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Bleeding during Pred Taper

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 5/21/2011 1:01 AM (GMT 0)
Hello Everyone, I was diagnosed with UC back in early March. My GI Specialist put me on 40mg of Prednisone and 800mgx3 of Asacol and I went from 20 BMs a day to 2-3 and my hemoglobin rebounded from 6 to 13 in a month. At my 6 week follow up, the GI said I was in clinical remission.

I've been tapering of Pred, starting at 30mg for 2 weeks, then 20 for 2 weeks and now I'm at the end of the first week of 15mg. Unfortunately, this week has seen an increase of BMs to about 5 to 6 a day, less formed and today I have had two bloody BMs.

Do you think the taper was too fast? I have to admit the sight of blood in the water really unnerved me. I have another follow up appointment with the GI on Wednesday so at least I'll get it addressed shortly but I have to admit I'm really shaken by the reoccurrence of the bleeding and more frequent BMs.

Thanks for reading!
Posted 5/21/2011 3:13 AM (GMT 0)
I think 15mg can be a turning point. I remember having some trouble tapering around there and I had to stay at 15mg for quite a while before I felt stable enough to taper down. If you see progression that things have been getting worse over the course of the week, you should definitely call your GI and ask what to do. You may want to consider starting other medication to keep the flare at bay or he may ask you to increase pred for a week and taper slower. I regret not considering other medication sooner, you don't want to end up on pred for too long. My UC seems to have become less responsive to Asacol. Are you taking 2400mg Asacol per day total? The max dose is 4800mg a day. I am surprised you're not on a higher dose. Are you using any rectal medication? You need something to keep you from flaring, were you on Asacol before the flare began?
Posted 5/21/2011 11:57 AM (GMT 0)
I'm on 2400mg of Asacol. I've been taking that amount since diagnosis. Is 4800mg a more common amount to take? I'm not on any rectal meds but will ask my GI about them when I see him on Wednesday.

Luckily, the first BM of the day had no blood that I could see so I'm crossing my fingers that this won't be a major flare and I'll be able to keep this under control.
Posted 5/22/2011 12:41 AM (GMT 0)
I'm with notsosickly. I had trouble tapering, but at 10 mg. Had to stay there for about a month. My doctor had me tapering 2.5 mg every 10 days.

I received advice here to up my meds and also to start some melasamine enemas to help with the taper.

Hope it continues to go well!
Posted 5/25/2011 8:20 PM (GMT 0)
I saw my Dr today and he had me go back to 20mg of prednisone for 2 weeks and up the Asacol to 4800mg daily. Also, I'm starting vsl3 today. He said because my UC was so severe that a setback was not totally unexpected. Hopefully, this puts me back on the right course.
Posted 5/25/2011 11:11 PM (GMT 0)
The same thing happened to me each time I began the taper. Dr finally told me to stay on 4omg pred until I was 100% then begin taper. It know it is discouraging having bleeding again, and increased frequency but hang in there!! Hopefully the increased Asacol and the extra 5 of pred will have you 100% in no time and you can taper down then. Good Luck!
Posted 5/26/2011 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks, I'm hoping this does the trick. It's so discouraging that I was back to normal until I hit 15mg of Prednisone.
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