Budesonide Enemas?

I got a recommenation to try Budesonide Enemas.  I googled this drug but it appears you can only get it in Canada?  I'm located in the USA.  Don't think my insurance covers drugs obtain outside the USA.

Has anyone tried this and can you get it in the USA?

Thanks!

I talked to a compounding pharmacy that said they could make them, but I never followed up on it because I doubted my GI doc would want to write a script for it, and I also doubted that my drug plan would pay for them so I would have been out of pocket.

You are right, for some reason they are available in virtually every country in the world except the United States. Go figure.

They usually do take US scripts. I've never heard of this medication. Sounds interesting.

Some Canadian pharmacies do take scripts from the U.S., but you may have to pay for them out of pocket. I don't think they are that horribly expensive, but I don't know for sure.

The pharmacy I use in Canada is Jan Drugs in Winnipeg, and I know they definitely take scripts from U.S. docs. My doctors office just faxes them a prescription directly when I need to get my Salofalk tabs which are also unavailable in the United States.

Apparently the budesonide steroid is rapidly excreted from your body once it gets into your blood stream, and that's why you don't get the normal steroid side effects like you do from hydrocortisone enemas.

That was me! That was me! Good memory Ugh! You know, I think that I screwed up though. I was on Budesonide enemas for 2 weeks and had nothing in the way of relief or side-effects. It just did nothing for me. I was then switched over to Betnesol. So it wasn't the Budesonide that gave me the bad side effects, just to be clear. It was the Betnesol.

I was on Betnesol enemas for about a month and got HORRIBLE side effects. I am currently on 40 mg of Prednisone and am noticing a decrease in the side-effects as compared to the enemas (contained 5 mg of Betamethasone in 100 ml.). Specifically, within the first week or so I noticed moon face, facial hair growth, acne, confusion, mania, aggression. By the end of week two, the aggression and energy turned into depression, complete lack of energy and worsening confusion (I am a lawyer by profession and was completely unable to work due to lack of mental focus/clarity). I also had dizziness, muscle weakness and exhaustion. To top it off, I was left with an oral thrush infection from my lowered immunity which resulted in esophagitis. I was also told by my Dr. and pharmacist that I wouldn't get systemic side-effects.

On 40 mg of oral Prednisone I am feeling waaaay better (side-effect wise) than I did even after a few days on the Betnesol.

Just my experience, so don't let me scare you off of either the Budesonide or Betnesol! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I was on oral budesonide (Entocort) right after my colonoscopy and it helped me tremendously. It's mostly for higher up in the tract, but it helped my sigmoid and most likely rectum overnight, so I wanted to try the enemas but they were $7 or $8 a pop when I looked online last year.

If you have Entocort (oral capsules) in the US, then you can make your own enemas. My GI feels like the regular budesonide enemas are useless at only 2.3mg. He has me take my Entocort capsules, break 3 of them open and then use a mortar & pestle to grind the beads to a fine powder. I mix with 60ml of water and then use a syringe to administer. That way, I am getting a total of 9mg instead of the 2.3 in the pre-made ones.

I can't really say if they have helped me or not, but I think there is a much better chance of them working at the higher dose.

Good luck.

I have BCBS insurance. Compounding pharmacies are considered out of network so I need to pay upfront then submit a claim form. Call your insurance and ask them about the use of compounding pharmacies. A total of 20 suppositories cost me $65. Not bad since this is a generic.

I'll post my result when I start using them. I 'm currently trying an Ensure diet for 3-5 days first to see if that gives my colon a rest and allows for my lining to start healing. so far I'm on day 2...no change so far.