No restrictions indicated in Canada for Zelnorm for persons with adhesions

From: Odette (angeodette@videotron.ca)
Wed Sep 24 19:51:48 2003


I suffer from fibromyalgia, endometriosis in the past, adhesions,arthrosis, occasional migraines and high cholesterol and triglycyride (which are controlled by medication.

My medication is the following: Neurontin (for fibromyalgia and adhesions) vioxx (for arthrosis), rivotril and flexeril (for fibromyalgia) , lipidil micro (for cholesterol and triglycyride), zelnorm and colaces (for chronic constipation related to adhesions),and effexor (for fibromyalgia).

I used to suffer a lot from the adhesions and the fibromyalgia and since i take neurontin and zelnorm, i feel better. Don't get high too fast, i still suffer but as it's a site for adhesions, i'll talk about these only. I had an hysterectomy and a ovarectomy (one ovary only) in 1992 because of endometriosis and adhesions, had to go back for surgery for the other ovary and adhesions in 1994, a vaginal coloscopy was also done in 1995 for an endometrial cyst in the vagina plus a laparoscopy in 1996 for adhesions that were sticking to my intestines. The pain came back the next year and my gynecologist told me that he couln't do anything more. In 2000, i saw a surgeon who had a few tests done but saw nothing, of course, it wasn't a laparoscopy. At that time, i told him i had to take metamucil plus a few colaces. He then told me that if my intestines were touched by the adhesions, i had to wait till i completely blocked. Since i take the neurontin and the zelnorm, the pain in my lower body is not so bad. The main problem i have is the pain on my right side, near my liver, get bloated a lot. I can only eat small portions of food, have frequent nausea. I feel like my food isn't going down. I drink a lot of water and when my pain is unbearable, i drink a lot of mineral water, like one to two bottles consecutively until i feel better. Before taking zelnorm, i had to take 16 colaces a day, i dropped to 6 to 8.

As i read on this site that we shouln't take zelnorm if we had adhesions, i sent an e-mail to Novartis company and asked them why it wasn't the same restriction in Canada, somebody from Novartis phoned me and said that it was our Health Department that decided that it wasn't restricted, that if we had pain related to adhesions that zelnorm wasn't the medication recommended to help us.

I know that it helped me to have a daily stool. I ain't stopping it. I had a recent baryum done for my colon, nothing found and i'm going for an x-ray for my stomach and small intestine. I wonder if they will see if my intestin is partially blocked with this x-ray? Does anyone know? Sorry for my long story! Thanks for reading me.

--
Odette

Enter keywords:
Returns per screen: Require all keywords: