First Flare...

Hey everyone,
Its been over a year since i've been on this site because when i was first diagnosed this forum caused me so much anxiety and was a terrible experience.. but with some courage i'm here because i need help as i'm currently going through my first Flare since i was dx in 2015.
Ofcourse it happened 4 days before my honeymoon that i was going on with my beautiful wife.. I urgently saw my GI and he had me in his office doing a scope in matter of days.. he said i had a moderate flare and put me on Cortiment... he said it was like pred. but no major side affects..
well I had major pain and terrible diarrhea during my honeymoon and since ive returned i've been taking the coritment still and my 2g of pentasa twice daily. What I need help with is about 5 days ago for 2 days straight i had fully formed stool with very little mucus and no blood for a good stretch of 2-3 days.. then all of a sudden things started to head south and now im experiencing loose, blood-mucusy stool... and im affraid that its coming back and i dont know what to do.. my GI is away for holidays and wont be back until next week so im reaching out to you guys for a hand or some support.. What do i do??? is this normal?

The Cortiment is (Budesonide) and if it is extended release it is the same as Uceris. It works more topically because of release in the colon, and can have less systemic side effects. I like it, but it took a week or more to really kick in and it was more of a mild and steady control than pred. SOme report is does not work so much for them.

Having good and bad days during a flare is normal. Things vary like flickering flames. The symptoms may also go up and down independent of the inflammation and can be related to stress, travel, recent meals ...

I would not conclude that the meds have failed just because of a few bad days following a few good days. More time is needed to form an opinion. You should see improvement week to week and month to month.

Unless you have gotten an infection, it will likely be a matter of time. You can ask to take more than 2g of Pentasa. You can also look into rectal meds if there is a lot of urgency. If it is more D than urgency, I would wait on rectal meds until there was less D.

When the GI office opens again, you can as for a stool test to check for infection if you are still getting worse. If you have already improved it is not likely any infection.

Meanwhile eat low-residue and maybe some resistant starches.

good luck

It doesn't sound like your UC is very well managed on 4.00 grams of pentasa and 2 mesalamine enemas. You might need stronger medications like immunomodulators (imuran/azathioprine or 6mp).