Not digesting Asacol?

HI there,

It's been a while since I've been to this side. I've been dx for 4 years and in May had a partial colectomy to remove my sigmoid and most of my rectum. There is a small "chance" for a takedown surgery, but I have always had a severe form of Crohn's colitis. Since then, my gut looks phenomenal!

That said, they put me on maintenance meds.. it was varying for a while, but the long-term plan as of now is Asacol (800mg 3x/day), Cipro (500mg dx/day), Levbid (.375 2x/day), Fibercon (2-4/day-eventually 4/day), and then Levsin (.125) for break-through spasms.

I put a call into the doctor today but didn't hear back.. At first with the Asacol, I would notice the shell casing every now and then. I've been on colozal before and noticed it every once and a while and was told it was normal. I did a little research and realized it's normal for asacol to do the same thing. HOWEVER, I'm have 2-3 Asacol pills/day in complete casing and undigested passing into my ostomy bag. I'm not sticking my hand in poo, but I can actually feed it..and because I know the different between my pills.. I know it's the asacol.. about 3 weeks ago.. I simply noticed the shell...but the shell was empty, so no worries, but now the shell is completely in tact.

Any thoughts?

It's your transit time with your ostomy...I usually had the casings when I had a functioning colon, but I bet they'd do straight through me now, too:(

Do you take them before, during or after you eat? You might want to play with your timing and maybe you can have enough time to absorb them if taken when you start eating. I've had to adjust one of my vitamins because they were coming out whole, too.

If you cannot absorb them, they aren't doing much good, so you may want to talk to your doc about another option.