Flare Up Coming...

I've had UC for 13 years now, and I can always feel when a flare is coming. The bathroom trips become more frequent, the pain doesn't subside, and I have almost zero appetite. Typically, my doc will order up prednisone (which doesn't seem to help) and tramadol for pain (which is usually a short term fix), but it doesn't always work. The last time I felt like this (about a year ago) I ended up in the hospital for 5 days. Is there anything that any of you do to help keep the flare up at bay? I realize that I'm probably just delaying the inevitible, but I just don't need to miss any time away from work with being in the hospital.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

I can't tell you what will work for you, just what works for me.

Last fall I was going a bit downhill after doing very well. So much so that I called and faxed my GI studies on the triple antibiotic therapy that people here have been successful with. She was not thrilled but agreed to Rx them while telling me there was a danger in using anti-B's of becoming resistant to bad bugs like C. difficile.

I filled the Rx but took her words to heart. Instead of starting the meds I looked hard at my diet, which has been the source of my remission. And went back to basics, only eating food that has proven to be friendly to my gut. In a weeks time my symptoms improved. And in a couple of weeks I was back to almost perfect. (Meds are still in the refrig, luckily they were just $30)

Your profile doesn't show what meds you take or any other info so it's very hard to make suggestions.
Maybe you tried diet mod. and had no success. I tried it several times myself before any improvement came.
I've had UC for 12 years but we're all different in our paths and severity. Mine wasn't to the hospitalization level but I had to totally change my life to accommodate it.

Good luck.

I agree with Ima about eating only foods that you know are absolutely, positively, SAFE. I have been monitoring my diet every day for the past 2 years and I am still coming up with new triggers. Most recently I have added Xylitol to the target list. You probably inadvertently ate something bad.

When I experience the beginning of symptoms after accidentally eating something bad, (or maybe not so accidentally ), I increase my daily level of probiotics and powdered psyllium seed. This usually (actually always) brings me back into remission as long as I have ceased eating the triggering food. But you must do this early to nip the problem in the bud. Once you are in a full-blown flare all bets are off. Flares are very hard to excape from.

ask your doctor for a rectal medication. Firstly, ask for Rowasa retention enemas. They're to be used at night/bedtime.

Agree.

increase my daily level of probiotics and powdered psyllium seed

VSL#3 is a yes for me too, others like different probiotics. Whatever works for your gut.

So, what are you going to do at this point?

q

good move...and ask for refills and make another appointment within a month to revisit.

q

You may have thrown the enemas at the problem too late in the course of a flare. The retention enemas should be used when you are not flaring, just not as often as when you do flare.