The 3AM Suppository for Fever

A few years ago I discovered that being awakened in the middle of the night to take a fever suppository can be a nice oasis during a siege of being sick. Our wonderful lady pharmacist recommended rectal acetaminophen (and a finger cot) to bring down a fever when I had been throwing up and could barely keep sips of Gatorade down. That was a new experience in what my husband and I joke as being "medical intimacy." Very early in our marriage we learned from a visting nurse that the old fashioned enema bag works so much better than salt from a squeeze bottle. Suppositories were new to us. Neither of us had been given supps as a kid. The pharmacist recommended acetaminophen suppositories 650mg, 4 to 6 hours apart for fever and body aches that make having the flu such a memorable experience. So, about 9 o'clock at night we were like kids with a new discovery undoing the foil wrapper of this magic bullet. We had a medical book with instructions on the finer points of inserting, which hubby did beautifully with me lying in bed on my side, knees flexed of course. That was easy. Next dosage 3 AM. That will be interesting. I'm usually a deep sleeper. Hubby he said he would set his watch to wake up and give the med. Well I highly recommend getting a suppository at 3 AM. I was never fully awake and being turned on my side with my panties slipped down and the feeling of the suppository gliding in was very nice. It's one of those sensual connections we learned that sparks our marriage, even when I'm feeling awful!!

Thoughtful & considerate husband you have....makes for happy even when feeling poorly

PS to #1. Maybe I'm dreaming, but the times I've taken the acetaminophen suppositories, they worked faster and better than the oral meds. Thoughts?

@ Vicki cause the medicine is absorbed into your body faster rectally. Just like a injection works faster then a pill same idea behind it. Orally is the slowest route for the body to process medicine why it takes longer.

Sorry but rectal medicines are simply not absorbed more quickly than oral ones. The reason suppositories are given is for a local rectal effect or because nausea and vomiting precludes oral delivery. Also it's not true that intramuscular injections work more quickly. Only intravenous delivery produces a quicker effect.

Our wonderful lady pharmacist recommended rectal acetaminophen (and a finger cot) to bring down a fever when I had been throwing up and could barely keep sips of Gatorade down.

THAT'S why the pharmacist recommended the suppositories.

Liquidsky: When I grew up, suppositories were quite popular with physicians, parents, pharmacists... (not so much with children) to give medicine to children (things have changed nowadays, much fewer medicines are now available in suppository form).

I've always wondered why. Part of the reason may be that, contrary to a tablet, a suppository cannot be swallowed wrong, contrary to a syrup it does not put sugar (causing decay) on teeth, and it might be easier to force a child to take one than to swallow something unpleasant.

But it seemed to me that many people believed that an injection was stronger/faster acting than a suppository, which was itself stronger/faster acting than an oral medication. I attribute that to some kind of misguided belief that if something is unpleasant, then it must be better, somehow.

I comment the use of a finger cot and, I would add, personal lubricant or vaseline (this depends on the kind of suppositories, some are more slippery than others).

When I was a child I got suppositories from my mom with no finger cot or lubrication, and still remember the unpleasant feeling (my mom had slightly long fingernails, as fashionable for women).

It's my understanding that suppositories are used more commonly in Europe. I've often wondered why. The number of medicines which actually can be given that way is actually limited. Anti emetics and anti pyretics are the most common meds given rectally as well as local bowel drugs such as cortisone. Analgesics like morphine are sometimes used in the terminally ill. I wonder if the more widespread use of suppositories in Europe has anything to do with preventing ODs?

Liquidsky: Nowadays in France, the suppository that one can find, at least in the non-prescription drugs:

- acetaminophen (paracetamol), I suppose for people who throw up (not a bad idea - avoids this annoying case when somebody has thrown up after swallowing medication, so you don't know the dose absorbed)

- some medications for throat ache and other respiratory issues, containing eucalyptus and other pungent extracts and optionally bismuth (I suppose the taste would be so strong as to make it impossible to swallow; in the rectum it's already an experience... see brands such as Biquinol, Pholcones

- glycerin and other laxative suppositories

But when I was a child more medicines were available in that form. I used to hate them, and it seemed to me that every doctor's prescription contained at least one suppository. I sadly do not remember what they were for exactly.

Liquidsky: There are even jokes on that. "Un suppo et au lit" = "a suppository and in bed", said about tired / sick people (I suppose the suppo is an antipyretic). Or even "une fessée, un suppo et au lit" ("a spanking, a suppository and in bed") about unruly and slightly sick children.

Growing up, we always had a selection of suppositories around the house. Dad was a pharmacist, which perhaps accounts for that. I do remember we also had Cheracol (sp?) syrup and Penicillin VK powder for reconstitution if prescribed.

I agree with @Pecan nutjob that "contrary to a tablet, a suppository cannot be swallowed wrong ... but I am not so sure that it might be easier to force a child to take one than to swallow something unpleasant."

To this day I keep both glycerin and acetaminophen suppositories around the house and they both have come in handy from time to time. Years ago, when my then wife was recovering from surgery and was nauseous, we also had a supply of Tigan suppositories, which I can assure you she preferred to the IM doses of Tigan she received in the hospital.