Trouble with Valium suppositories - won't stay in/dissolve!

I was recently prescribed valium pills to use as suppositories, which I've used three times now, always at night. My muscle spasms are continuing even though I had the LIS surgery last May, so my doctor thought these might help. The first time I used one everything seemed to go okay, although inserting the pill (which is relatively small) was a bit painful, as the pill has rather sharp edges. Despite the pill's small size, I had trouble getting it to stay in.

The second time I used one I put a little vaseline on the pill to combat those sharp edges, and because I thought it would make inserting it easier. Again, I had trouble getting it to stay in, and it fell out during the night. So that pill was completely wasted...

Last night I tried using one again. I thought it stayed in, but this morning when I went to apply my nitro cream, I realized a small part of the pill was still there. It hadn't dissolved, even though it had been in for about 10 hours! I had to go to the bathroom this morning, so I passed what looked to be about half of the pill.

This is really frustrating! I don't get why it didn't dissolve. And I can't believe I'm having so much trouble getting the pill to stay in. Has anyone had similar problems?

Have you asked your doctor if you can use it orally?Neuropathicguy took his orally to help with his spasms when his fissure was at it's worst.

No, I haven't. Maybe I will...

I used it again after posting this, and as far as I know it stayed in and fully dissolved. But it's odd - I feel slightly more sore the morning after using one. I'll be trying another one this weekend, either Saturday or Sunday night.

Ya you should ask your doctor to take it orally,be careful though valium is very addicting.You should ask for a low dosage and it see if it helps so when you don't need the valium anymore you can get off it easier.

OMG !!!!! Why would he give you a "pill" form to use rectally- Is he insane ?????? Have he ever heard about rectal suppositories (or at least vaginal ones ) that you can use ??????

I am sorry .... it is just...just ... I do not know - I will be one of those "Unibomber" guys but sending explosive -poop smelling envelopes to idiotic doctors like that !!!! They will just POOOOFFFFFFF poop dust in their face !!!!!! (no real harm LOL)

Of course that sharp edges can irritate your poor bum !!!!!!! Even the filler of the pill and coloring can possibly be irritating. THAT IS WHY WE HAVE SPECIAL FORMULATIONS FOR BUTT USE AND FOR ORAL USE !!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!

OK - let me calm down... (deep breaths ...deep breaths...)

Go to your doctor and ask about taking it orally - short time use and small dose will NEVER make you addicted - that is a crap talk !

I wish he did a better job with LIS - GRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!

I WISH THEY ALLLLLL GET FISSURES !!!!!! BAD karma for me wishing this - but I just about had enough of incapable "doctors" !!!!!! How on earth they go through med school is beyond me ... now really .............. ??????????????

I agree with you, Fiss. Why would anyone suggest inserting a pill rectally?????

I do not know, dear Cheryl - some doctors are just clueless and have less knowledge than average person walking down the street , I guess O-O ! I have no other explanation : ((...

It is scary...very scary thought *sigh...

And here stupid little me just assumed there was no valium suppository - you just had to use the regular pills. Man am I stupid.

MOTHER FREAKING @#*&^*$Q*&R! And it was such a pain getting these because they had to get it approved by like a billion people, in case I was an addict or something. We don't have health insurance right now either. Well, maybe I'll give them a call tomorrow, see what they say.

Words can not describe how angry I am right now. This has been the worst week EVER, and now this!

It is NOT stupid you - IT IS STUPID THEM !!!!!!!!

Please do not blame yourself for anything - when one is in such pain- brain is not working "properly" , if you know what I mean : (((. You hardly have energy to do basic thinking and going through the daze-like days and sleepless nights - it is not your fault at all !!!!! As I can remember, you also are very young - how possibly you could know anything about "forms of medicine administration" ???

