Headaches

I have been getting really bad headaches. I am currently on 40mg of pred and 3mg of Lialda. Is this a common side effect for either of these drugs? I'm totally staying hydrated with lots of water, gatorade, and Body Armor beverages. Any suggestions on how to fight this?

garylouisville said...
Both prednisone and Lialda can have headaches as a side effect. By the way, you must have the dosage wrong on Lialda. There is no such thing as 3mgs. Don't have any advice on how to stop the headaches. Are you having diarrhea or constipation? It's overkill to keep hydrated if you're not dehydrated or are not constipated in the first place.

I'm totally constipated. How can I help with the constipation?

Is it possible you have tenismus meaning that it feels like you have to poop it can't
It's painful and incomfortable and often mixed up with consolation
I would avoid Gatorade as some of the ingredients bother people with uc
Also if you are not dehydrated it won't help you also, Gatorade is meant to restore electrolytes lost in sweat not Dieahrea if you are concerned about dehydration go for pedialyte

Alternating hot and cold packs can help with the cramping pain quite a bit
Good luck and hope you feel better soon

Post Edited (Dikid) : 7/13/2015 8:40:10 AM (GMT-6)

ElpisUnbreakable said...
Are they migraines or headaches? Because there is medicine to treat migraines but you are not going to enjoy the side effects.

I second the nastiness of Gatorade. All those chemicals and sugar....yuck. Pedialyte is way better. Migraines can be triggered by certain chemicals too.

My doctor keeps recommending Gatorade though. I'm starting to think he has no idea what he's talking about half the time anyways.

Dikid said...
Gatorade isn't bad for you but some people on this forum had trouble with it
I personally was fine and didn't notice anything
Because it tastes good it's easier to get down than pedialyte
If your doc recommended it than by all means drink it
Did you lose a lot of weight it could be he wants you to get the calories?

Yeah, could be the calories. Thanks for the positivity! Sometimes I just feel like my doctor is just as clueless as me about UC. It's a lot to figure out.

@disneygirl12,

Search with my handle and migraine as terms on this board. You will find a good number of posts and steps I have taken or suggested others.

To succinct all those,
1. Maintain headache diary to find if this is related to triggers or otherwise. I maintained such diary for 5 years, didn't find any triggers so I am assuming it is IBD related. IBD predisposes you to headaches/migraines.
2. Ascertain on type of migraine/headache. Your treatment will depend on the type.
3. Start with OTC treatments to abort headache, right from Advil, Alleve, Tylenol etc. We are not supposed to take Advil and Alleve but you need to know if it works.
4. Consult a neurologist/headache specialist and see if triptan derivatives help you with migraine abortion.
5. Also consider some prophylactic to reduce migraine frequencies.
6. Supplement Magnesium citrate, start with 200mg once a day, then twice a day and then finally on thrice a day for at least 3 months. Evaluate at the end of third month on your status of constipation and migraine together. Mg Citrate should help with both of these.