Today is a setback - why?

I had started feeling much better after a recent flare. I've added Budesonide (9 mg in the AM) and Canasa (at night) to my daily regimen. I've been "successful" at administering the Canasa at this point for four days in a row.

Today I woke up with somewhat severe abdominal pain and blood in my BMs. The stool seems formed and my urgency is still gone, but this cramping and pain is not something I had even been encountering prior to going on these meds.

The following are things I did/tried yesterday that may have contributed to my lousy feeling today:

- Drank a large beer. Haven't had much to drink in a few weeks. I didn't feel anything immediately after drinking it and was awake for 5+ hours after consuming.

- Barely ate all day. I actually had more of an appetite but found myself preoccupied until after 3pm, so I decided to eat a smaller lunch. Wound up not eating dinner until after 10pm, so I limited the amount I ate. There was very little fiber in any of the food I consumed last night.

- Took Miralax in the morning because I had been having long BMs that were spread out too far across the day.

- Had trouble administering the Canasa last night at first. I felt as if it was all in, but the thing fell out as soon as I started moving around. I threw it out and inserted another one 30 minutes later, after taking a xanax to relax my mind/body. Perhaps this led to a minor overdose?

Can anyone identify anything herein that would lead to abdominal cramping and blood? Should I call my GI doctor and go through all this?

I agree. Canasa is a very low dose compared to the Rowasa enemas. You could be even using them twice a day if you wanted without overdosing. Some people find they are unable to drink since becoming diagnosed with UC. I seem to be ok when I have a drink but I'm not a big drinker normally.

Also, healing from a flare can be two steps forward one step back.

There can be no rhyme or reason to the disease; it's highly unpredictable for many of us.

Sue

You should treat your belly well today and eat safe foods, drink plenty of liquids. I'm sure you'll feel better later.

I've eaten and drank things with gluten in them forever. I can't imagine I'm intolerant to that.

Yeah. I think I may need another alcohol break until I'm certain things are under control.

I had kinda jumped the gun with the drink last night just because I'd been feeling better for about 3 days and wanted to believe I was all better.

Beer and most alcohols are high in histamines. I discovered that most UC'rs are low on the digestive enzyme Diamine oxidase, which helps break down dietary histamines. Some foods are also high in histamines. I noticed that every time I ate or drank high histamine foods that I would soon after get a lot of blood and diarrhea. There are low histamine diets you can follow or you can do as I do, take the enzyme supplement DAO. Since doing so I rarely have any problems at all, even after ingesting high histamine foods. I usually take one capsule at every meal but up it to two or three if eating high histamines. Last night I made a mistake and only took one while having a fairly high histamine dinner and I noticed I didn't do so well afterwards. DAO is very safe and fairly inexpensive. It is really worth it to give it a try and see if it makes a difference. I get mine from Swanson.

I am really struggling with proctitis...and was diagnosed about a year ago.  Before this I rarely paid attention to my diet although I've always been active and seemingly in good health.  I started mesalamine supp 2x/day which didn't help, changed to steroid supp 2x/day...seemed like I'd get better for a day and then would get worse again.  Fair amount of blood, urgency, abdominal pain, much worse in the morning.  Now I am on oral steroids and haven't been able to work for a few days and am getting very frustrated and I'm trying to stay positive.  Over the last month I've given up on all forms of caffeine (I used to love coffee!) and for two days I've been gluten free and I'm reading "Wheat Belly" by Lee Strobel.  I am scheduled for another colonoscopy in a week, but I'm just trying to find a way to get by until then.

Thanks for reading this far...I am just wondering if anyone sees a possibility in gluten free as a solution to this problem?  Proctitis is a limited form of UC so I am hoping those with UC might also have thoughts.

The main thing affecting my life is the urgency and diarrhea (although small amounts).  I can handle the abdominal discomfort.  I am so appreciative of any thoughts you may have and thanks for your time.

bennyplay10, please start a new thread since you are a new member.

I have been gluten free for almost 2 years and my proctitis has been in a solid remission. Don't know whether to give credit to the diet change because I worked hard at getting rid of it with mesalamine enemas. I'd suggest you do the same. Suppositories are alright, but small dose for a tough problem.

so my doctor more or less confirmed what you said, quincy - about the ducosate over Miralax at least.

He said things could take over two weeks to fully recover but to keep a look out for blood. If there's no blood, it's likely the treatment is efective. I had no blood today and am feeling much better.

Going to continue with the Canasa until this one prescription is done at the very least.

I want to see how long it takes to get into remmission before I consider further treatment. If I'm comfortable with my symptoms (or lack thereof), I see no reason to intensify anything.

That's all assuming that everything continues to improve, of course. If not, I'm open to Rowasa or higher dosage rectal meds. I'm still extremely uncomfortable administering the Canasa and would like to be able to stop doing so at some point, presumably when I feel no symptoms of flaring.

I guess I'm using a "wait and see" approach as far as what I do beyond the present treatments. I'm hoping I can taper off the Budesonide and at least stop using the suppositories every night if not cease the Canasa temporarily as needed. I plan on using it every night until I run out of this first 30-day supply. After that, maybe I'll go down to 3-4 days per week.

I've definitely been improving. Now 6 straight nights using Canasa.

I will say, though: while the urgency has dissipated, I find myself still having 4 BMs per day. They're just spread further apart, which in some ways is less desirable. It's like I know I'll still have to go, I just don't have to right away.

Also if Canasa wants to be my very best friend, he/she might want to find a new point of entry.

I consider 4 BMs a great day!