To give you perspective, I measured the pills.
They are 1cm in diameter and .5cm in thickness.

Katie, I was prescribed Percocet in pill form following surgery for pain. This may be a pill that there isn't a problem with.

I'm finding this odd as they were not ingested at the same time or day and probably month so why are they appearing together?

the mystery continues....

Ok I'm feeling a little better after emailing my GI. I emailed my concerns and he said
Hi, Katie, Yes, we do have pts with pill stuck
there. There is a pt, I removed 224 tablets from
the K pouch with endoscopy last year. Yes when we do the scope, if there are pills stuck, will remove them. Dr.

Then I emailed again and asked about taking 6mp and if I should crush the pills and he replied:
Nope, Katie, most pills (medicines including 6MP) are quickly dissolved
in upper small bowel. Only these dietary supplements often gave us trouble.

So I think probably for most otc drugs and most prescriptions (not time-released) ok in tablet form but any kind of vitamin or supliment just doesn't break down. Though I'm sure this is variable because as we all know the docs will tell us it takes 4 hours to digest when we've all seen what we ate 30 minutes ago coming out. To be safe I'm going to take liquicaps from now on for pain and only tablets if absolutely necessary.
I'll be sure to let you all know if I've got a little pharmacy in my belly after my scope!

--
katie

I guess that there is no resale value on only slightly used pills?
Maybe we could start a market for them?
Date pits and another wide assortment of seeds can hide out for quite a while too. I guess that when my mother told me that the cherry pit that I swallowed would turn into a cherry tree, she lied!
The rule is that if you can't crush it easily under your shoe than don't swallow it!
Sharon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezoar

I had this explained by Chris's new Dr.
"yes, bezoars happen to pouch patients who either eat alot of raw veggies and do not chew, or those who take enteric coated pills. Pouch patients should never take capsules, time released medication or enteric coated medication.

If the pills are coming out, that is good, it means it is not a solid bezoar. But the only way the remove a bezoar is with a pouchoscopy to break the pills up and pull them out."

How did they come through the valve?

picture this: the edge of the pills were small enough to get caught in the holes of the catheter while in the pouch.
When the catheter was being pulled out the pill detached and lodged just inside the valve eventually working itself out through the stoma.

I take a Culturelle capsule every morning...have been for over a year and a half. [ over 450 capsules. ]

I take a Nexium...which is time-released...I have taken those for years.

Wouldn't I have a problem by now if these pills were not being absorbed?

Thanks.

At one time I had a scope done showing my pouch looking "pristine". Shortly after I began taking Fosomax pills every week. Nine months later while investigating abdominal pain, large stones were discovered in my pouch (by the way the stones were not responsible for the pain)that were remove by lithrotripsy by a urologist taking 5 hours.

I maintain the stones were formed due to the Fosomax not being absorbed and remaining in my pouch. However, the doctors have not confirmed that to me.

I popped out another one this morning

Think I'll call for a scope appt.!

Leslie, is this newest one that just popped out today the same kind of pill? Do you remember taking that many of them? I have taken Actonel pills for the past year and recently had a repeat bone density test that showed no difference from before the Actonel, so now I'm wondering if the Actonel pills didn't do anything maybe because they're all sitting in my pouch undissolved......???????........

The pill yesterday morning is the same round pill like the other three.

I don't take anything like this on a prescribed basis so this is definitely an OTC, probably Excedrin Migraine. When I go to be scoped I will bring them, maybe they will send them to the lab.

I had this happen to me with an allergy pill, prescription, I think the name was "Allegra". I actually started looking rather grey in skin tone, my doctor was even scared. I had alot of pills come out for a long time after I stopped taking them too, like Les said they get in the catheter and stay in the valve area and work their way out. I am now very careful about what I take and make sure it will break down, or I cut my vitamins in half if they are big and don't breakdown enough. This happened to me years ago, scared me.

Now I started worrying about whether the calcium supplements I take are digesting or not, and also wondering about vitamins that I should take but feel hesitant to take now. I hate chewables and liquids (they taste bad!) and read that the fillers necessary for chewables may actually interfere with absorbtion. So I was surfing the internet and happened upon the vita4life website which sells vitamin supplements to people who have had bariatric surgery and have difficulty digesting and absorbing vitamins. I assume that these would be good for us, insofar as not having to worry about whether they will digest before reaching the pouch?--I'm thinking of ordering a bottle. I also just now put one of my citracal calcium supplement pills in a glass of water to see if it would break down; it did dissolve in the water within 10 or 15 minutes, so I assume that that means it's o.k. for us, and I'm thinking that from now on, I might put any medicine pill into a cup of water to see if it ever dissolves or not, before I take it.

I had the same problem when I had my colostomy with Allegra. I used to irrigate once a day so I hardly ever wore an appliance. One day I saw this white thing stickking out a little when I removed the stoma cover. I pressed On my stomach and out popped the pill. I knew it was the Allegra because I read the name on the pill. Since that day I have not touch Allegra because even with a colostomy you have to woory about blockage.

Les,
Have you taken any pills in the past that these could be. Specifically for blood pressure or a beta-blocker? I had pills pop out before and it turns out they had a plastic coating. OK for people with colons, not OK for the k-pouch patient.
Bill