New to the Site. Need some Advice.

Dear fellow healingwell.com forum readers. Anyways I am a new to this site and just wanted some help. Ok, here we go. So when I was 11 years old I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and now I am 21. I have been through remission many times and this last time I was in remission for about 18 months. But this past month I have probably gone through the worst flare up of my life… So with the beginning of March 2012 I started bleeding again and I talked to my doctor and she prescribed me some prednisone, because in the past that has seemed to work. So she prescribed me to 20 mg of prednisone and that worked for about 2 weeks and then I started to bleed again. So then I talked to my doctor again and she had me take a higher dose of the prednisone and that worked for about a week and then I started to bleed again… So my doctor told me to take a Remicade Infusion and I have only taken Remicade one other time with a flare up about as bad as this one and it seemed to clear things up that last time. So I took the Remicade infusion and it worked miracles as usual and that lasted for a week and then I started to bleed again… so the next 2 weeks my doctor has me take an anti-diarrhea pill called mylan and then she had me take an anti-biotic which totally sucked. But I have been experiencing some cramping and whenever I actually have a poop that isn’t just straight up blood I experience a pain right below my belly button area.

Anyways I met with my GI Doc today and she has decided to put me on Remicade again but on a stronger dose of 600 mg. So hopefully that works. She mentioned that if this doesn’t help me out and that some other things don’t help me out that I should consider having my colon removed… YIKES!

My guess is that my body seems to become immune with certain medications that I take and I think that is what happened this time because in the past with flare-ups I would first start to take about 40 mgs of the Prednisone and that seemed to do the trick but this time it think my body got used to the prednisone making it pretty much useless. Anyways I was wondering if anybody had any advice for me regarding other treatments options, medications or some diet advice. Anything will help.

LOVE

mistapinkgaijin

Hi,

I have had UC since I was 14, I am 25 now. When I was first diagnosed I went through almost every med. out there (except for Remicade) and the only thing that ever has worked for me is Pred. and Imuran. I went through months of a high doses of Pred. (40+mg.) and nothing helped. A few years ago I started into remission, but I still take the Imuran. When I think I am about to flare I will take the antibiodics Flagyl and Cipro.
You might ask your GI about Imuran. As far as diets go I think that everyone can tolerate different things and has different "stay away from foods". After all these years you have probably figured out what you can and cannot tolerate.

Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. and yes i have been on Imuran for about 5 years now. It helps when i am in remission. and about the remicade. My doctor says that it should be taken every 6-8 weeks but she also said if i really don't have any flare-ups that i don't need to take it at all.