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Traces of Blood When Tapering Prednisone

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/15/2011 2:46 PM (GMT 0)
(Some background, feel free to skip to the next paragraph for my actual question!) So I'm female, 19, and I was diagnosed with UC in July, although I'd been having symptoms and putting off going to the doc for nine months. I was first put on Entocort which stopped me from having blood in my stools and made me have a normal number of BMs though they still weren't solid. Me, being a student at an incredibly competitive and stressful college, drank beer and vodka in the first weeks of school and I didn't feel worse for it. In early September, however, I drank champagne, and my horrid flare up began. 10+ BMs a day, waking up in the night, etc. I eventually got fed up because it interrupted my studying for midterms and just stopped eating for a couple of days and dropped ten pounds.
So I'd really only been in remission 3 weeks, tops, before my flare up. My doc put me on 20mg of prednisone and it stopped my flare up in days and I even started having solid bm's, didn't even realize that was possible with UC!

So, three things fellow UC'ers...
Question 1: I was on prednisone for 2 and a half weeks and my GI told me to taper it down to 15mg for two weeks and then 10mg for the next two weeks. I've started having traces of blood in my stool and they're not as formed anymore. Is it okay if I take 17.5mg and kind of taper myself down from there? Also, I'm on aprisol, the 5ASA.
Question 2: Do I just need to change my diet? While on the 20mg prednisone I realized I could eat whatever I wanted and took full advantage. It felt like before I was even diagnosed with UC. Fastfood, midnight food, pizza, you name it. Is this normal? Does this mean I have a mild form of UC or could I only eat normally because I was on the 20mg of prednisone? Should I start a "UC diet" and see if that stops my flareup while I'm on 15mg?
Question 3: Do you think it would be okay to drink beer and/or vodka again?
Posted 10/15/2011 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Mama Panda, welcome to HealingWell,

It's very common to have these bumps when you're tapering but ideally you want to be stable with the Apriso. What dose of Apriso are you on? You may want to add some rectal meds to get things back on track. Mesalamine enemas are very effective, as are cortifoam enemas. It really depends where the inflammation is located. Do you know where you're inflamed? If it is proctitis, you may do well with suppositories. If Apriso doesn't work for you, there is a chance another 5ASA (such as Asacol, Lialda, Colazal) will work for you. You alsos may have more luck tapering slower, like you mentioned, going to 17.5, then to 15 but it sounds to me like you may need to add some rectals or try another oral medication. HOw long have you eben on Apriso?

As for diet, I don't notice diet impacting my conditionn when I am in remission but like you, when I am flaring, I don't eat much because the more I eat, the more I am on the toilet. I try to eat light foods and easily digestable meals like soups. I don'tt hink I would drink alcohol too much while you're healing but try not to stress, you will be able to drink again when you're in remission. You can drink now but for me, I know alcohol doesn't help a flare up.
Posted 10/15/2011 9:45 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Mama Panda,

I felt compelled to answer just due to our similar names!

As notsoickly said, it is common to have blips when you taper. I also agree that slowing down the taper is a good idea. I would continue to go slow (2.5mg) until you are done. Also, I agree on the rectal meds.

I also never noticed an impact with diet, although many others do. You may want to go with a low residue each time you taper pred for a few days. I have heard that people say that helps.

I would avoid the alcohol for now too.

Good luck!
Posted 10/16/2011 11:55 AM (GMT 0)
Is your doc telling you to stop alter 10(my first doc did). But now I taper slower, 10,7.5,5,2.5. Ask your doc because you will have less side effects when your body doesn't,t have the pred anymore. I also have no will power and eat everything under the sun when the pred makes me feel good with regular bm's, but the first time I had no blood on it. Now I,m on it for the fifth and hopefully last time and I still see blood, but my uc has spread. Last summer I tried the scd diet, while on pred, 10 weeks total, but once off the pred saw blood, which kinda killed my will power and drive to stick to the diet. I would explore diet and talk to your doctor a lot.
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