This is excerpt from another forum- so you can see that they exist !!!!
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runningemiles's Profile

Just wanted to let everyone know that the vaginal valium suppositories are a huge help for a lot of ICers w/ PFD. Dr. Brookoff in CO told me about them and the word is getting around. Me and another member on here have discussed our use with these and how much it helps relax those muscles and in turn reduces the pain. Just wanted to pass this info along to anyone that doesn't know about it. Your gyno or doctor can call them in. All they do is call them into a compounding pharmacy and usually the dosage is 10mg. Most compouding pharmacy have them on hand for hospice patients. The good thing about them is you don't typically get the side effects like drowsiness, etc. I try to take them nightly but if I am having a bad flare I can take them throughout the day and lay down for 30 minutes and it really starts to help.

A bit late here but just FYI diazepam also comes as a rectal gel in case the actual suppositories present any kind of problem:

http://www.rxlist.com/diastat-drug.htm

I would stress to use diazepam very carefully and only as needed though. It's not true that small doses for short periods of time will never cause addiction. Reactions to benzodiazepines are highly individual and there are plenty of folks who have gotten addicted after very small doses over a short span of time. Most doctors will tell you it can't happen but look around the Web can decide for yourself. I can unfortunately speak from personal experience on this, otherwise I'd probably have a hard time believing it as well. It's a Godsend when you need it but don't stay on it for any longer than you need to.

NG,

How are you doing and how is the family?????????

Hey Cheryl, I'm okay. Things have been kind of crazy these last few months. My son's still got problems and a lot of things have been happening (and not happening) on that front. All in all things are okay but some things could definitely be better. Hope everyone else here is doing alright, I've been busy for a bit and haven't been able to get on too much.

Well, I called today, and they had never heard of it in suppository form. She called my pharmacy to ask if they offered it, and they don't. So...not sure what to do.

I don't know if I'd want to use a gel, since I also still use nitro cream.

They tell me they can't see my fissure, but I still get all the symptoms (pain during BM, 24/7 soreness, particularly at the place where the LIS incision was made), minus bleeding. I've been told it's just because the area is so sensitive, and because I have other problems in that general area (vulvodynia and a bladder disease). I've been told my muscle tone is still very, very high. Wonder if I should look into Botox... But I don't have health insurance right now. Not good, as I'm planning on studying abroad next Fall. And I bet you anything the craptastic Cobra (which we're still holding off on, in hopes that my dad will get a job within the next month or two) wouldn't cover Botox anyway.

crimeofpassion, is your pharmacy a compounding pharmacy? If not, you should check with a compounding pharmacy. Based on runningemile's post, it sounds like these are compounded or basically custom made.

It's like how -- in the US at least -- there's no off-the-shelf 0.2% nitroglycerin ointment product. The way that's made is to take 2% nitroglycerin and compound it with something else like aloe vera gel. The difference is that many standard pharmacies like Walgreens or Rite Aid can and will make simple compounds like 0.2% nitroglycerin. But suppositories are likely outside the range of what they're willing to compound and create.

It makes sense since in the US, diazepam only comes as 10 mg tablets, 5 mg tablets, 2 mg tablets, and two oral solutions (either 5 mg per 5 ml or 2 mg per 5 ml). Any other form is made for special purposes.

If the dosage really is 10 mg diazepam per suppository, then I would personally seriously consider just taking the pills by mouth or asking for the rectal gel. I don't think using nitro ointment at the same time will be a problem either way -- whether it's absorbed rectally or orally, it's all just a means of getting the drug into the bloodstream. 10 mg of diazepam is a pretty decent dose for muscle spasms (the therapeutic dose of diazepam depends on what condition it's being used to treat), so if you use the suppositories, you won't have any good way of cutting down the dose if you don't need the whole 10 mg in one shot. With pills or gel you can reduce it as needed. The stuff is very addictive and most people grow tolerant to it very quickly (and therefore need to increase dosage to achieve the same effect) so I'd strongly suggest using only as much as you need to in order to get relief -- if not because of the addiction potential, then because once therapeutic effects wear off at the current dosage, you can increase the dose and continue to get benefits from the drug.

One other thing: compounding pharmacies are generally expensive, whereas generic diazepam is dirt cheap, anywhere from $10 to $30 a month tops depending on which lab makes them (the only expensive ones are the brand name ones from Roche). Once you have them compounded, the price is going to go up, which could be a consideration if you don't have health insurance right now.