Rowasa

Hello, we have Florida blue (bcbs). I'm flaring after giving birth 2 weeks ago and my doc ordered Lialda and Rowasa to help keep me off steroids. The insurance won't cover either Rowasa OR the generic. The generic is $600. Not sure how to proceed.

I order generic mesalamine enemas (Rowasa) from Canada for less than half the US price. I have high deductible insurance and only get them in US when I've had a bad year and met my deductible.

You need to know what it's called in Canada (Salofalk) and get a paper RX from your GI to send to the CA pharmacy. Doctor writes "mesalamine enema" and dose. When I ordered in Jan the CA pharm said they didn't have what I ordered and I had to explain to the phone person to check with the pharmacist because they do have it and I ordered from them previously. Yes, the pharmacist understood that "mesalamine enema" and "Salofalk" were the same thing.

Good luck.

a lot of it depends on your situation - if you have to go to work in the morning, then i would advise doing it all before you go to bed - that way it has all nite hopefully to do it's thing -

we're all different as to administration, holding ability, and effectiveness -

what about suppositories for use in the morning ? have you asked about those ?

There is a learning curve with retention enemas like Rowasa. I use them in bed before going to sleep. Warming them to body temp helps not to shock the rectum (warm it under my arm). If you are actively flaring you might have a BM reaction after using so start with a small amount…wait a couple minutes and if all is OK then use the rest. Your doc sounds right at using half then other half later (although I have done this never heard a GI say it).

Even retaining it for 15 minutes is better than nothing but goal is retain it until morning.
Using one in the morning a bit trickier because this is the time your body rhythms are in BM mode. So wait until that is over and give the enema a try and lay down for half an hour. Some people like laying on a certain side for better retention.

Good luck. Retention enemas are just about the only RX that ever helped me and they are part of my "go to" kit when symptoms re-appear. Wish they were less expensive and/or easier to get. But they do work really well for lower inflammation so have to put up with the difficulties/cost.