Oh Gods yes Flagyll has got to be one of the worst meds every invented. Side effect wise, at least; I know it's important for c diff but srsly it sent me into a spiral of mental hell for about a month.
From what I understand, the poop transplant thing is still very much in the experimental stage. Part of this is because drug companies haven't figured out how they can make a profit off of it, so they are trying to get the FDA to put up lots of roadblocks to its use (then again, this may be different if you are not in the US). Right now it's not covered by insurance (in the US), because...stupid reason...there is no *code* for it. Like you know how there is a code for every procedure they do? Well, there's no code for fecal transplants. Also, the donor has to be tested for communicable diseases before the transplant, and the insurance company won't cover that (it runs about $200 per person, if the first donor doesn't work out obviously more testing is needed for additional donors). Also, you have to find a doctor willing to do it...
Right now I think *most* doctors who do them are just doing them for C diff, because that's what it's been (mostly) proven to treat. The "possibly for inflammatory bowel disease/Crohn's/etc." has not been tested yet, because testing = funding = but we'd have to make money off of this and it's not a drug so how would we make money? Which is just *let me bang my head against the medical establishment several times*
There *are* instructions on the internet for doing this at home (it's basically a poop-and-saline enema, the way I had it). The HUGE DISCLAIMER is that you want to make sure that whatever poop you use does not have things like, you know, HIV, hepatitis, parasites, or other things that would make the situation worse and not better. Basically, the $200 worth of tests I was talking about earlier, which unfortunately you cannot order yourself.
tl;dr Could poop transplants possibly help a huge number of disorders? Yes. Will insurance pay for them right now? No. Are there clinical trials going on as we speak? I don't know, I hope so, but there are a lot of roadblocks being put up by fucking drug companies via the FDA. Can they maybe be done under the radar at home? Yes, but be sure the poop is safe poop first.
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Date: 2014-02-23 06:04 pm (UTC)Oh Gods yes Flagyll has got to be one of the worst meds every invented. Side effect wise, at least; I know it's important for c diff but srsly it sent me into a spiral of mental hell for about a month.
From what I understand, the poop transplant thing is still very much in the experimental stage. Part of this is because drug companies haven't figured out how they can make a profit off of it, so they are trying to get the FDA to put up lots of roadblocks to its use (then again, this may be different if you are not in the US). Right now it's not covered by insurance (in the US), because...stupid reason...there is no *code* for it. Like you know how there is a code for every procedure they do? Well, there's no code for fecal transplants. Also, the donor has to be tested for communicable diseases before the transplant, and the insurance company won't cover that (it runs about $200 per person, if the first donor doesn't work out obviously more testing is needed for additional donors). Also, you have to find a doctor willing to do it...
Right now I think *most* doctors who do them are just doing them for C diff, because that's what it's been (mostly) proven to treat. The "possibly for inflammatory bowel disease/Crohn's/etc." has not been tested yet, because testing = funding = but we'd have to make money off of this and it's not a drug so how would we make money? Which is just *let me bang my head against the medical establishment several times*
There *are* instructions on the internet for doing this at home (it's basically a poop-and-saline enema, the way I had it). The HUGE DISCLAIMER is that you want to make sure that whatever poop you use does not have things like, you know, HIV, hepatitis, parasites, or other things that would make the situation worse and not better. Basically, the $200 worth of tests I was talking about earlier, which unfortunately you cannot order yourself.
tl;dr Could poop transplants possibly help a huge number of disorders? Yes. Will insurance pay for them right now? No. Are there clinical trials going on as we speak? I don't know, I hope so, but there are a lot of roadblocks being put up by fucking drug companies via the FDA. Can they maybe be done under the radar at home? Yes, but be sure the poop is safe poop first.