Hello,
I have tried a few meds over the course of my illustrious Crohn's history.....prednisone, imuran, pentasa, entocort, and asacol. After my second small bowel resection in 1997, I tried Asacol, and basically took it until a couple years ago. The at that point some doctor said it's probably not really doing anything for me, and that it's really just for Ulcerative Colitis patients, not Crohn's. The reason I switched from Pentasa to Asacol was because I would always notice the Pentasa granules in my stools, and I concluded that the granules were not dissolving in my gut and therefore was not helping me. I have noticed a similar thing with Asacol over the years - namely, the hard outer shell of the Asacol pills just barely splits open, permitting a minor amount of the medicine inside to be released. Most of the medicine in the Asacol pills seems to remain intact in the barely-broken pills. Now I'm flaring and I wonder whether the tiny amount of Asacol that may have been coming out over the years was helping or whether I just had a lucky run of luck. I'm trying to brainstorm about how I could achieve greater medicinal relase from the pills....and I'm not clear on whether to call it a capsule, a caplet, or whatever. I bit into one today and it kind of shattered...so you tell me what it is. I guess my bottle says they are tablets, ok. Anyhow, just wondering whether I'm alone in this Asacol experience.
Thanks!