Colonoscopy this thursday

I really hope they find out what is wrong. I've been in a flare up for almost 2 months now. I've tried Colazal and Lialda both which seem to do nothing. I'm also on rowasa and on my final week of pred which is now 5mg a day.

I seem to be getting "better" I only notice small amounts of blood in the morning. The rest of the day no blood. Sometimes it seems to be small solid pieces and other times it is D. The color is a orange-yellow though but that is probably the Colazal. I only have about 8-10 bms now 15-20 on a bad day. It's just cramps/urgency and D left.

My GI thinks that I might have pancolitis, but I told him that I don't have any major pain on the right side. I do occasionally have pain, but it is nothing bad. Most of the pain is on the lower left side.

What sucks is that I feel great throughout the day until I have to go to the restroom. Then I feel like crap for a good 20 minutes until I feel better. Although, it is an improvement from when the flare up first started. I couldn't eat anything, almost 25+ mb a day each one with blood.

Maybe my GI will put me back on pred? I hope so as that is what started making me feel better. But is pred what stops the blood and then a 5ASA drug is what helps the colon become de-inflamed or does pred help stop the blood and with the inflamation?

Oh also can a colonoscopy make a flare up worse, like the bowel prep stuff? And they are also going to do a conscious sedation colonoscopy. How "safe" is this compared to a general anesthetic? What are the chances of feeling pain/discomfort during the procedure?

Yea, I'm guessing that if 2tbps of nyquil can knock me out for a couple of hours I shouldn't have any problem with the medicine that they give you for sedation. I've read that they give you muscle relaxers plus some other stuff. I've only taken muscle relaxers once before when I broke my leg and you could have punched me in the gut and I probably wouldn't have noticed.

But yea, it is noon where I am and I'm already hating the liquid diet. Pretty much running off Cokes right now. For lunch, more Coke. If I feel like it I might drag myself down to Wallgreens and see if they have some broth or something T_T

I'm really dreading the bowel prep drink that awaits me when I get home from work. Oh well I'll have my DS fully charged so I can play Tetris or Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days while I'm scrounged up in a fetal position in the bathroom. :>

He had me on pred for a month at 40mg for a week and tapering 10mg a week after that. The last two weeks I streached out to 7.5mg and 5mg because I thought the 10mg taper was too much, but it didn't seem to do much. Although I did think I tapered off to quick as the first week I was doing fine and each week I seemed to get worse.

Oh well, I'm not a doctor, and I trust him to make the best choice for me. I've heard bad things about immunosuppressants, but then again I've heard bad things about Remicade. At this point I really don't care what I take, as long as I get better.

Someone above wrote, "I prefer to remain fully conscious despite the discomfort." Believe me...if you are flaring you don't want this!! I've had about 10 or more colonoscopies and you need to tell the doctor right before that you don't want to wake up! It's not a fun ordeal like the Sound of Music.

Many people don't realize that as patients they have a right to demand high sedation. Doctor's skimp whenever they can, but if you request it, they'll listen. I usually tell my doctor that I have a very low threshold for pain, I'm usually apt to wake up during the procedure (this is true), and I want to be really well medicated. It always works!

Good luck,
John