# lotronex help!!!!someone PLS



## cara987 (Mar 27, 2003)

I am a 24 year old, single mother of a 3 1/2 year old and 14 month old who has had this for a year and a half and is getting extremely frustrated and "irritable" when my irritable bowel syndrome flares up which has been a lot lately. My DR. has given me the patient/doctor agreement a few months ago due to the fact I have changed my diet and reduced my stress and have tried all the medications that my insurance will cover (about 8-10 of them). My mother and myself are very skeptical about this drug because of the possible severe side effects. I guess what I am asking is for #'s of people who have had these side effects. What are the chances that I will have them? What are the factors that are involved? I have tried finding it on the web and have been unsuccessful at finding my answers. Most web sites just tell me what its for and what it supresses. I need to be able to get this under control to the point that I can at least work a full time job without having to call out 2-3times/week as well as have some kind of social life and feel that it is "safe" to eat something at least once a day instead of once every 2-3 days. Not eating is my safe house. I feel that employers and such don't really understand what it is and how much it affects someones life. I am totally not suprised by the reaction of others considering it is not well publisized and even I didn't hear of it until I was diagnosed. Well, enough rambling and your help will be greatly appreciated


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## trbell (Nov 1, 2000)

you might want to ask in the lotronex forum (5HT3).tom


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Check out the 5-HT3 forum for more info rather than this one (use the hop to at the bottom of the page).In the studies the incidence of Ischemic Colitis (the severe side effect they worry about) is in the 1 in several hundred range. Generally if you become constipated on Lotronex it is not for you and you should stop immediately. There are a lot of people that "got their life back" when put on Lotronex. When it was pulled from the market they got an unusual response to this action (usually the drug company and FDA get a handful of letters for any drug pulled. For Lotronex they recieved over a thousand (about 1% of all people who had it prescribed). The huge response from people for whom nothing else worked was part of the reason that they ended up putting it back on the market with some precautions to ensure that it is only prescribed to people who have life effecting problems due to diarrhea prone IBS. At least some of the issue before was it was prescribed way too often to people with constipation







Other drugs have been implicated in IC in the medical lit so you might want to avoid ibuprophen while on Lotronex and using cocaine recreationally. The risk for IC happening to anyone increases when you become elderly, so if you are geriatric then you may need some additional monitoring. Hormone Replacement Therapy may also be something you want to avoid as it has also been implicated in IC (none of these in combo with Lotronex...each individually) If you experience bloody stools when on Lotronex stop taking it and go to the doctor. Most of the time IC will resolve itself. Sometimes surgery is needed. Prompt treatment (like with anything else) is important for recovering well.K.


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