Ulcerative Proctitis

After steady bleeding for 3 weeks, at every bowel movement, I arranged an appointment with a doctor.  I was diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis in mid-December 2011, and was prescribed a nightly enema, to be taken immediately before sleeping.  In mid-January, still no change, so I was told to keep up with this regimen until mid-February (next appointment).  Of course, with my luck, still bleeding the same amount as I had been prior to seeing the doctor.  I've never experienced pain with this condition, but I'm wondering what the next step should be.  Any input would be greatly appreciated.

you should also talk to your Doc about a maintenance med such as asacol. When I was first dx'd I had ulcerative proctitis (scary the amount of blood! I had toilet bowls full of it!). I used rowasa enema's and took sulfasalazine (now asacol or lialda are prescribed) and it took about a month and I responded well to it, I think I did well withing the first month....it was a long time ago.

Sorry this is happening to you, be strong, be your own advocate. Write down all your questions, bring a notebook to the Dr's. with you...I forget about 1/2 of what they say. If you don't feel that you are getting good care from this Dr. then find another one pronto! I wasted time with a Doc for something different and feel that I lost a couple of years because of it.

Ipleidholm,

OK, moderate to heavy bleeding with every bowel movement for two and a half months, no other symptoms, on mesalamine enemas nightly. You still haven't answered how your physician went about arriving at his diagnosis. Did he do a colonoscopy, a flexible sigmoidoscopy, anything along those lines? Or was the diagnosis simply arrived at based on a recitation of patient symptoms? The answers are important because at this point if your inflammation is more extensive than exclusively rectal you may be well advised to be on oral mesalamines as well as the enemas. I would think your physician would want to know that particularly so if the bleeding is moderate to severe. Generally, mesalamine enemas are considered more effective than corticosteroids for distal disease but they may require time so their choice was sound. But is it enough?

I was diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis too, at first. Same thing - Rowasa enemas were prescribed. They did nothing and the bleeding continued. Soon the flare had gotten worse, and I went on prednisone. When first diagnosed I didn't go to the best doctors in my area because I didn't know any better. The first one didn't believe me when I told him Rowasa wasn't helping. Needless to say, the diseased progressed to pancolitis about 4 months later. To this day I can say that no enema ever worked for me.

Talk to your doctor. If the enemas aren't working you may need to try another med. If he doesn't hear you, then try to find the best doctor in your area for UC. This disease can get bad quickly if you don't pounce.

I have another appointment on Monday, so we'll see how things go. I was hoping to hear some feedback from others in tje same/similar situations. It's a little disheartening to be 5 months shy of 19, and be diagnosed with a lifelong condition.

At my last sigmoidoscopy last week my doctor told me that I have severe proctitis. I am not able to hold in the Rowasa enemas and I have tremendous lower back pain that radiates to the bottom of my feet. I am taking 40 mg of Prednisone to control the bleeding and Tylenol #3 for pain in the AM and PM. After 3 weeks I am now able to tolerate cortifoam enemas twice a day.

With the prednisone I started out taking 20mg daily (5mg 4 times a day)- symptoms got worse (4 weeks ago) (20+ bloody BM day and night)
Then started taking 40mg daily (20mg in AM and 20mg in PM) symptoms started improving right away but progress was VERY slow! (3 weeks ago) (6 BM a day with 2-3 with blood)
Over the last 2 nights I have taken all 40mg at night and I have not had a bloody BM in 15 hours!
I call my doctor every 3 days and we discuss the next plan of action. I am happy that he is available and is working with me to find the right combination of meds to get back into remission.
The goal is to stop the bleeding first and then work on the number of BMs a day with rectal meds.

The side effects of the prednisone are the pits but I can actually say that I am feeling better today!