Daughter is bleeding again/ off pain meds...

We went to the accupuncturist last week to try and manage L's chronic pain.  It worked exceptionally well.  She had been taking 1-2 pain pills a day since coming home from the hospital (5 weeks ago).  She hasn't had any pain meds since this past Saturday.  Today she has gone about 5 times already (1 BM with blood).

She hasn't had any blood in her BM's for about 5 weeks.  Frequency I am assuming is due to the fact that she no longer has the narcotics in her system to slow down her colon.  But why the blood ?  We went from 32.5mgs of pred to 30mgs this past Saturday as well.  We are tapering down 2.5 mgs at a time. 

I did lower her psyllium because at one point she was so backed up with stools.  Only in the last day or so is she back to 1 tspn.  Could that be the reason for frequency and blood ?

We are considering doing the FT's again since they seriously made her BM's 100 % formed and normal.

I hate this disease.

She is having loose stools. The psyllium bulks them up and actually helps with the straining,urgency and frequency.

No, we haven't tried the SCD diet. We did go gluten-free for about two weeks and saw absolutely no change whatsoever.

I am sorry she's still feeling ill. I agree that maybe she wasn't ready to taper and you should give her some more time at the higher dose. I know it sucks being on prednisone but if a week longer gets her off, it will be worth it. I would try the FT again if it was working for her but it sounds like the prednisone was probbaly the most helpful. She may just be adjusting to the lower dose and things may even out, hopfully tomorrow things are better.

Hmmm, I guess I'd probably think the blood is from the lowering of the pred, also.

Seeing as psyllium is used by so many as a laxative, I have a hard time canepcutalizing it as something that causes constipation, but I guess we're all different. I do find it necessary to drink plenty of water with it, but my stools have never been "hard" because of it, at least in these 27 years.....

I was on narcotic pain pain killers for a while in spring because of my hip replacement surgery, and they did harden the stools and cause them to slow down. Maybe the combination of going off those, with that change in consistency/transit time, in combination with the slight decrease in pred, and a still slightly friable colon wall......?

You might also consider doing another round of FT if it helped her before. Prednisone kills off your flora, so maybe the good bacteria she got from the FT was killed off? Just a thought! I hope she feels better!

I am doing ok, thank you for asking. I am still on pred but on a low dose now. Things are rocky and they seem inconsistent. I am using cortifoam every other day and taking Asacol and 6mp and to be honest, I don't know what helps the most, probably the prednisone.