So, Belladonna is old school.  It has many uses, many names which include “Deadly Nightshade”.  It literally means, “beautiful woman” in Italian because drops made from the plant were used to dilate women’s pupils (considered attractive back in the day).  Although it is highly poisonous, it is very useful in medicine when compounded properly.  It’s used a lot for gastrointestinal problems like motion sickness and can be used as an antispasmodic to treat IBS and Crohn’s disease.  One compound is used to treat Parkinson’s, and others are used for heart resuscitation.  In my case, it acts as a muscle relaxant, helping my dyschezia (difficulty in pooping as a consequence of long-time suppression to defecate), anal spasms, it also helps with pelvic pain, reduces my trips to the bathroom, and helps me empty!   According to Wikipedia, in the past, when combined with opium, it was used as a “flying ointment” to get witches to their brew-ha-ha’s.  Seriously, look it up!  So, aside from hindering my mode of transportation, not being able to get this has resulted in increased rectal pressure, multiple trips to the bathroom, anal bleeding from said bathroom trips, soiling myself at night, not sleeping b/c I have to get up 3-4 times a night to poop, incomplete emptying…the list goes on.  So, basically, back to my crappy “normal”.

I can’t get it because there’s a shortage of the beautiful lady.  However, before (and I’ve only had one rx, by the way) it was no easy feat to acquire it either.  I felt like such a druggie calling all these local pharmacies and getting turned away because, “it’s a class two drug.”  Class one drugs are mostly your standard illegal drugs that they consider to have no or little medical use and are primarily used as a recreational tool to get you high.  Class one drugs include LSD, marijuana, “magic mushrooms”, meth, PCP, etc.  You get the drift.  (My research from the DEA’s website.)  Class two drugs have a use medically, but are narcotics like Dilaudid, Ritalin, OxyCotin, Percocet, etc.  You get the drift. Most of us here have had Dilaudid or some form in an IV drip after surgery or while hospitalized for pain.  It has the effect of getting you “high” but is such a useful tool for pain, it is still used.  Enter my suppositories.  The doseage is 16.2 mg of belladonna and 30mg of opium.   I should mention that in my research I found that belladonna can also be used as a recreational drug that produces hallucinations and delirium.  However, it’s poisonous and generally not worth that attempt.  I will admit, the first suppository made me kinda giggly and “loosy goosy” but had no ill effects the next day, so it’s not something one would use for a “high” effect.  However, it did make me super  happy because it helped me poop and relieved my pain and urgency.  Plus, after getting drug-induced lupus from man-made drugs, I was eager to try something natural.   And, it helped! After five years of trying, post surgically, to figure out what was wrong with me and to then find something so simple that helped and may help me live a more normal, productive life, and avoid surgery no. 8, I was ecstatic!

So, the first rx I had was a feat to have filled.  I eventually had luck with my mail order pharmacy who couldn’t imagine why I’d had such trouble in the first place.  One catch-legally, Dr. Shen can’t write me more than a month’s supply (b/c it’s class two), and it can’t be called or faxed in-has to be mailed in, by me…Who lives in Texas.   Dr. is in Ohio…hmmm. So getting refills should be interesting.  And it has been!  They faxed one in and that was denied, but I called Dr. Shen’s office and they are awesome and mail it to me so that I can then send in to my pharmacy.  I should mention that at this point I’ve been without it for two weeks and am crapping myself regularly and getting desperate.  Life without pain and pooping all the time is SO nice!  So, today I get a call from my mail order pharmacy…they can’t get it. UGH!!!  So, I call the manufacturer=shortage of belladonna.  I was shocked b/c I thought the issue had always been opium.  Anyway, I’m trying again to get it from CC pharm, but this will be the third (the other two were destroyed b/c they couldn’t be filled) rx for this in a month from me trying to get my medicine, so who knows if he can even write me another one legally.

So, is it just me, or is this totally ridiculous?  That I’ve finally found something so simple that helps, and I can’t get it because of regulations and supply problems (probably related to those regulations).   I can easily get something that could cause cancer, lupus, tuberculous, infections, the list goes on, but something with essentially no side effects I can’t get.  That makes perfect sense.

I’m going to try to find an alchemist or someone who can just make it for me and hopefully not poison me.

The lengths we go to for health.

