rectal meds are helping my pancolitis

(Qunicy, you'll love this). Just wanted to throw that out there, as I had assumed rectal meds wouldn't do anything since pancolitis is so extensive and rectal meds only get you so far. right now, my GI has me doing cortfoam in AM and Rowasa in PM. Have been doing this for 2 weeks and am scheduled to do it nightly for 4 more weeks. If I am doing well at end of those 4 weeks, the GI said will start to slowly taper both, and then iterate to see what I end up needing long-term. he said that studies indicate that even just using rowasa once a week, once in remision, can help sustain remission.

After 2 weeks on this regiment, I actually feel normal again. Have dropped from 10 - 15 BMs/day to about 1-3, with no blood, and very little urgency. Fully Formed. Generally have tons more energy and am eating everything I want (though in moderation, still can't pack away the pizza like I used to, or the salad, for that matter). and, incredibly, I improved within about 4 days.

so, my point is, for any of you with extensive disease who have not yet tried rectal meds, you may want to consider them. not saying its a magic bullet, but it has been helping me. Hope all of you are well.

Quincy can just hang out a shingle! She gives better advice than many gastros. Brava! / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC ... [etc.])

LOL OH...I regurgitate the same old unfortunately, but eventually it's found out they can work well for most

UCinNC...happy to hear you're feeling much better...Yes, I love to hear it!!!

BTC...the 5ASA has a foam formulation in the UK and Australia I believe...not in N. America. The steroid rectal enemas have a form formulation that could be worth trying. The Canasa can work quite well...but is a lower dosage and can be used up to 3 times a day, however.
Are you on oral meds as well?

Rectal meds...who would'a thunk?

q

Quincy: Yes - finally got my script today and will try them tonight. Had a massage and steam today at my daughter's gym so I'm all relaxed. Thanks for the info.

Diagnosed with LS UC 1984, suffered for 16 years, high doses Pred and eased off to Azulfidine; remission for 9 years, just flared recently. Asacol 3, 3x day; 20 ml. Pred.. Heading into remission again with addition of: prayer, deep breathing, walks on the beach and: 4-1000 mg.garlic twice daily; 2 zyflamend twice daily, SuperFoods RX multi-whole food vita twice daily, SuperFoods RX Omega 3; 3 Asacol 3 x day with 3 Vitamin Shoppe Ultimate 10 Probiotic; Metamucil morning and night - no dairy, hardly any coffee (Just added Hevla decaf), lots of water and green tea. Was using L-Glutamine but read that it can aggravate? Recently added: 1 scoop Greensplus Chia seeds and the vinegar and honey regimen.

After reading Quincy's mantra of "treating both ends" many times and discussing with my husband awhile back when the oral meds were not taking care of that end of things, we requested rectal meds at a Dr appt. They definitely have made a difference.

The colocourt was too difficult for him to keep in and retain more than and hour or so. We switched to the Cortifoam which was so much easier on him. The canasa suppositories he does not use every day. Even the cortifoam now is generally every other night.

That is good advice for alot of you to try if things are not improving and discuss with your Dr.

+1

I tried for a year to get my G.I. to write me a script for Rowasa but he was so stubborn about it not being useful for pancolitis. I would tell him that I'm normal in everyway except I see blood and he would insist that the Colazal "gets all the way down" and Rowasa will not help me and that he wasn't overly concerned with a little blood if I wasn't feeling bad in other ways.

Finally he grudgingly gave me a script for a one month supply with no refills on 12/26. I used 1/3 to 1/2 of a bottle 3 or 4 times a week to conserve them and by around 1/6/08 I was (still am) in complete remission. It's going on 2 month since I got the Rowasa and I still have a weeks supply left, that is how little of the rectal medication it took to have a dramatic effect. Thank you to Quincy and to all those members who repeated that message over and over again on these boards because if I hadn't seen it so frequently here, I would not have fought my GI so hard to get it.

ioscan -fnk....It's difficult to read that your doctor gave you such a hard time regarding the rectal meds...especially if he's a GI. I don't get it since they've been around for a long time.

Maybe it's because he has a fear of them himself?

I hope you can get refills...and that it doesn't take another year for that to happen.

You might have to look for another doctor....

Kudos to your persistence.



Mitz..I'm happy to hear they're working well for you in conjunction with your other meds.

Be well,
quincy

Sharann -- "rectal med junkie" is the funniest! Thanks for the laugh. I can see it playing out in the doctor's office like this: "I'm not addicted to Rowasa! I can stop anytime I want to."

Quincy, I can't figure out why so many doctors are so quick to put people on prednisone but won't first insist that they try rectal meds. So frustrating.

To add to the success stories this week due to rectal meds, I just stemmed a flare using cortifoam twice a day for 2 weeks. Now I'm down to using it once at night and doing just fine. Hooray.