Repeat of earlier posting:I just wanted to respond to the many posts from individuals who are so upset about this withdrawal. I'm one of those people who thought Lotronex was a miracle. I had diarrhea for 40 years....not D & C, not C, just D. I was the perfect candidate for Lotronex. I took it for almost three months and was in heaven. Because it did have a tendency to be constipating, I took only 1/2 tab once or twice or day. I had no problems that I knew of with the drug. It was wonderful (I thought), until I ended up spending a night in the bathroom with debilitating cramps, no BM, a high fever, chills, and non-stop vomiting for about five hours. At that point, I called my GI doc who advised going to the ER. I was hospitalized for several days.Exactly one year before I had had a colonoscopy....no abnormalities. In the hospital I had another colonoscopy which showed numerous ulcers and clear signs of Ischemic Colitis. I had been to the doctor on Friday...we both thought my response to the medication was great....I was hospitalized early Sat. morning. The reason I'm reporting this is to emphasize that it wasn't a matter of having problems with the drug and not being smart enough to stop it. I did not know that anything was wrong in my response to the medicine until I was in very serious trouble. As you no doubt know, Ischemic Colitis is the result of the bowel being deprived of blood flow and it dies. Gangrene then develops, and the outcome if not caught in time is death. I had many problems while I was taking the medication, but because they were seemingly unrelated to IBS, I had no idea (and neither did the four doctors I saw) that the medication was causing the problems. I had daily migraines, chest pain and back pain (which resulted in hospitalization 10 days before the IC hospitalization), a cough when I ate and tried to sleep, and erratic blood pressure.....on one hospitalization it was 209/94. My typical blood pressure all my life has been 120/70. Again, I saw multiple docs and specialist during this two month period and none of them realized it was the Lotronex even though they all knew I was taking it! Since stopping the Lotronex, all the above symptoms have gone away. My blood pressure is still a little higher than normal (###145/81), but not a problem.One of the things I've noted on the various boards over the past two months is a seeming tendency by other IBS sufferers who love their Lotronex to blame the patients who have had problems with Lotronex. I have received very hostile e-mails from people who me and/or my doctor for taking the medication inappropriately. For someone like me, who is intelligent, educated (Ph.D.), and informed, it is insulting to be blamed for taking the medication irresponsibly or to having been prescribed the medication inappropriately. This absolutely was not the case. Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded. I just felt you might need a few more facts before assuming that Lotronex is really that miracle drug we all want. FaithIP: L
oes
