Is this normal?

Dx with with left sided UC in 2008. Went into a flare around 12/24/10 and doc put me on Medrol 32mg week one and tapering down by 8 mg per week. Had a bit of bleeding first day or two of taper, but no urgency while tapering. Got a bad stomach bug this past Friday/Saturday (figures!). No bleeding (surprising to me) but D which I know was the bug cuz the whole family had it. Now on 16mg of Medrol (due to taper) this week and bleeding with my first BM in the AM (looks like bright red new blood). Mostly on toilet paper, but also around the BM a bit.

Sorry for the run on, but this is so frustrating managing this disease. No good answers and it gets depressing! Should I up the Medrol for another week to 24mg since I did well at that and then start to taper again or should I just continue and hang tough until I see my GI on 1/25. She has me on Llialda 4x/day, Canasa, Cortifoam (which also seemed to help - but I stop taking that this Thurs -- she put me on it with the Medrol for 14 days). Also curious that when I stop the cortifoam, should I kick in again with the Rowasa enema at night since I haven't been using that)? My insurance company sent me the generic of Rowasa and I seemed to be having trouble retaining it - so the doc tried me on the cortifoam which is so much easier to use - but now not sure if that is working effectively). Honestly -- I was doing great until the bug hit. I was so amazed with the fact that I didn't have UC bleeding during the bug!! How is that possible.

Soooo, as I sit here worrying and getting depressed, my question is -- hang tough, watch the diet, deal with the bleeding and not so bad D ( I'm only going about 2x/day since the bug ended on Sunday night). As I said - now on 16mg of medrol and supposed to taper to 8mg this Friday. Also sceduled for a colonoscopy in late Feb. Thanks for your calming words and advice my friends!!

It looks like Medrol is a steroid similar to prednisone (which most of us are more familiar with). Possibly your taper is too quick. You should not be seeing blood. When I have been on prednisone I have been told to take the full dose (40 mg per day) until there is no blood seen (usually 1-2 weeks), then taper 5mg per week. Some people taper even more gradually. I think 8 mg per week may be too fast. I would contact your doctor and see what they say. Maybe 4 mg per week... I also agree with Sherry that rectal meds in conjunction with the taper is the way to go.

The longer you are on each tier, the slower the taper from each tier should be. Unfortunately, we all want a quick taper, but often that's not the case with UC.