Torn - moving slowly toward remission?

Hello again kids.

Have not been on this forum for a few years. Actually, I enjoyed an almost two year remission a while back and just didn't feel like being UC focused. Anyhow, back in the craps :) and have a decision to make about how to handle my current flare I am hoping to get your thoughts on. Flaring for about 7 weeks now. I think the flare is most located in the first 15 inches of the colon due to the bright red blood. I was out of town when the flare started and so didn't have my arsenal of hoarded meds to use. I did have cortenemas and asacol with me and used them - they didnt work. Got home and switched, per doc, to mesalamine enemas and asacol and have been on them for about a week and a half. Historically mesalamine stopped working well for me about 10 years ago - I try it again every time I flare cause you never freakin' know with this disease and so I was surprised to see that it may be helping this time round.

So here is the question. My doc wanted me to switch to pred if the mesalamine had not kicked in after one week. I hate being on pred and so, when I saw what I thought may be slight improvement I stayed the mesalamine enema course. But the improvement is so slight I wonder if I should just throw in the towel and hit the pred,

What symptoms generally improve first? Number of times on the can? or amount of blood? I am less in the former, which is why I think I am improving slowly but I am still bleeding a whole lot - and some of my trips to the bathroom result in only blood in the toilet

How do you determine that your symptoms are indeed improving and not just changing slightly as UC symptoms are prone to do?

Thanks in advance for the sharing.

Kulinarykidz thanks. Perhaps I will wait a few more days to see if I get more improvement - frequency is decreasing but blood is still abundant.

As for remission and meds. I was med free for about 8 months of that 2 years and did just fine. This was the first time in 17 years that I ever dared stop taking my maintenance meds. In my case, I don't actually think my maintenance meds do much for me. I flare (or not) regardless of what meds I am on. I am not sure how I will proceed in the future re. maintenance meds. Docs seem to know a lot more about putting UC into remission than they do about maintaining remission.

"Also, slippery elm, marshmellow root, quercetin, curcumin, bromelain, glutamine, calcium, vitamin c/d, folic acid, fish oil, probiotics and psyllium husk.
Low sugar, organic, whole foods diet."

sorry to have to welcome you back :-(

just curious, is this current ? are you doing all of this still ?

when i got to the point where it didn't seem the meds were doing anything, i decided to focus on my diet, using some tools that i'd neglected over the years - going grain free has been the ticket for me - not saying that or anything else would help you, but the idea is to try something else if what you are doing isn't working -

Hateuc. Huh - I haven't heard of Uceris. When googled I see it is oral-topical? Topical has been tried via cortenema. Didnt work. So it is probably systemic or nothing :)

Soynomore. Like you, I go off and on the natural remedies and diet. For the most part they don't seem to help. I describe it like using a drop of water to put out a forest fire :) So no, I am not doing all that except organic whole foods and this more for overall health and ethical reasons than specifically for UC.

Ipoop. Rectal steroids have been tried. Systemic is next if I choose to move in that direction - which I don't think I will just yet as this morning my symptoms were definitely improved. While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I have been diagnosed for 17 years and having someone wag their finger at me is irritating and not helpful. I have read the research countless times thanks, and after such a length of time with UC, I have realized just how much is not understood about my UC despite how "confident" the research always is :) Let me gently remind you that my original question was not related to my remission. I asked others to share the order in which their symptoms usually recede. Do you have any experience to offer in this regard? If so I would love to hear it. Jo

You should rely on your experience about how your symptoms clear up. The research you disparage is average results, and you have found that average results are not the most helpful for your case. A poll of others' symptom clearing would not even be as reliable as average results - not a good basis for making a medical decision.

With 17 years of experience with flares, I would use you own experience to judge if you are improving. Just be careful of wishful thinking.

good luck