Hi Hope,

Two years ago, I got into a situation like yours after taking narcotic pain killers for a dental abscess. I ended up going to Urgent Care. The Doc there said I was at the stage where I probably needed to go to an emergency room. "Why??" I asked him. He said that I was going to need morphine to be able to tolerate the pain of what lay ahead. That sounded far-fetched, so I went home and tried various approaches.

That very night, I DID end up going to an emergency room. They told me to just go home and drink Citrate of Mag. and use Dulcolax suppositories. I ended up in horrendous pain.

A day later, I went to a different emergency room at a University Hospital (a teaching hospital) where, praise Heaven, the DID know what to do. They told me the Urgent care MD was correct. So they obtained IV access. (Put an IV deal in my arm.) Then they brought in "LACTULOSE" in little one ounce containers. They said drink one container of Lactulose every hour, or even every 45 minutes, if I wanted. After 2 hours the pain was bad, and I felt dry heaves. (Hadn't eaten in days.) I called for help. They knew just what to do. They shot some morphine up the IV portal and, also, some anti-nausea medication. WHAT A BLESSING! The pain and sick feeling completely subsided, and that allowed me to continue slugging down the shots of Lactulose. Eventually, I was just fine and walked out of that emergency room starved and had my sig. other take me to a diner.

The reason I share this is because it's good to know what is a protocol solution formulated at a teaching hospital. I say that, in case you end up in an emergency room like the first one I went to, where they - literally - did not know what to do.

Good Luck!