Has Anyone Taken Imodium So They can Leave The House

Hello,

I really need to go food shopping but because I am always runing to the bathroom it is making it so hard. I really have to go food shopping Today and since 6 a.m. have ran to the bathroom 5 times already. I am also nervous about leaving the house because I don't want any accidents. I hate this so much. I was told by my last GI doctor that I could take Imodium but the new GI doctor said they really don't like to tell you to take it in case the diareah is caused from an infection. The medications I am currently on is Entocort EC, Asacol, xanax (for very bad anxiety), Augmentin (antibiotic, not sure if it was given to me for a anorectal abscess/fistula I have or if he put me on it for the crohn's. I was on flagyl for a long time and he said I needed to come off and I am allergic to cipro). I am also taken a multivitamin and will start calcium next week. Anyway, with everything that I am taking does anyone know if I will be ok if I take a Imodium so I can go food shopping? Thank you in advance for your reply.

Hi Mrs Mitchell,

I have taken Imodium to allow me to leave the house in the past. It isn't advisable to do it often but it probably wont be a problem if you just do it occasionally. Your GI made a good point about infection but to my mind the biggest problem with doing it is that is can cause a partial obstruction if you do it too often. I had a situation at one point where I had taken Immodium over the course of several days and I ended up getting one solid and immovable stool lodged somewhere in my small bowel. The pressure buildup and pain from the diahorrea behind the blockage was unbelievable and it still managed to force it's way past that one lump making for just as frequent but significantly more painful bowel movements. I now have a one dose a day, no more than twice a week rule. I haven't had to use it for quite some time now as I have had great sucess on Remicade but that rule did hold me in good stead while the disease was still active. Choose your time and get as much done in the time the dose is effective as you can, it's really not worth the risk to do it too often.
Best of Luck
Hayley

I take Imodium ALL THE TIME!! Like probably once or twice a week. I've never had a doctor tell me not to take it and have only heard people be hesitant about it on this site. If you have Crohn's, your diarrhea PROBABLY is not caused by an infection. Yes, you shouldn't live on Imodium, but seriously, if you're like me and diarrhea is your number one symptom, you can't live without it and the risks are worth it.

Ditto others. Always take it when I'm not going to be around a restroom.

Hello, I want to thank everyone so much for thier response to my question. I had to leave before anyone answerd so I just took 1/2 a pill and I was able to do ALL my food shopping. My husband doesn't drive so I have no choice but to go. We had two FULL shopping carts so I hope that will last a while even though we have 5 kids. I was scared to take it but I guess it actually helped because we have been gone for hours and I haven't had to go to the bathroom. My Biggest problem with crohn's and the only way I found out I had it is because I always have diareah. I haven't had a formed stool since I had my son 3 years ago and found out I had crohn's about 2 years ago. I am so glad I made it out because I am always so scared to leave the house because of having to use the bathroom. I am glad to know that other people have had to use imodium when needed and are ok. Thank you all so much. I won't use it a lot but if I have to go out I will try it again, maybe I will feel a little normal again.

oh hey and I too am allergic to Cipro. My feet swelled up like balloons for about 2 wks .... it was soo painful.
I thought I was going to die. I remember i had to crawl around the house, i could barely walk.
It was scary!!
that was in Feb. of this year.

yes if I have bad D I take Imodium.
My doc says it is ok

Unfortunately I can't tolerate immodium but I take codeine every day for bowel control. Even though I'm in remission there some damage or something somewhere in my system that means that if I didn't take it I'd be glued to the toilet most of the day - I've had "accidents" before in public and hell no am I going through that again!
My doctors are fine with me taking it, my disease activity is monitored monthly in bloodtests and if I was to flare theres other ways I'd notice I was such as pain and vomitting etc so they're not worried about it hiding something nastier, the way they see it is that the main thing is that I can lead my life as normally as possible and if that means taking a few more pills so be it!

Thank You so much everyone. I am the type of person who is so scared to take any type of medication and the one's I am taking now took me months to finally take. As I mentioned I did take 1/2 a pill to make it to the super market and do my food shopping. I don't know why I have to feel so nervous to take medication. I've been suffering for so long scared to leave the house because of having an accident but I hope to be able to leave more now and enjoy my life a little. I spent the WHOLE summer in the house because I was so scared to leave. The couple of times i had no choice but to leave I found myself running to a bathroom and almost not making it. Thank God the store's I was in had a bathroom. Well, that just made me have such bad anxiety about leaving the house. I'm going to try not to be so scared about taking some medication so i can try and live a normal life. I know my GI is about to start me on the bigger medications that I am really freaking out about.

mrs. mitchell

ask your doctor about cholestyramine. it is a powder that you can use that you mix with water or orange juice, I prefer the o/j

as you don't taste it so much..one small packet gets me thru a  day or two , but ppl are different and you have to adjust to your needs. i work outside where there are usually no bathrooms, so I always make sure I carry it with me or take first thing in morning if i know it is going to be a bad D day....  I have had surgery in 2000 had and ileum re-sect, docs figure that I had crohn's for about 14 yrs before that tho.. am experiencing alot of different pain right now , have had 8 different diagnosis and 5 different prescriptions, 2 ultrasounds, one ct going for another test next week.. pretty sure it's the crohns again but not positive, so good luck to you and hope it works for you as it did for me

Immodium is pretty safe from the small amount of research I did when i looked into it. I rarely take it, but if i had to, I would.

Also, most antibiotics will worsen diarrhea. You might want to consider taking probiotics if not already, such as acidophilus. Make sure you space out your probiotic doses from your antibiotic doses as the antibiotics will kill both the good bacteria (probiotics) and the bad bacteria causing infection.

Thirdly, if you think you might be able to tolerate psyllium husk (ie. Metamucil supplements), or another water soluble fiber, this may also increase the bulk of your stools. Only do so if you are pretty sure you can handle fibrous food items...ie. can you eat at least some cooked veggies? Start on a low dose of it and see what happens maybe?

Exercise may help as mentioned previously...

God Bless

This may be weird, I usually have the big D, but i can only take 1/2 of an Imodium, if I take more than that I won't go at all. My doctor doesn't want me taking it because of the narrowing. I haven't in a long time and it's really just when the D is so bad I'm having a hard time making it to the bathroom. The last remicade infusion I had has helped with the d :) Yay!

Two immodium is part of my daily regimen. I have done so for years and years, with my doctors approval. I also take Questran, and that has been a life saver. Before the questran I was taking 5 immodium a day, and even then I'd have problems. So with the Questran and the 2 Immodium I'm perfectly fine most days. Able to eat out, and go places. Really an improvement in life!