Asacol absorption - is this normal?

Hi,

My son had a colonoscopy yesterday afternoon around 1:30.  His GI told me that during the scope she had to remove 3 Asacol pills that were in her way.  I'm assuming that those were the 3 pills that he had taken the night before (around 11:00 p.m.)  Shouldn't those have dissolved in all of that time between when he took them and the scope?  The GI didn't seem too concerned about it, but it seemed weird to me.  Has this happened to anyone else?

Thanks!

That does sound strange BUT I am on Asacol myself and have seen the capsules in my bms in the toilet sometimes. I brought this up to my Doctor and he did not seem concerned. I read up on it myself on the Net and came to this conclusion. The pills are meant to only dissolve in certain parts of your intestine. From what I gathered.. from day to day the ph balance in your intestines change. The pills can only dissolve when a particular ph level is present. If not present, they do not dissolve and come out the other end in pill form. This, I think, is why it is important to take your pills every day as prescribed because some days they will and some days they will not dissolve depending on your body. :O)

Yeah I had that same question for my Dr. several months ago , about the Asacol. I noticed that after bm's I could usually see the pills in the toilet and he said it was normal , if you look closer(or want to lol) you can normally see that they've kind of opened up but the outside is mostly intact. It's something about they're supposed to not break down until they get into the colon so the stomach doesn't destroy them like it does most food and other pills like Pooie said

I remember taking the Asacol in the morning once and a few hours later I threw up for reasons I cannot remember. I noticed that I had vomited the pills up and you could still plainly read the wording on it! I was amazed as I had never seen a pill do this before- they were forever known as the Superman of pills to me because not even stomach acids can bring ‘em down. They’re not supposed to dissolve until they hit the intestines (which is where they’re needed.)

chroniemomx2,

I don't actually know whether it was the pill itself or just the shell.  The GI just said there were 3 Asacol that were in the colon that she had to remove.  I assumed they were the pills, but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm supposed to call the GI on Friday for the biopsy results, so I'm just going to ask her about the Asacol.  I wasn't thinking clearly enough yesterday when she was going through the results of Ben's colonoscopy with me.  I think we're heading towards Remicade.

Thanks for all of the replies.  They are much appreciated.

Take care,