Sinking back into the UC pit...

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I had a bad flare that required I.V. steroids to get under control. Took a while but my doc was persistent.

For some reason the I.V. steroids worked when the oral didn't. I think the oral meds can really fly through your system when flaring and not get properly absorbed.

Has pred worked for you in the past?

Have you tried going gluten-free and dairy-free to see if that could help?

Are you using enemas? Please get an Rx for an enema, they come in many types: steroid and non-steroid. Also come in suppositories but although helpful the suppos. don't reach up and do as much as a nightly enema. Mesalamine (non-steroid) enema is brand name Rowasa but is available generic also. Helps bleeding a lot.

Keep drinking water as much as possible. Best wishes.

Thanks for the responses guys.

@c_g_k, I have had IV steroids before as well and they worked well. I have thought about this, but in order to do so would have to spend a day in emerg and possibly day or two in hospital which I am hoping to avoid at this point. Oral pred worked very well for me the first couple of flares I had, but the last few they have taken a really really long time to settle things down (we are talking months).

@imagardner2, since this flare started have been gluten and dairy free w/o change. When I am not in a flare I have found these are OK for me to eat. Haven't actually been eating much for the past couple of weeks aside from Ensure, clear broth, yogurt and Gatorade. In regards to the enema, yes, did get an Rx for Salofalk (in Canada I believe this is the same as Rowasa). Tried it for 3 nights and then stopped as it seemed to make the bleeding worse and also made me feel way more tired and nauseaus the next day.

@BabeintheWoods. no significant diet changes that I can think of, the only thing is that we had just moved up to our cottage for the summer so maybe the water change had someting to do with it? The water is treated here by a brand new state of the art treatment plant, but maybe there is some kind of chemical in it that my body decided to reject. Thanks for the idea about the fish oil. Will try that when I am better able to keep things down.

Had a better night last night - actually slept for 4 hours straight at one point which is a record these days! Will keep on keeping on. Thanks for the support!

I was going 20+ times a day, lots of pain, day would start with my lying on the floor. Could no longer ride motorcycle, truck on fast turns was painful and 100mg prednisone did nothing.

I switched to Librax and Mebeverine and Sulfasalazine. Everything suddenly stopped. Do a lot of research and figure out what would work for you. For me I had to slow the gut.

I took anti-nausea meds which helped. I think it was called zofran.

Maybe you could get a home healthcare nurse to give you I.V. steroids at home? Pred is extremely hard on an empty stomach, at least for me.

I've been in your situation, and I have sympathy for you. My advice is to take whatever time and measures you need to get yourself well. This may mean asking others to help with childcare and daily "stuff" until you get the help you obviously need and start to feel better.

sickmom said...
Haven't actually been eating much for the past couple of weeks aside from Ensure, clear broth, yogurt and Gatorade. ... The water is treated here by a brand new state of the art treatment plant, but maybe there is some kind of chemical in it that my body decided to reject.

Those are both alarming things. First and foremost, Ensure, yogurt (i.e. Yoplait) and Gatorade are all rife with incredible amounts of refined sugar. A single bottle of gatorade, small single size, has 15 grams of sugar in it alone. A single serving of standard Yoplait has 26. If this is all you have been eating, and that yogurt isn't homemade or of a kind that is sugar free and basically unflavored, there's no doubt these things are contributing to your symptoms. Heavy doses of refined sugars have put a lot of people into flares on this forum, if you look for it. Myself included. Refined sugars are lethal to a lot of people with UC. Moreso than dairy or gluten, it seems.

The second thing is that state of the art water treatment plant may use excessive levels of chlorine to disinfect the water supply. Chlorine has been shown to actually decrease the numbers of beneficial bacteria in our guts, and is the top reason UCers should always drink well filtered water from the tap or a good source of bottled water. One member on here (CollegeStudent) claims that his symptoms decreased noticeably when he started drinking only Evian bottled water. That's all he drinks these days. I have a tap filter at home that gets rid of at least some of the chlorine, and a variety of other things.

Food for thought. At the very least, stop eating all that sugar! Get some real food into your system.

Hmmm. I was eating the yogurt as it is one with the probiotics added so thought that might help. It was my GI doc who suggested the Gatorade to keep my electrolytes in balance and prevent dehydration. The Ensure I wanted to drink so that I would get some vitamins and protein in me. Maybe not such a good idea now? What would you suggest eating? I am staying away from fiber and raw fruit/veg at the moment thinking they are too hard on my sore digestive system. Avoiding gluten/dairy as well. What else does that leave me?

As for the water situation, I have only been drinking distilled water for the last week or so in the hopes that helps.

C_G_K said...
I took anti-nausea meds which helped. I think it was called zofran.

Maybe you could get a home healthcare nurse to give you I.V. steroids at home? Pred is extremely hard on an empty stomach, at least for me.

I've been in your situation, and I have sympathy for you. My advice is to take whatever time and measures you need to get yourself well. This may mean asking others to help with childcare and daily "stuff" until you get the help you obviously need and start to feel better.

Were the anti-nausea meds otc? The home healthcare nurse sounds like not a bad plan, but would have to arrange thru my doc who is off on summer holidays for another 10 days. I have definitely relied on some help with my kids - my parents are here during the week to help me and then my hubby comes up on Friday nights. I have thought about moving back into the city so hubby is with us every night but think that might be more disruptive for everyone.

sickmom said...
No other doc aside from my GP who just defers to my GI doc. Only other option is to visit emerg which is an hour away...

Is your GI's office closed? Is the nurse available to call and discuss options? If your only choice is the ER then that's not a good vacation backup plan from your GI. He/she should have someone covering their patients over 2 weeks, maybe you can find out if there is someone covering by calling the office and telling them your condition.

If my GI told me the ER was my only option for 2 weeks I'd find another GI. Of course we don't know these things until we get sick while they're on vacation. I went to the ER once when vomiting was so severe it showed blood, New Years Eve day. Never-determined cause although I suspect stress. Never happened again.

Best wishes. Please keep drinking water and go to the ER if necessary.

Personally, I'd have no problem going to the ER if I was vomiting and having D as much as you describe. If you're unable to keep anything down, you're going to get dehydrated and will need IV fluids, if nothing else.

Look for a protein or meal replacement shake in the bodybuilding section of your drugstore as a healthier alternative to Ensure. You want a whey protein isolate or an egg white protein with little or no lactose if you're trying to be dairy-free. I use an egg white protein powder sweetened with stevia.

You could also consider diluting the Gatorade with filtered water so you could still get some of the electrolyte benefits without as much sugar content.

You know, after thinking about it, it really seems like what you have is an infection. Given that a) your symptoms hit you almost overnight after years of no symptoms, and b) you have a lot of vomiting alongside your diarrhea, it's really likely you got a bug.

Were you eating the Ensure and Gatorade before your symptoms started again, or after?

Normal people can handle something like food poisoning in a few days, but for UCers, that kind of infection will set off flares that will last for who knows how long.

Badlinke,

Actually you just reminded me of one of my favorite "comfort foods" while flaring. I would get some chicken thighs, put them in the roaster with some water and salt. When the chicken was mostly cooked, I would toss in some baby carrots. While the chicken was cooking, the drippings would collect in the roaster. I would put some of the dripping on rice and eat it with the chicken and thoroughly cooked (and very soft) carrots. Delicious, even while flaring and very easy on the tummy.

When you are flaring, you don't always feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, so a simple meal like that makes it easy on you.