please help! I don't know what I should do!

It never hurts to call the doc to get their opinion but to me this sounds normal unless you are hemmoraging (bleeding heavily even soiling your underwear). But I think you should call your doc anyway just to be on the safe side.

     By all means notify your doctor.  He may increase your dose of prednisone.  30 mgm sounds a little low to start out with someone whose symptoms are as serious as yours.  My doctor usually starts me out at 40 mgm and sometimes 60 if I am real bad.  However, the 60 mgm is usually a "jump start" and he would only try 60 for one day and drop it to 50 the next.  The headaches may be from the Asacol.  Read up on the adverse effects of the meds.  If they continue, your doctor may want to change the meds.  I have ulcerative proctitis also but my doctor switched me from Asacol to Colazal (I take the generic form, Balsalazide...not sure I spelled that correctly) because the Colazal treats the lower portion of the colon more effectively.  Remember, prednisone MUST be tapered and NEVER stop it cold turkey.  It could have a very bad effect on your system.  I started the proctofoam a few nights ago.  I could not retain the cort enemas...they just spurted right on out because of my inflamation.  I use the cort suppositories in the morning.  I do believe the proctofoam is helping a bit.  Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

To everyone who's answered so far,
Thank you so much for the advice! I don't know what I would do without this forum.
But moving along, so far I've gathered that I need to
1-Call my doctor and let him know whats up.
2-Watch my diet a little more, maybe try out that low residue one.
3- Find out what the heck am I on Asacol for and what's he doing with this Prednisone. Maybe look at other options that are a little more direct like a steroid enema. Which would be great because I would love to get off this Asacol or at least cut wayyyy down.
These side effects are sucking the life out of me. I'm on Prednisone, Asacol, mesalamine enemas, Focalin, and a multivitamin. And I have asthma so it really scares me when I start getting short of breath or having a pounding heart because of the meds. And on top of all that I'm a fairly small person and I can't afford to lose a whole lot of weight. I'm 5'6", about 115 pounds, and my appetite isn't getting any better. I'm not even sure if they're finished diagnosing me yet. I've noticed that for the last couple months it's become harder to swallow and I can't eat very much food because I get full fast and have to eat really slow because I get heartburn and the food comes back up pretty often.

Hi from England and sorry it was ice cream that set you off!!
My daughter (17) was hospitalised in Nov with UC. It was her first attack and had built up since Sept. She was very slow to respond to IV hydrocortisone, oral prednisilone and Pentasa (8x500mg).
In the hospital she was basically fed chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots and so when she came out she stayed on those foods, then we kept a food diary and slowly introduced new items checking which ones made extra wind/speed/looseness. We used an expanded Bristol stool chart to try to judge any changes and found it easier (numbers no descriptions) - if you want any further advice please just ask. She was still loosing weight when she came out of hospital and so I got our GP to prescribe Ensure Plus as a safe supplement to keep her weight up rather add-in extra foods that might set her off again. She ate small meals with snacks in-between in the beginning, and didn’t eat after approx. 7pm.
Some people on the forum are sensitive to dairy or wheat but you need to work that out for yourself. Probably best to do it at the beginning when on the very limited menu so you don’t mix up which foods set you off because they are both very important and if you are OK with them it would be a shame to cut them out. You could also find that some foods cause trouble just before/after a flair but are OK when you are more settled.
Although her consultant 'didn't believe in probiotics', as soon as my daughter came out of hospital she started taking VSL3. The recommended dose is one or two sachets per day but we have settled on one sachet split into two - taken mixed into water - or later as her symptoms settled mixed into cold snacks e.g. tinned apple/custard/yoghurt. The main point with VSL3 is that it is a mix of 8 probiotic bacteria in a much higher dose than other products, and lots of research supports the belief that at least some survive the stomach acids and colonise the bowel. She had a little wind to start but that soon settled, and after lots of reading on the web I have gradually added some other products to her daily routine.
She takes one Bimuno prebiotic per day (I wouldn’t start VSL3 and Bimuno on the same day – give any VSL3 wind a chance to settle first) which gives specific nutrients to the colonic bacteria and by supporting the good bacteria limits the less helpful species.
She was anaemic (haemoglobin 8 after transfusions) - but rather than taking one iron tablet per day I got the GP to prescribe iron in a liquid form and she takes it in smaller doses at each meal/snack time so it hasn't upset her gut and allows more opportunities for absorption. For the same reason she is taking a split dose of a liquid multivitamin (without iron so no overdose). Boots do one (sorry tastes horrible) with added omega that is supplied with an oral syringe to make judging the volume easier.
New research papers on the web suggest that in some UC patients the normal protective layer of mucous on the colon surface is much thinner and lacking in a substance called phosphatidylcholine, and so chemicals and bacteria in the bowel can damage surface colon cells and set off an over-reaction of the immune system. I have added lecithin capsules to my daughters daily routine because one of its main ingredients is phosphatidylcholine. Lecithin is sold in health food shops as a supplement for cholesterol levels and brain/memory/liver function but it has lots of uses all over the body and a good supply in the diet might be helpful.
Her journey has not been smooth sailing with lots of muscle pains, cramping and colds with chest infections, but her UC symptoms have reduced to nil - one (Bristol scale 4) per day with no pain, mucous or blood. She is currently weaning prednisolone as instructed and is down to 10mg with 8 oral pentasa per day.
I do think that UC is one symptom caused by lots of different reasons. I can’t believe that a teenager has exactly the same disease as a 50 year who has recently stopped smoking……….
Don’t assume blood and mucus are OK so please contact your Dr and see what they can offer with routine medications. With my daughter 40mg prednisilone didn’t make much difference but she improved quickly with Pentasa enemas. Try to accept slow progress and understand that things can’t change overnight. Always two steps forward and one backward – you are going in the right direction……
It seems to be a vicious cycle between inflammation and drug side-effects but you must believe it will begin to balance. Proper remission may take at least 6-8 weeks from when your balance turns to recovery because the colon surface must heal, and during that time it is important to be very good taking meds and food on schedule.
Watching my daughter go through the discomfort and pain that you are in now is the hardest thing I have done in my life.
Sorry for the long post but my thoughts and prayers are with you.
Sue xx

I was 15 when I got diagnosed and that wasn't too cool but you'll get through it. How much Asacol are you on? I would keep up with the enemas, sometimes they take a long time to work and I imagine if you're flaring badly it would take even longer. Give it some time. I hope you start feeling better.

Also to zed92 I would love to talk lol! I was hoping I would find someone in here about my age.. I'm going to put my email in my information thing in a minute here so if you still want to talk feel free to email me. I saw that you don't have an email in your information thing.

you might want to ask about Lialda (similar to Asacol) ... with Lialda, you can take less pills. Also, if you are having trouble eating enough, perhaps due to heartburn, take Prilosec every morning and wait at least 30 minutes to an hour before eating. I developed bad heartburn and got an ulcer right at where the esophagus meets the stomach and another where the stomach meets the intestine ... I dropped a lot of weight because everything came back to haunt me! The Prilosec does help...

Read previous posts. What works and doesn't work for us tends to be very individualistic but there are trends. You may find your situation is similar to some others on this forum and will learn how to better treat your UC from reading their posts. Also keep a journal, noting your diet, stresses, medicines, and condition. You might find some trends.

I've had times in which I was bleeding so much and having diarrhea so bad that it looked like I was peeing blood out my butt. And I also would pass a whole bunch of blood clots when I went. That's what ulcers do. They bleed. And ulcers can get bad really quickly. The good news is that skin heals rapidly. Ulcers can also heal quickly.