Suggest Treatment For Nausea, Abdominal Cramps And Diarrhea After Having Magnesium Citrate

Posted on Sat, 2 Jan 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 2 Jan 2016 Answered on

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : On Christmas Eve I was in the ER and learned that I have either a Spigelian or incisional hernia as well as anemia and gallstones. I am supposed to receive a call about a surgery time for the hernia but the holidays have gotten in the way. I told the Dr that I have not had a bowel movement and was told to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate. That was last Saturday. I drank it and, after a slow start, went for 10 hours. But have not been able to go since. Thursday at work I strained and strained to get a couple rock hard pebbles out. I felt like I needed to go to the ER then because it wouldn't come out, nor go back in. Yesterday I bought stool softeners, took three, and went to bed. Around 6 am I had to go but again it was like my body was refusing. I was sweating from head to toe, was nauseous and truly felt too ill to form the words to have my husband take me to the ER. Then I had about 4 rounds of diarrhea. Then I fell back asleep. At what point should I go to the ER? Why am I so constipated and bowel movements so traumatic lately? I also sweat during the day for the littlest efforts like boxing our tree ornaments. I did not haul the boxes I was simply taking them off of the tree and I had to keep sitting down. Is this an emergent situation? XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (15 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Large intestine should be checked at first.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Thank you for the query.

ER visit is necessary in case of cramps, nausea, vomiting and (very important) when you are not able to pass gas. Such symptoms usually indicate complete bowels obstruction (not just constipation).
Sometimes obstruction is not complete, just partial. If so, cramps followed by diarrhea can appear.

Now the point is to determine the reason of your stool problems (and possible obstruction). Hernia is a possibility for sure but only if you have pain and hard lump in the hernia area.
If its soft and you can push it back, that is not the reason.

Anemia at your age can be a sign of large intestine tumor. So in my opinion you should rather start with colonoscopy than with surgery.

And one more thing. Please check your heart rate. If its more than 100, you should go to ER.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Note: For further inquiries on surgery procedure and its risks or complications book an appointment now

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar