Weight Loss?

Hi, I'm currently on 10 mg a day of Prednisone (down from 40), 1 multigen plus caplet, and 4 Lialda a day for my ulcerative colitis. Apparently it is backed up so far in my colon that it has resulted in ulcers in my stomach. I'm rapidly losing weight, the ulcers prevent me from eating much at a time without considerable pain. I'm not sure if any of the pills I'm on also cause a lack of appetite or weight loss, but I have never been a big eater to begin with. I've lost at least 20 pounds since December when I went on prednisone.

I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with anything like this? At first losing a few pounds was fine, but tat this point I'm starting to look frail and emaciated. Any ideas on how to maintain my weight? I'm not sure what to do as my GI said the ulcers would go away once the colitis was under control, but I'm fairly certain the pills I'm on are having a minimal effect at best.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

The ulcers were found during an endoscopy

froggyfrog, your situation sounds very similiar to how mine was last year. my colon was all ulcerated but my stomach also was. my doctor's explanation was this "i don't think you have crohn's. what i think is going on is that since your colon got sick, your stomach got sick, too." that's really all he could say. the main thing that helped was taking prilosec every morning before i ate and taking zofran, an anti-vomitting medication. those two together REALLY helped because i was throwing up everything i ate. i got down to 92 lbs and you could see all my bones. i literally could not lift myself anymore because all of my muscles atrophied. my protein levels were basically non-existant. i also started 6mp and remicade with the prednisone and that seemed to take all my inflammation away.

bananagirl said...
froggyfrog, your situation sounds very similiar to how mine was last year. my colon was all ulcerated but my stomach also was. my doctor's explanation was this "i don't think you have crohn's. what i think is going on is that since your colon got sick, your stomach got sick, too." that's really all he could say. the main thing that helped was taking prilosec every morning before i ate and taking zofran, an anti-vomitting medication. those two together REALLY helped because i was throwing up everything i ate. i got down to 92 lbs and you could see all my bones. i literally could not lift myself anymore because all of my muscles atrophied. my protein levels were basically non-existant. i also started 6mp and remicade with the prednisone and that seemed to take all my inflammation away.

This sounds almost exactly like my situation, aside from the vomiting (I've only vomited if I didn't eat enough with my prednisone). I'll look into the Prilosec as I'm willing to do anything that could allow me to eat more. Thanks for the suggestions. My protein levels are also ridiculously low. So you were able to eat normally and gain your weight back?

bananagirl said...
hey froggyfrog, the prilosec definitely helped with the acid and the zofran helped with the upset stomach and vomitting. i had to eat them 1 hour before breakfast though. that's really important so the medications can work. i ended up getting an endoscopy in october, 2 months after the really bad one, and my gastro literally said i had a beautiful stomach haha
i have gained some weight back. i had lost 40 lbs but i've gained like 23 lbs. i'd prefer to stay at this weight because i was a little chubby at the higher weight. my mom was very annoying about it making me eat CONSTANTLY. if i didn't have food in my mouth, she'd yell at me. don't pressure yourself to eat though. eat when you want to and are hungry and try not to stuff yourself. i'll be honest. i ate a lot of junk food initially to gain weight because i wasn't able to cook (couldn't stand or do anything for myself) and my family doesn't cook anything but junk. i had A LOT of pizza and i basically lived off of it.

Ok sweet, thanks for the help!