Hey everyone,
Obviously I'm new here, but I'm no stranger to the devastating effects of Crohn's disease. I've had it since high school, but wasn't diagnosed until ten days ago. Living more than 20 years with CD and no medical relief wasn't easy. Now I'm really looking forward to getting this thing in remission.
I have CD throughout my entire colon. My doc says that the terminal illeum is not involved, but I have yet to do a capsule endoscopy to determine whether any of the small intestine is involved.
He put me on two tablets of Lialda (mesalamine) per day, and 3 capsules of Entocort EC per day. It's been 9 days, and I still haven't seen any significant relief. It's hard to explain, but I do *feel* different. I'm still having loose BM's, but the associated cramping is.... different. I also have stomach pain pretty much non-stop. It also seems like my whole GI tract is always in motion/action/making noises. This wasn't the case prior to starting these meds. I reported these conditions to the doc, and they suggested decreasing the dosages of both drugs. Well, being as how I haven't seen any benefit at all yet, I talked them out of it. So I'm still taking the same dosages, and not seeing any relief. How long does mesalamine typically take to start bringing some relief? How about the Entocort?
My ability to return to work (it's a long story, too long to tell here) depends upon my ability to get my CD under control. Needless to say, I need to provide for my family, so I'm very anxious to get this under control and get back to work.