severe pancollites but no blood????

If your GI is confused perhaps you need a second opinion.

Although you said you have tried diet mod. it might be worthwhile to try again. Sometimes IBS symptoms can be just as awful as UC and IBS cannot be treated with Rx medications. Food and drink seem to be triggers for it and sometimes the Rx meds themselves can cause the symptoms.

I am in remission with no blood for almost 2 years and yet when I eat the wrong thing my gut responds strongly with urgency and multiple BM's. Some IBS'ers have a lot of pain although that was never one of my symptoms.

And steroids would not have any effect on IBS. Have you tried antispasmodics? Bentyl is one but there are other stronger ones. I like Bentyl because never had side-effects from it.

Joint pain indicates inflammation so whatever you're taking is not quite dealing with it.
There are "natural" anti-inflammatories such as oil of oregano, garlicin and many more. Search the back threads in the forum because you need to get off long-term steroids.

Some people here think cyclosporin is great, search for that too.

Best wishes.

I had cyclosporine and I DO NOT recommend it. It's so toxic. I had awful side effects from it. I was desperate at the time so I gave it a shot. It did help for a short time (I was sent home from the hosptial after the 7 day infusion of it with the oral form) but once I tapered off of it I flared all over again (and worse than ever). That stuff is just plain nasty....sorry, just my opinion of it.

Had surgery after that. Best decision I made. I had severe pancolitis too but I had a lot of bleeding. What about a biologic such as Remicade? You HAVE to get off that Prednisone.

Imagardener2.......how can it be ibs...when biopsy report also conformed uc..its so frustating and confusing...may be unfortunately i have both...does high platelet count indicate inflammation???

I had severe pancolitis for years without any blood in my stools. I should add I did have Crohn's, and so there wasn't as much rectal involvement as in UC. But otherwise my entire colon was severely affected from at least 2007 onwards and I suspect earlier than that (but don't know the colonoscopy results to say for sure).

Forget IBS: everything points to severe IBD. I'd be admitted into hospital and try the cyclosporine, like your GI suggested. It has saved a couple on this board from surgery. I never tried it, but on the other hand I was on Remicade for a year and it did nothing for me.

PS: Yes, high platelets indicate inflammation. I had them too.

naina

I meant that you can have IBS in addition to UC, it's not uncommon.
In fact it's very confusing to us and to doctors.
IBS has no blood and no visible inflammation (recent studies have detected microscopic inflammation however in IBS).
UC has visible inflammation and may or may not have blood.

You do have UC because your biopsy confirmed it but you may also have IBS.
I was only able to identify my own IBS after I got my UC under control.

Has your GI mentioned biologics? They can turn things around pretty quickly for some people with severe UC. You should also consider getting off pentasa and trying something like Lialda or Asacol. Pentasa is supposedly not one of the better mesalamine medications for UC. High CRP indicates inflammation. It sounds like perhaps the steroids stopped your bleeding but you're still flaring. What dose of pred are you on and are you tapering? How long have you been on pred? If your GI isn't concerned about your joint pain and long-term pred use, you need to go see someone else.

Imagegarder2 you are right i have both ibs+ibd.. i got the 2nd opinion ...and after yet another sigmoidoscopy...it was confermed i dnt have inflamation(acc. To new gi) and he said my platelet count may b high due to prednisolone..although i left pre before 3 weeks...confused stilll wats going on with my body...today also due to bad urgency i had accident..so embaracing :(