Ups and Downs with Asacol

So its been 29 days for me on asacol

it was rough..... bm trips are currently anywhere from 7-10 (just this last week)

the consistency sometimes gets really good and finally I had days with very very little or no blood at all.

However it was my birthday last week and i decided (mentally needed) to eat some foods that i hadnt eaten in awhile
including chicken, deli meat, butter, sushi, ground beef, even ribs
(not all on the same day- over a week)

on some days, after eating some risky foods, nothing would happen, and on others like today and yesterday the blood came back.

and then it went away, and then came back.

Does this happen with asacol? Is the asacol working?

other things to note - I have been getting iron infusions. my hemo was at 72, now 82.
Headaches and a lot of other issues have stopped since asacol. The Bm trips kind of went down. from where the asacol side effects started me.

I Think the asacol is helping. but I keep hurting myself with diet.
but I dont know. since my dr. said i'd be able to eat all my regular foods, and any side effects from asacol would go away in a month if not sooner.

I have to make a 2 day drive home at the beginning of april so I really need to have at least some more bm control by then. I'm getting a little worried

When I started asacol, it helped me immediately overall. My sinuses felt better, odd things that I didn't realize was the colitis. It took a little while to help with diahrrea.
What caught my attention in your post is your doc saying you should be able to eat regular foods, ... My doc said the same thing and he was surprised when I told him what I could not eat. I've been on it two years, have done well with it and I can eat some foods I couldn't before, but not all foods work.

Maybe my dose of asacol isn't enough ? 3 seems to be low

I take the Asacol HD 800 mg. usually take 3 / day, my script says up to 6 / day. If symptoms are worse I take an extra one at bedtime, total 4. They make me sleepy when I take more than the 3/day.