Remission by Painkillers

Wow... If it works like you say how can you say no to that.... What meds are you taking?
I am over 20 trips to the bathroom today as I'm in the middle of a major flare... Reason I'm still up...

I'd be intersted to know which painkillers you use. However, I doubt that painkillers can put you into remission. It could be total coincidence that you achieved remission.

How do you know if it's the painkillers or if the symptoms never returned after you stopped remicade? If you never had symptoms since stopping remicade, maybe you have been in remission since then and the painkillers aren't doing anything for you. I personally don't like the idea of being dependent on painkillers... UC is weird and unpredictable, people go into remission for no reason and some people can try every single thing available and get no relief at all. Have you tried not taking the painkillers for a few days to see if there is any difference in your condition?

I would slowly minimize the use of pain meds to avoid dependency and/or damage to colon.

I would take advantage of the remission by introducing some maintenance program. Possibly anti-inflammatory foods or supplements. Maybe low dose of 5asa if you can afford it. I think some probiotics too.

You want to try to insure you do not flare again.

I think you may be confusing symptom remission with inflammation remission. Your gut is being slowed down by the pain killers but the question is whether your inflammation is still high.
Only a colonoscopy will tell you what is happening with your inflammation.

The good thing is your BM's are normal, not to be dismissed. Most people would say "Don't rock the boat." But inflammation is what doctors worry about and we should too because it can cause lasting damage, create polyps and potentially colon cancer.

If I were you I'd get a c-scope and see where you stand inflammation-wise.
Low inflammation? You get to decide whether to continue with your home-made pain killer treatment. But I'd try and wean your gut off them.

Pretty risky way to try and treat your IBD symptoms, along with what everyone else has mentioned, painkillers will wreak havoc on your liver too..it's not something you'll likely be able to sustain and IBD likes to take revenge when you try to trick it....speaking from experience...not via painkillers though, just about how tricking it doesn't last and usually has repercussions at some point.

Wait...what? You had a GI tell you to stop Remi because of the chance of colon cancer? By being off medications and having chronic inflammation can potentially cause colon cancer but not being on Remicade. However, Remicade while mixed with Imuran or 6-mp could increase the chances of lymphoma in young men. So I don't understand his reasoning for telling you this?

I'll try to answer everyone's questions as best I can. Feel free to reply back if I missed an important question or 2. But for starters, I've been taking oxycontin, which is just an extended release version of oxycodone. I take it once a day, and therefore I don't suffer too much from constipation. My bowel movements are completely solid and free of any blood, and usually come late in the day maybe a few hours before my daily dose.

I want to point out that I've never come close to remission before, not until I started taking the painkiller. I must add that when I lost my job, it wasn't until I was sitting down or laying down for most of the day for a few weeks before all symptoms went away and haven't returned since.

So I guess my dilemma is this: do I get off of painkillers and back on my old regime and deal with annoying and expensive Remicade infusions while returning back to bloody stools and embarrassing flare-ups in public... or do I continue living a semi-normal life free of any symptoms from my Ulcerative Colitis? I feel like either option sucks.. but I guess you have to pick the lesser of 2 evils.

Anyone else have any similar experiences or advice?

Oxy is highly addictive and a known constipator (often binding people up for days without bms) sounds like a pretty dangerous plan to me. How the heck are ypu getting more than a few weeks supply of such a powerful, prescription pain killer?

In the meantime ypur colorectal cancer risk is skyrocketing as you aren't actually treating your uc, just masking the symptoms with something that binds you up...

kHinz57,

I'm wondering if it's some kind of coincidence or something that you're doing as well as you are on the pain killer....what does your GI say about how you're managing your symptoms with it?

When was the last time you were scoped?

Obviously we're concerned of the effects the pain killer will likely have on your body in other ways, there are risks with any medication (even supplements can have risks) what will you do when the pain killer stops working for your IBD? Or you have to stop taking it for some other health related issue like it's killing your liver or something?

What about trying Humira rather than going back to Remi? I'm on Humira, it put my crohn's colitis in remission (reason I'm still not doing well is because I also have IBS that I'm trying to combat) but Humira is made with human protein, and I'm not on any other meds to keep me from developing antibodies to Humira since it's made with human protein, the chances are decreased for developing antibodies....it's also very convenient to do the Humira pens at home (typically it's biweekly doses after the first 2 sets of loading doses).

I completely get where you're coming from and your dilemma about your current situation, you're feeling decent and believe it's the pain killer that's doing it for you but you know there's likely going to be risks of going this route, it's a tough position to be in but you should also think about what possible things will occur down the road that I mentioned above (stops working/causes more health issues) and definitely talk to your GI about all this as well.

I hope you continue to do well, just don't want to see anyone do other damage to their body as a result, and yes the meds to treat IBD come with risks too but those meds are also closely monitored by your GI via blood work and such, what you're doing now isn't so you won't know what kind of damage it's likely causing you somewhere.

Yes, your colon can still be inflammed and not show blood. Blood was the first symptom to disappear for me, inflammation persisted long afterwards.

Get a scope then you'll know if it's in remission or not.