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Ongoing flare up, black stool and prednisone advice

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 3/11/2011 12:20 AM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone. I'm having a flare up that won't go away. I take a lot of pentasa enemas and suppositories as well as a regular course of Asacol.

The flare up itself could be much worse (I've seen much worse) but a couple of things about it are weird. It was caused by quitting smoking, btw.

- I'm getting some black stool. Not much, but a little bit. Like droplets almost. I'll ask my doctor about it but is it anything serious? I'm not on iron and the only thing I could think of that could cause this is the occasional chocolate bar (chocolate bars have helped me forget about cigarettes). Also, I'm on antibiotics for a sinus infection.
- The next thing is, there is a dull pain coming from my left side where my colon is. Exactly from the area that I had inflammation in last year.

I'm also going to ask the doctor for 10mg of Prednisone. I might or might not use it. I've never been on it but I hear it works quickly and to be honest, I'm just sick and tired of dealing with this.

Any help would be appreciated--thanks.
Posted 3/11/2011 1:00 AM (GMT 0)
I would definitely try to get checked out right away. they say black stool should always be addressed quicky because it can be from further up the GI tract. I am sure you're fine but give your GI a call and let him know what's going on. Left sided pain is extremely normal during a flare. I am not sure if the dr will give you 10mg of prednisone, normally they start you on a higher dose, I think 40mg is standard. I don't recommend taking prednisone unless it is absolutely necessary. It can have awful side effects. If you start on 10mg and manage to get off quickly in remission, that would be great but often, it doesn't work at 10mg and you have to go up and it's hard to taper down. I don't know if this is the norm but it's what happened to me and I see it too often here. Have you tried any rectal meds? You could give a steroid enema a shot.
Posted 3/11/2011 5:11 AM (GMT 0)
To be honest, it's not entirely black... It looked really dark so I automatically started calling it black. I just went on google and looked up black feces and my feces isn't nearly that black. I guess it's more of a dark brown colour. Some of my feces are light brown, it is occasionally streaked with blood, it is often malformed and sometimes parts of it are very dark brown or there are dark brown streaks in it. I don't know what this means... There is blood in it?

Sometimes I can still see the food I ate in my feces, which at first led me to believe it was undigested chocolate that I was seeing. I'm not sure now, though.
Posted 3/11/2011 9:33 AM (GMT 0)
Back from the doctor's.

He gave me a steroid enema called Entocort. It's a once-a-day type affair. It's the first time I've ever been on any kind of steroid. At first he wanted me to go on 40mg of Prednisone and taper down (like you said) but when I mentioned to him that I was more prone to side effects than other people (my sister getting about every side effect possible when she was on it), he agreed to try the steroid enemas and then move up to the pills if it doesn't work.

I don't have to take pentasa enemas or suppositories anymore. He also said to start dropping down my Asacol intake (to 6 per day) if I see improvement.

I mentioned the "very dark brown" stools to my doctor and he didn't even seem alarmed. He just nodded and didn't skip a beat with his diagnosis. I guess that means I shouldn't worry.

Wish me luck!

Post Edited (Wavefunction) : 3/11/2011 2:40:40 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 3/11/2011 1:33 PM (GMT 0)
I always expect my GI to be more surprised and concerned about my symptoms....maybe they just see it all and nothing is too shocking. I am always concerned about how much blood I am losing and he is not because my blood work looks ok...i just need to take iron to control the low iron levels. I think you've got to be a bit off your rocker to be a GI and talk of nothing but poo and bums all day but I am thankful those people are out there!

I need to ask about the steroid enema too.
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