Started smoking after 9 years -- stomach pain

iPoop said...
You can always just say no, if you're symptom-free at 50mgs of pred, and either cancel or reschedule it a few months down the road. To me, it would make more sense to see how you're doing once you're off of pred, or at least at a very low dosage.

Dunno, what do others think?

Thank you for the feedback. I ended up scheduling it for July 16, so I'll be down to maybe 25 mg by then. I start tapering the pred tomorrow. I am having no symptoms now, except some very, very minor discomfort in the lower left quadrant area (may just be gas pains), thank god. Hopefully that continues. My chest x-ray came back negative for TB, so that's good (my skin prick test was positive a couple years ago). I was due to have my two-year check-up scope this fall anyway.

Remember.....once you start having symptoms, try an alternating taper.
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oldenjon said...
I wonder why cigarettes cause you such grief. Like iPoop pointed out, cigarettes can make one spasmodic. Having a cigarette or two in the morning will usually send me to the bathroom. Maybe that aggravation is enough to send you into a flare. FWIW I don't think cigarettes are a good long-term remedy for IBS/IBD. Nicotine is very vasoconstrictive, and in the long term / in the presence of chronic inflammation and stress this is not good for vascular health. You don't want blood flow impeded in IBD.

Yeah, I wasn't smoking to try to treat my UC, as you probably know. Just a dumb choice after 9 years of being quit. I was under extreme stress (still a bad choice, but I'm trying not to beat myself up over it too badly, considering my circumstances). I have no idea why they are causing me such grief either. I'm not 100% sure they are, but it seems pretty likely since I started having abdominal pain after the very first one I smoked in April. The pain didn't feel like UC pain though. The crampy pain eventually got worse and more persistant after smoking for a few weeks. I then quit and put myself on pred but only stayed on it for 10 days since my doctor told me he thought I was just constipated (I didn't think this felt like normal constipation but I was slightly constipated...going every other day). Cigs weren't sending me to the bathroom. They were making me constipated, like I used to struggle with before ever getting UC. Cigs used to give me the urge to have a BM back before I had UC. Anyway, then started smoking again, no pain for a few weeks, then I felt like I was getting a cold for two days, and right after that, the same pain was back and then it turned into a severe flare that 40 mg of prednisone wasn't helping. Sorry if I just repeated things I have already posted in this thread. I'm a little sleep-deprived and simultaneously hyped up on pred! Lol.

Went down to 35 mg pred today. So far, so good. Had a really stressful two days. Had to drive 11 hours to D.C. for work yesterday, and I have severe anxiety in big cities, so I can't wait to go home. Hopefully, my UC stays okay.

Glad you're doing well so far.

I went down to 10 mg pred Monday. Longest taper of my life. Ready to be off it but I am a complete moron and havent been able to quit smoking yet, so Im also terrifies my symptoms are just going to come back. My scope wasnt even 100% and Im not even off pred yet, so that worries me. I guess it is my own darn fault if my symptoms come back, so really I am just complaining, cant ask for sympathy.

You're very welcome. Im glad you dont have IBD and I hope you can get your gut issues back on track soon.

Yeah, and it worries me that my scope showed minimal inflammation. I'm still on pred; I should have no inflammation. He said it couldn't be from the prep, but I don't know why he said that since I know people on here say it can be. I've had 3 BMs today, but I also ate a lot of junk food yesterday, so I don't know (I don't think it's from the junk food though...wishful thinking). Anyway, thanks.

Congrats! This is positive news.

That's great! Hope you are finally getting some good sleep now, too.

I'm happy for you Sara. Post how you feel when off of the prednisone. This would be great if you could avoid biologics esp. since they don't always work anyway as I am finding out.

My doctor's office really wants to push me onto Inflectra. What would be the point if I'm not even having any symptoms? Like, I wouldn't even know if it was doing anything. Today was my first day off pred and I feel good so far. Only had one BM, no symptoms.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Thanks for the input!