I had a hell of a sore throat recently, and my wife suggested I ask the pharmacist for OTC suppositories.
At first I thought it was a humourous linguistic mix-up, and that she was looking for “lozenge,” or something – but she confirmed that she actually meant rectal suppositories. Then I figured she was just pulling my leg. “Say, I have a wicked sore throat - is there anything I can put in my ass for that?”
I thought no more about it until today, because it’s her turn to have a wicked sore throat, and she told me that she intended to seek out some suppositories for it. “They work better than anything,” she insists.
I understand that lots of drugs can be administered that way, but I still had a hard time swallowing this. (Yeah, yeah, just like the old joke.) I checked it out, and they really do exist. They’re from Québec, just like the wife.
Now, for the GQ portion of my post:
[ol]
[li]Are these common outside of Québec? I have never heard of such a thing.[/li][li]What is the pharmacological action of the active ingredient (bismuthdipropylacetate,) and why is rectal delivery preferred over oral? (Just curious.)[/li][/ol]Thanks!
Rectal delivery is faster than swallowing the same medicine. The pill itslef does nothing to help your throat as it goes down.
Of course, I’d rather have a sore throat.
“Couples, for twenty-five points and a chance to win the big prize selected especially for you, your spouse was asked to answer this question: What is the best medicine for a sore throat. Couple Number One?”
According to a salesman for a generic pharmaceutical company that I met a few years ago (while I worked for said company), he found it nearly impossible to sell the two brands of OTC suppositories to pharmacists in his territory, Alberta and BC. Apparently about 90% of the suppositories made by this company were sold in Québec, although it should be said that the big sellers were the ones intended to treat colds in infant and toddlers (much easier that trying to give pills or syrup, it seems!)
June was suppository season…that’s when production would begin in anticipation for the winter demand. We would manufacture and test a LOT of product!
Back when I was 20, I would have killed for a rectal antibiotic. When you have a severe case of Strep, taking oral antibiotics is nearly impossible. If you can’t even drink water, how are you supposed to take a pill? I ended up back in the hospital with dehydration and even worse strep. I’d gladly stick a pill up my butt if it means never having to deal with that again.
[slight hijack] The other day I heard a radio ad for some kind of thermometer, with a little kid whining about how they didn’t want that thing stuck in their ear – lucky kid, the new one they were selling didn’t go there. (I’m not sure where it went.) “Kid,” I said to my radio, “when I was around your age, they shoved thermometers up my ASS. My ear would have been far, far preferable. Trust me.”[/slight hijack]
Some go under the armpit, some you put in your mouth, some are bands you tie around your forehead. Or you could take a steak knife w/ built in meat thermometer and stab the kid with it, but 4 out of 5 doctors don’t recommend it.
Wow. Who knew that there’s a ‘suppository season’? 'Tis the season to cram medication up your bum?
Hijack of my own: Around Thanksgiving, my 5-year-old son was sick and he has a strong aversion to taking medication orally. I knew it was serious when he agreed to a suppository rather than liquid Motrin. You’ve got to really hate something if you’d rather have it shoved up your butt than swallow it, at least at that age. Anyhow, for whatever reason, my husband and I laughed way too much at the whole process, especially when we were looking at the leaflet that accompanied the medication and saw, “Step 1: Remove suppository from foil package.” I do NOT want to meet the person for whom that step needs to be spelled out.
Some meds do not work well on epi patches … I had absolutely horrid results from the clonidine patch I tried out, I couldn’t manage to suck off a theraputic dosage even tripling the patch on suggestion from my doctor. Personally, if I could get all my meds in a suppository instead of having to hork down 30 pills a day I would… sigh
