Hello All,
I have a question that perhaps someone might be able to help me with. I was diagnosed with lower left sided colitis in January, 2007. This occurred one month after graduating college, I did not have health insurance, and nor a full time job that offered any such benefit so, naturally could not afford the luxury of getting a second opinion. This diagnosis came after a colonoscopy that followed a full two months of intermittently passing bloody, mucousy yet always formed stools- not once have I ever had diarrhea. The gastroenterologist prescribed a course of hydrocortisone enemas and asacol and within a week, the bleeding stopped. By the time the course of steroids ended I was completely symptom free and this remission lasted for almost six months. One year later, the symptoms returned and, now with a job and benefits I received a confirmation of UC, however, my GI seemingly defaulted to prednisone and a mesalamine enema- the latter of which exacerbated my symptoms a great deal. With that being said from June 2011 to August 2013 I lived symptom free, having only taken 175mg Azathioprine per day... It is September 2, 2013 I am now about a month into a relatively moderate flare that includes heavily mucoused, formed, bloody stools. My doc prescribed a prednisone taper for which 5 days at 40 mg did nothing (tapering down now) and did mention the possibility of a c diff flare, given the formed stools in the event that the prednisone didn't at least stop the bleeding, initiate the healing process. My concern is that in the midst of a strong immunosuppressant AND prednisone that there might be some sort of infection going on, which hasn't been ruled out yet, nor addressed thoroughly since initial diagnosis. Advice on this would be appreciated.