and its back...

Oh and responding to the pred and your bms dropping to 1, is a thesis-level-proof that there was inflammation in your intestine; despite that pesky blood work saying normal. More or less a "told ya so" from you to your doc :-p

yet another typical morning. Less trips to the bathroom so far but the first was gassy, watery and had blood. 3 trips so far in a couple hours.

I have the feeling of a hangover when i wake up too. That has to be the prednisone. I take it in the morning and by the time i wake up i figure it is almost out of my system. I wonder if that is withdrawals. After i take it again in the morning it goes away.

This morning i took it and i could feel it lift about 10 minutes later. I was a tired train wreck with a hangover type headache and felt like i hadnt slept (although i slept for 8+ hours). 10 minutes after taking the pills i felt this lift up and the headache was gone in the matter of time it took to take 1 or 2 breaths. Weirdest feeling but now i feel normal. No headache....a bit tired.....no real motivation but that might be a combo of the fact that i woke up and it is 15 degrees F outside this morning. Freezing!

day5 on the 40mg of prednizone and 6mp. A bit better. I start tapering the pred in another day so hopefully it does start getting worse again. I can still tell i am in a flare. Still lots of gas, some blood....but less liquid so that is good.

good info. I will be in 30mg for another week...and then 20 the week after that. I hope that is enough to shut this down.

Thank you.

thank you for your kind words. I am going to get the lowest deductible / highest premium that my work offers for next years coverage just to see how it goes. The costs add up fast. I cant believe something like this doesnt qualify as disability. Im not trying to get out of going to work at all. I typically work 10 hours a day and hell.....i worked 17 on sunday after working 50 hours already monday - friday.....and im salary. My point is, you cant work.........at least not effectively. You are constantly running back and forth to the bathroom and your anxiety levels go crazy because of the unknown both by yourself and the doctors which makes matters worse. The mental part of this is pretty tough as well. I just want to be over with it but if it is always there its just so depressing to to think about. I am a pretty simple person. I wake up, i go to work, i come home. Outside of that i dont really have time for anything else. I havent structured my life around having a family or friends and now i have this. I always tried to exercise and be healthly without being insane about it and i have never really been to the doctor for much other than the occasional stitches or check up....so this is all very new to me. I think this forum and its users have been the best resource so far.

yeah....i know. Salaried doesnt help either but ive worked 20+ years to get here. I dont know if it is worth it or not to be honest. In the end, if stress is a "factor" then perhaps not. I do enjoy what i do. I dont really have plan B and i am not really good at anything else.

I would hate to throw away 20+ years of experience and hard work just because of this. Again......it just leads to overthinking, stress and anxiety. In the end i just want it to all go away.......all of it...and i know that isnt an option. I know that sounds whiny but it is what it is.

yup...thats the hope. Get into remission and thus back to normal with less of this overthinking/depression/funk. It gets to be so long that you forget what normal is like.

If you're not 90% better than getting to low dosages of pred is going to be a huge waste of time (both yours and your doctors). I'm a big fan of taper as symptoms warrant, and having individualized-tapers based on how quickly you've healed and progressed. So, definitely call and update them where you are at, and ask whether it makes sense to give you more time at a higher dosage.

A typical pred taper is 2-months, start to end.

still not out of the woods yet after 10 days at 40mg of pred. I wonder if i should stay at this dose? I was supposed to start tapering after 7 days but the DR said to stay on for 10 now since the flare is still there. I am guessing 10 days isnt enough.

Had SUPER bad heart burn last night to the point where i had to get up and walk around.I almost puked from the burning. THis morning the BMs have been frequent but solid. I ate a ton last night. I think i have been in the bathroom 5 or 6 times already today by 11am.

yeah...that is what i was just thinking about. Id hate to start tapering on sunday only to have found out it is still there and comes back worse than ever..........thus wasting all that time on the pred and having all the side effects for all that time for no reason. I will stay on the 40mg until monday when i can communicate to the doctor to see what they think.

Over all i think it is getting better but i cant tell. I figure if it is still gassy and blood off and on it surely isnt gone.

It sure isnt like a cold or a headache where you take a pill and you get better. IT baffles me that it can take weeks for the drug to start kick in...but i guess it makes a bit of sense.

I was looking over my online chart and it says my doctor and i discussed diet. I assume that means the doctor and i discussed how i should be eating during the flare up. That never happened so i dont know why it says it did. I have been just eating normally....but much lighter. I had a pile of pizza last night that was likely to blame for heartburn from hell while on the pred. I tell you what........i definitely got the ravenous hunger last night from the pred. I could NOT stop stuffing my face.

What kind of diet do you all follow when you are flaring or in general? I have to imagine super light easy to digest meals so your guts heal is best. They say grains can cause inflammation so steering away form breads and grains probably isnt a horrible idea but i am just guessing.

I generally have been drinking water, soups, bone broth, hard cheeses, scrambled eggs, spinach, avacados, salmon, black coffee.....anything i read that doesnt "cause" inflamation.

I have snuck in a few slices of pizza though...and a beer here or there. Thats probably not helping but its no like im drinking a 6 pack and eating a whole pizza

Thanks for the reply. I generally have still be drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee in the mornings. This tends to get things going weather i am flairing or not. Perhaps this is bad. I will try to get a bit more strict on foods as well. I guess i dont expect a quick fix so much as i am concerned that i have been defacating blood almost every day for 1.5 months and i know that isnt normal. Something inside me needs to heal so that stops at least.

My thought is if that doesnt heal, that will lead to scaring...which will lead to much worse problems in the future although that is just speculation on my part. I mean i have cut my fingers quite badly and they have never bled this long and that is with minimal care. Definately not the same thing but at the same time i have to figure there is a way to allow the area to "rest" while it heals. Perhaps that is more liquids and less solids in my diet. I dont know......all i know is it is concerning to be bleeding internally for this long and also to be on meds for this long but still have the symptoms. I get it though....its never going to go away. I am stuck for life and get used to it. That is still very hard to accept.

In a weird way, dealing with the whole, “I am pooping blood and that is seriously fecking abnormal!” thing becomes ...not really easier, but less alarming. The blood is typically caused by friability of the lining of the colon. It’s fragile and it bleeds as pooping and straining happen. So (usually) it’s not just perpetually bleeding open wounds, even tho it seems like a lot of blood. And it’s usually mixed with thin mucous, which also makes it seem like more than it is.

I say this as a person who’s been pooping blood for 8 months, and had 3 iron infusions to deal with the resulting anemia, none of which was particularly alarming to my doctors, given my active flair.

Obviously our goal is to stop pooping blood as quickly as possible, but it’s just a reality until you can get your flare resolved. Overall, I think 90% of making peace with an IBD diagnosis is just the slow acceptance of things that seriously freaked you out while you were a “healthy” person. It can be traumatic to varying degrees, and it definitely just takes time to adapt to flare-normal, even as you and your doctors work to limit the amount of time you have to spend there.

Things are getting a bit better. I have been on the prednisone taper for 7 days now and for the last 3 days things have been "normal" as far as bathroom visits go. I can feel a bit of discomfort on my left side and some gurgling from that area as well. I need to get the clinic to get me more pills though. I am out and i am right in the middle of the taper. I am supposed to be down to my first day of 20mg for the next 7 days.....and then 10x7 after that. Lets hope they will perscribe the remainder.