Entocort vs Prednisone....

I started taking prednisone a while back after fighting it for a month.  I gave in, he put me only on 20mg which was nice.  It took the pain away and I noticed abdominal swelling decrease.  YEAH!  He had me on 1wk at 20 then taper down.  Well, on day two of taper, the pain came back.  Mild at first then it hit me hard on Saturday (yesterday).  At my check up on Thursday, I told him the pain was slowly coming back (only took 3 days to hit hardcore though).  I had a FABULOUS week though.  :)  He prescribed entocort.  I wasn't at that point sure it was pain from something I ate (dried fruit and almonds ).  I waited til Saturday to take it.  How long does it take for the entocort to take over?  I'm still at 10mg pred tapering for another week. 

Prednisone spoiled me for that week, pain free and very few side effects.  It was nothing like my last venture with prednisone.  I actually enjoyed it.  NOT that I want a lifetime of it.

*****I haven't been here in a while so maybe I should give some brief background.  I have endo and crohn's and I didn't know which was which.  I get pain, not the diareaha, so it is often ahrd to rule endo out.  The pain subsides for a short period of time during the month so to me it is spurred on by hormones.  It was coming in cycles, the same time each month for a while,  now it just stays.  I don't fit the "normal" crohn's mold and the Promethius test came back negative (5yrs ago).  My mom has crohn's and many in my family (history) have died due to intestinal issues so dang it it runs in the family.  I'm jsut glad to be alive NOW.  :)

Hi Shelley, Ummmmm . . . not to make things even more confusing . . . but Chron's "can" worsen during the same time we have pms. Inflammation, in general, is higher. So those of us at the Lupus forum notice increased symptoms during that time too. Just a thought. Has the gi doc seen inflammation in your colon/intestines? Would the prednisone help the endo too? Also, the entocort is released in the bowel . . . so if you don't have bowel issues, I wonder what the entocort is for???? Sorry its so hard to sort out this stuff. I hope the entocort kicks in soon. Blessings!

You might consider a birth control pill that keeps you from having periods except once every 3 months or so. Right now, I'm on Yaz. It gives me a shorter, lighter cycle, which helps. I do notice some issues during my period.. constipation for a couple days and then free flow. Normally, it's about a 2-3 day process at most... Off the pill, it was more like 4-7. Almost debilitating. Now, it's shorter and MUCH more bearable...still need tylenol to get me through, but it's DEFINITELY better.

I considered the option of only having a cycle every 3 months (Seasonale I think?), but I'm still trying to bear children, so we're sticking with what flows best with my infertility treatments as well...

Endo and Crohn's are hard to distinguish. I have a family member fighting something similar. Still no definitive dx. I'm sorry you are battling all this....