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Effects of too many steroid/cortenemas?

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 4/8/2008 11:29 AM (GMT 0)
Hello all! I am a month in to a flare and my doctor has me on the meds you can see below. In addition, he now has me doing two cortenemas a day-one in the morning and one in the evening. I seem to be responding (fingers crossed) which is amazing because i was on a long course of pred last year and it is hard for me to face going through that again that unless i have to.

My question is-will I start having the longterm side effects of oral pred anyway? My doctor says no, but I feel like I might be having a few side effects.... Psychological or real? At this point it's hard for me to be objective about it. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
Posted 4/8/2008 11:55 AM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure if you will have side effects of the steroid enema or not because everyone is different. But I was on and off steroid enemas for almost a year. After the second course of them, I started getting some of the side effects such as moon face, mood changes etc. It took a while for it to build in my system. I think that it's around 8mgs of steroid that end up in your blood stream if compared to oral. So I imagine if taken enough of them over time (and especially at 2 a day) that you may get some of the side effects but maybe not as severe.
Posted 4/8/2008 2:36 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the input. I'm not quite sure how long I'll be doing the two per day regimen but it seems to be working quite nicely for now so I'm inclined to stick with it until I feel more stable. I did feel like I was noticing some pred side effects, glad to know it's not all in my head!
Posted 4/8/2008 3:16 PM (GMT 0)
I never got moon face from Cortenema, but did shed a good bit of hair + had a ravenous appetite after the 1st month on it. It really helped my UC, though-- my colon could almost whistle "Dixie" after a week-- very fast-acting relief of major symptoms.

Be sure you get enough rest to help heal the inflamed tissue; also taking folic acid is a good supplement. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC; currently on 3 Colazal daily for maintenance of remission)

Posted 4/8/2008 9:55 PM (GMT 0)
Using the steroid enemas caused me to experience some thinning of my hair. Other than that I noticed little change. As Old Hat recommends, a good vitamin supplement will help (I used some Hair, Skin, and Nails thing from Rite Aid).
Posted 4/9/2008 12:14 AM (GMT 0)
There are virtually no side-effects from rectal steroid meds because it doesn't go into your blood stream the way oral meds do, which is why with oral meds there is an increased risk of side-effects which vary for everyone and not everyone necessarily gets side effects from oral pred either.

:)
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