These posts might also help out:

• December 8, 2010 -- Cleveland Clinic, Day 1 (6)
• September 12, 2010 -- I suck at being sick (24)
• August 5, 2010 -- Crohn’s…Again? (7)
• November 10, 2009 -- Just Dance! (8)

These posts might also help out:

• July 15, 2009 -- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (12)
• November 10, 2009 -- Just Dance! (8)
• February 11, 2011 -- Belladonna Wars? (7)
• December 8, 2010 -- Cleveland Clinic, Day 1 (6)

Granted, it is an “employee only” bathroom, but hey, what is the world coming to when someone poops their pants because someone else is worried about… er… what? What, exactly happens if you break the rules and let a customer into the bathroom? You get fired? They steal toilet paper? Fine.

I would gladly get fired for breaking the rules if it were in the name of humanity, decency, or any of those other words that end in a ‘y’ and connote positivity.

Here’s hoping the next clerk is a nice one.

These posts might also help out:

• June 15, 2009 -- Teen Diagnoses her Crohn’s Disease (1)
• December 29, 2011 -- Loss & Gain (2)
• February 11, 2011 -- Belladonna Wars? (7)
• November 4, 2010 -- Fear Monger, MD (6)

These diseases are very similar and very complex, and even the experts will admit that they do not know much about them. This is not meant to be scary, just to clarify the great similarity between them and the difficulty in distinguishing Crohn’s from UC sometimes. Whether you have UC or CD ( and this is speaking from my experience only), getting the diseased colon out of you will make you feel SO much better. Surgery is generally avoided in CD b/c it can cause what probably happened to me, which is for the disease to “activate” in areas where it was previously dormant, ie: your small intestine, now Jpouch.

Now, a word of advice:   You cannot go into these surgeries totally paranoid about what *might* happen. I never thought I’d end up with CD.  The complications and statistics of such were well-explained to me prior to deciding to have the surgery.  Crohn’s wasn’t even a blip on my radar screen.  My surgeon said, “There’s a 5% chance you could end up having Crohn’s,” and I remember in that moment, brushing it off.  And here I am in the 5%, and you know, I’m  100% better than before I had the surgery.

ALSO, just b/c you have a Jpouch and are later diagnosed with CD does NOT mean you will lose your pouch.  I’m proof enough of that:)  This possibility of pouch loss terrified me because I did not like the ostomy.  I banked so much on having the J-pouch and on finally having a semi-normal young life because of it.  Maybe eventually I will lose my pouch, maybe someone one without CD will lose theirs for another reason, but is it still worth the risk? For me it was, absolutely. And…so far so good.  I’m on my 4th year, and still goin’ strong.

Also a note about Humira. I realize the same drugs don’t work for everyone, but Humira has been a wonder-drug for me, so I don’t want to frighten people away from something that may help them in the future.  There are some scary side-effects, it’s true.  They do affect some people, but again, for me, it was well worth the risk.  It, along with other newer drugs, have had me in the remission I was never in before surgery, and this is why I will probably be able to keep my pouch for many years to come.

Brevin, yes mouth issues are more common with CD. I pretty much always have a canker sore on my throat, and in retrospect, probably had a lot of other CD markers, but these diseases are SO similar, that you really can’t bet your future on your mouth issues. Many docs always attributed my canker sore to UC and never attributed it to CD.
So, given MY scenario, if I had Crohn’s all along, (and probably did) and had the Jpouch anyway, I’d say I’m doing pretty darn well for a CD+Jpouch case. It is far from perfect, but I am so much better, mentally and physically, than I was before the surgery, I feel almost like a different person. Mostly, I just feel capable of having and living my life now. So just be of the mindset that IF something goes wrong after your surgeries, that you and your world will not fall apart; rather that you will make informed decisions about how to best deal with it. Living your life with “what ifs” is no way to live, and it is unfortunate that these diseases kind of program us to think that way. Surgery is always scary. It’s a huge life decision, but it’s one of the best I’ve ever made.

These posts might also help out:

• August 5, 2010 -- Crohn’s…Again? (7)
• February 7, 2009 -- ERrrrr… (2)
• December 29, 2011 -- Loss & Gain (2)
• March 15, 2010 -- “You’re Fired.” (15)

Photo by: Lifespan.org

These posts might also help out:

• May 13, 2009 -- Alternative Therapies for Colitis and Crohn’s? (2)
• December 29, 2011 -- Loss & Gain (2)
• August 26, 2010 -- “My Hole” (4)
• August 5, 2010 -- Crohn’s…Again? (7)