Let me make clear that I'm no fan of suppositories, and here's why:
A couple of years ago, Right after I left for college, Dad was working the second shift (3:30pm-12M) at a location about an hour's drive from home.
I woke up about 6:30am, and could not get his usual morning BM.
He decided to use one Bysacodyl(Generic Dulcolax) Suppository.
He inserted it, and according to directions, got it turned sideways so that it was touching the bowel wall. He got shaved, showered and dressed and went about his day. Right after breakfast(about 1 hour after inserting the suppository) he got a medium-sized, slightly loose BM. he figured it had done what it was going to do, and went about the day.
he left for work just after 2:00pm, as usual. On the way to work, He was glad he was in the car alone, because he kept passing gas.
He started feeling a BM coming on about 20 minutes from work.
By the time he got there, he had to run directly to the restroom. he passed LARGE AMOUNTS OF LIQUID POOP, same as what you get when you take an oral laxitive. It lasted a good 20 minutes, he ended up clocking in 10 minutes late and getting docked.
He also had to run to the restroom every 20-30 minutes, for the entire shift and got writen up for excesive bathroom breaks. He could not eat more than about half his lunch due to nausea. He also spent most of lunch break in the restroom!
By the time he got off, there was not much left in the lower bowel, and he was able to make it home before he had to go again. He went to bed still passing a little gas, but the effect was mostly worn off.
The next day, things were normal. At work He made up a lie about food poisoning.
That stirred a memory of when I must have been about 6 or 7. He raised me as a single parent, I still don't know if my mother is alive or not!
I was having a time going first thing in the morning. It was summer so I was not in school. We were scheduled to meet his parents to go to lunch. It was for his birthday which came up later that week. We discussed it, and we agreed that I didn't want to be sick and miss lunch with grandma, and there really was not enough time for an enema, so I would take a glycerin suppository. He explained to me how to use it, and gave it to me wrapped in a kleenex. I was able to get it in successfully lying on my bed.
My experience with that glycerine suppository was almost identical to what he went through 15 years later with the Dulcolax!!!
From now on, it's enemas for both of us! I don't even keep suppositories around the house anymore!!
My experience with Dulcolax tablets is not that much better!
Bysacodyl is a widely-used laxative. It is sold under the brand name Dulcolax, and generics. A second form is suppositories, where there are brands by Dulcolax, Fleet, and generics. There is a Fleet Bysacody mini-enema as well. The fleet Bysacodyl mini enema, I have only used as a pre-enema to an Epsom Salt and Soapsuds enema, never as a stand-alone. I think this still qualifies me to describe my experiences in some detail. I am not recommending, or slamming the product at all, I am simply trying to explain what I have experienced.I am only describing what happened, and letting you judge for yourself!
I DO consider the suppository experience a negative one that I don't care to repeat! The experience with the oral form also DID involve twice the normal dose, and that may have been a factor in it's behavior. I don't know if I'll ever take oral bysacodyl again, but, if I do, I certainly will time it very differently, that is, I'll take it at bed time! There were 2 occasions over the last 4 years when I took bysacodyl as a stand-alone laxitive. Most recent of those was about 3 months ago. I woke up at 5:30 AM, just a few minutes earlier than I usually do. It was Monday Morning so I was off work that day.
I shaved and showered, and I took 6 generic bysacodyl tablets. It was just about 6:20AM when I swallowed them, I made sure to note the time. I did not eat breakfast, I took my prescription blood pressure drugs as I usually do. I went about my day. By Lunch, NOTHING had happened! I decided just to drink some Gatorade, but I was wondering what the problem was. I didn't want to eat, for fear of causing problems with the bysacodyl.
Every other laxative I've ever taken in my life, and I've tried most of the ones on the market, has produced some indication that I had taken it, some sort of gurgling, cramping, gas, feeling of bloat, something! Even the glycerin suppository I took an hour before I wrote this produced some burning for the first few minutes, than some gurgling, then some bloating, and now alternating between bloating and that slight pain that tells me there is something happening in there. I experienced NONE of that with the bysacodyl tablets. There was no indication at all that I had even taken the stuff! I did not feel a thing!!
I was considering how long I should wait before taking a soapsuds enema and declaring failure. At EXACTLY 3:49PM, the bysacodyl took effect. I barely made it the dozen paces from my computer to the toilet; there was ABSOLUTELY NO ADVANCE WARNING! It just went to work. By the time I could get on the toilet, there was already a little bit in my underwear! 20 minutes later, it was done, everything was out, and the feeling was similar to what I feel after taking a Fleet Enema!