Why won't my doctors prescribe Buscopan?

Hi everyone! So I had been avoiding the ER as long as I could, but ultimately the throwing up won the battle and I got to go for a fun slip sliding ambulance ride up to the hospital yesterday.

For some time, I have been asking my several doctors about this drug my friend recommended called Buscopan. It is used to control spasms in the intestine and bowel. Now, all my doctors have said, "No, you have Crohn's and an Ileostomy, we can't give that to you..." However, the doctor in the ER DID give it to me and it was INSTANT relief. All the cramping gone, pain gone. So my question is, WHY will my regular doctors NOT give it to me if it obviously helped me yesterday?

Any suggestions to defend my doctors before I go into their offices (on prednisone, I might add) and start raising a fuss?

Sharry

Hi Sharry

I have the Buscopan leaflet in front of me now - it mentions not taking it for megacolon or if you have constipation ... I have had it given in hospital too for bowel spasm and it does work for me sometimes - however, I suspect the last 2 occasions where I have had pain - it wasn't exactly a digestive problem, more like adhesions or possibly endometriosis (well that's the next best guess at the moment!) which is why when I took it then it didn't work so ended up with morphine which always does!

You can buy it over the counter in the UK, not sure about over there - but it is good stuff. Can interact with some other meds and can affect your eyesight according to the leaflet.

Hope that helps a bit - I would have thought it was ideal for Crohn's or any abdominal 'upset'?

Rach xx

Funny how in different countries you can get some medication OTC and not in others. In the Philippines, you can get morphine OTC...

Hey Sharry, I have Crohn's disease and many operations ago, I had my second or first operation and OMG, spasms! OMG, just remembering them, OMG! Hahah, I remember them coming on, gritting teeth, squeezing eyes, kind of pain. And yep, hold breath, phew! And yep, I had a doctor come to my house and give me for free BUSCOPAN, no problems. And yep, instant relief, like a miracle at the time... I did have to buy more a few days later over the counter. HEALTH REFORMS, I would protest, ask them if you can get your new buddy from England and Australia to send you some over. Mine cost $5.00. Good luck, hope you feel better. Are you off to the hospital because of spasms or are you having surgery? V bloody Crohn's, geez, they make a fortune out of our bad luck from that blank of a blank disease. Just needed to vent. Thanks Sherry, hope that helped. I'm going to the Philippines, OTC morphine, hmmmm. Thanks, Rach.

Mooza...will you be my friend in the great land of Oz???...I'll send you my address if you can get it OTC...I'm going to have one last chat with my doc and if he still protests against him giving it to me I'll tell him I can get it somewhere else, that usually does it.

Mooza!!!! Hon!!! Will you please take off those damn sunglasses??? It's kind of hard to respond to you when I don't know what you look like. It's like standing on a corner waiting for a bus and you start up a conversation with a person with sunglasses on. I don't know how others feel but for me, I like to look at someone's face and into someone's eyes when I'm talking to them.

Take care...just joking....love ya............Mystified

When things began to get toooooo much for me last year and I finally went to the doctor for help I was given buscopan and told to take it up to 8 a day until the operation. I filled the prescription came home and read the blurb. Do not take for megacolon - but I've got that! - do not take for constipation - Got that too!! - do not take for bowel associated cramping - but I got that as well!!! Yikes - then it said do not take if you have rectal bleeding - OMG 4 for 4.

I panicked and phoned my doctor who told me that nothing, nothing cures stomach cramps caused by bowel problems like buscopan, don't panic - they know what they are doing. I took the meds and they actually stopped the pain! Okay it took 5 hours but it stopped the pain.

When I was in the recovery room after my colostomy my stomach was cramping and it hurt like heck, they were injecting me with buscopan!

And during my 8 days in hospital they pumped me full of it too.

It's really odd how doctors will use some medications that are contra-indicated for your medical condition, but they do work.

I would be definitely asking for Buscopan given your experience with it. If it can stop your pain dead in its tracks it's worth having.

If it works for you - fight for it. And if they argue let them monitor you while you use it. Cos this stuff is amazing.

The main reason why they don't like giving it - according to the Emergency Room doctor I talked to - is because it stuffs with peristalsis, and stops the normal contractions of the bowel and can cause constipation..... But on the other hand it stops the pain and cramping that is like colic and the pain medications don't even touch it.

The night I had colic in hospital I was in agony - the morphine was useless - I had hours of agony before I finally was found by a nurse crying my eyes out. She asked what the pain was like, I told her, she flew off and got me some buscopan and put it in like a drip over a few hours. It was bliss.

If you can get it, it's well worth having

I don't mind getting it OTC and sending it on for anyone who needs ......

I have been on Busapan at the moment. It is not working. I am home alone as my husband has gone to Speedway in Palmerston North, NZ. I have not felt well enough to go out all day, just keeping an eye on it.

Have you tried blending the Buscopan with Panadol Rapid - when I was in the hospital, they gave me Buscopan + 2 Paracetamol 500mg tablets. That worked, so it might be worth a try. But if you can get Panadol Rapid, it's the same amount of Paracetamol, it just works faster.

Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks heaps. What's the time over there? I can't sleep.

Coming up 10.30pm Saturday night. Time for me to try to sleep.

ZZZZZzzzzz - sending the sleepy fairies along with the anti-pain fairies your way.... should be with you soon.

Hugs.