Mesalamines

I've seen in the signatures of many posters here some take mesalamines and some dont

To those who dont take them:

Were they simply not effective for your case?

Or did they make the symptoms worse?

Did they introduce other negative symptoms?

To those who are on mesalamines:

Did you ever have to increase your dosage?

Did you ever have to take additional prescription drugs including Mesalamine?

Did they ever lose their effectiveness and you had to switch to other drugs?

Thanks

I take the max dosage of Lialda and Canasa each day. I will say that for at least a year, the Canasa was a lifesaver--now I'm not so sure. I have stubborn rectal inflammation. I'm also not sure how effective the Lialda has been--currently in flare and on Prednisone as well. However, I'm allergic to azathioprine and no longer respond to Remicade or Humira, so mesalamine feels like one of the only bets right now.

My symptoms seemed to get somewhat when I first started the meds. I was on oral (asacol) for about a month before my scope. Then the GI put me on the retention 5ASA enemas as well.

That was 22+ years ago.

I started on 4 Asacol daily and it was upped to 6 that first year.

Only twice have I upped the oral to 8 daily for a few months.

I've never used anything but the oral/rectal mesalamine. Only once did I see another GI who I saw when mine was away on emergency. He put me on steroid foam enema for 2 weeks and I got a script from my GI back to the mesalamine enemas.

The effectiveness of oral/rectal 5ASA is better than the first two years, because I've treated flares earlier by increasing the enemas and taper to maintenance.

22+ years is a good track record methinks. But I've been faithful with the meds.

Negative side effects "may" be bruising...but I bruised a lot before I started on them..so it just may be a me-thing..another inherited quality. 

q

I was diagnosed with Uc back in '92 and my first medication was Asacol. I switched to Sulfasalazine due to financial reasons but had to quickly stop because I found out I was allergic to Sulfa. So then I went back to Asacol. I was then on Asacol for about 12 years when it just stopped working. It never really controlled my Uc in the first place, but I was highly negligent in my care at that time and didn't know any better. So my doc put me on Colazal. This did wonders for me. I still flare but they were mild. But when I would flare, I would use Rowasa or Canasa.

Those meds eventually started causing adverse reactions such a flu like feeling, increase of D and abdominal pain. I tried several other attempts over a few years and each time I used them, it made me feel even more horrible. It then dawned on me that the reason I never did well on Asacol is probably because I had an adverse reaction to mesalamines.

Probiotic,

Ditto for me. I had the same reaction to mesalamines.

How are you doing, Probiotic?