Whole tablet in ileostomy bag

Hi guys... I'm a week out from my abdominal colectomy and end ileostomy. For pain relief my surgeon has me taking a 325 mg Tylenol tablet every four hours. Last night I took one at midnight with a sip of water, then around 3 AM when I emptied my bag, I saw an intact Tylenol in my bag.

So: I know that we ostomates can't take extended release or enteric coated stuff, but I thought the Tylenol tablet should be OK? Is it because I took the pill with too little water, or without food? Or does this just happen sometimes and you can't explain why? I've been cutting my Tylenols in half and taking with a lot more water since then, since I want to make sure I am actually getting some pain relief!

It's the plain white tablets, no coating. Makes me nervous about absorption of my prednisone (probably too small for me to notice if it came out in the bag), but I always take that one with food...

The Tylenol every four hours is actually managing my pain very well so far, knock on wood. My understanding is that even though one Tylenol is usually pretty useless, if you build up a serum level from taking it on the regular, it becomes a lot more effective. I have percocet for breakthrough pain as needed but haven't had to take any yet.

It may have just happened because your stomach was empty. Once in a while, stuff goes through me really quickly undigested. Usually it is when I have eaten something on a very empty stomach. In fact- this happened to me for the first time with scrambled eggs yesterday morning. I ate a whole plate full and in 30 minutes, some of them- still recognizable- were already in my pouch! I had never seen anything like that happen in my 2+ years with an ostomy. I chalked it up to the fact that my stomach had been more empty than usual as I hadn't snacked much before bedtime. I could see the same thing happening with a pill.

I would consider taking the Tylenol with food. If it keeps happening, maybe switch to the liquid version. I have been taking quite a bit of acetaminophen this week due to a painful sinus infection and none have ended up in my pouch. I use the generic gel tab ones that are yellow and red.

With meds, I assume that if the symptoms that I am taking them for seem to be controlled and pills are not showing up in my pouch, then I am absorbing them fine. So far I have not had any issues with medications. As with all things ostomy though- everyone is different:)