Low Stool Elastase?

I was diagnosed with small bowel Crohn’s Disease about a month and half ago. I am currently on 9mg of budesonide a day for the past month and have not seen much improvement. In fact, the past couple days things have gotten worse. Over the past two years of having symptoms, I’ve had my stool elastase tested twice. Once it was very low, at 25, and over the summer it was low yet again although not as low as the first time.
When I’m not feeling well my stool tends to be very pale in color and loose, and when I’m really not well it’s liquid. I’m wondering if others have had their stool elastase tested. My GI specialist offered me Creon as an enzyme replacement, but that’s not answering why my pancreas is being effected. Has anyone else experienced this?

I don't have personal experience to share, but low stool elastase can happen as a result of IBD-related diarrhea (ie, it's kind of a false positive), but it can also be a real positive. Sometimes IBD can cause pancreatic insufficiency.

Have you had blood levels of various vitamins tested? Any signs of malnutrition?

Here's an article that explains everything pretty well. You may have already seen it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7802491/

Thanks for that article Beave, I have read it before. The odd thing is that my pancreas looks normal on MRI, and according to another stool test I had I absorb fats just fine.

My GI suggested over the counter digestive enzymes (I’m currently out of state and unable to get a Creon prescription) so I took some of those with each meal yesterday, and my symptoms are worse today. So I won’t be continuing to take those.

I have currently been on budesonide for a little over a month, and it is not making things much better (it did seem to work great for about a week and then stopped). So I am thinking of switching over to prednisone. My GI has said it’s more “toxic”, but gave me a months worth to see if this helped improve symptoms.