost completely a damp squib. One time it even made me do less stools than usual.
When I was a nurse, 1982 – 84 a patient was perscribed said drug and the reaction of the charge nurse was “Oh Christ last time I gave this the patient arrested”> Makes you wonder, but it was a loooooooooooooooooong time ago.
I, too, have taken Picolax. My God.
That stuff almost killed me once.These days I get give Kleanprep instead. It's a little more 'Gentle'.
That said, it still disagrees with me. Next time I need it, I'm going to opt for a liquid diet 😛
This week I've had a friend on the phone in tears cos she'd been given Picolax by her GP and it was like “dynamite” and she hadnt been able to leave the loo for about 18 hours. She'd been dubious when given it as she remembered working on a surgical ward where a little elderly lady had been given Picolax and it made her so weak she'd fallen and broken a hip trying to get from her bed to the comode.However, my mum found Picolax far gentler than Kleanprep when preparing for a colonoscopy last year. She couldn't go through with the full dose of Kleanprep, ended up in a heap on the bathroom floor and wasn't well enough to go to the hospital the next day for her procedure. Eeeshk!
Colonoscopy preps can be a bit brutal even when they're completely normal, hope they found out why this one was even more so…nothing like sitting on the throne for hours followed by getting a camera stuck up your bum while people take notes…ah, happy days.