What's going on with my UC?

I was flaring really bad a few weeks ago so my GI started me on 40mg Pred + 1 tab Imuran. I'm down to 30 mg Pred + up to 2 tab Imuran now. Things were going quite dandy but now I'm in so much abdominal pain. No blood in my BMs and my stool looks perfect (just like someone with no UC) but occasionally I get a BM with only mucus. Just these past few days, I've been SUPER DUPER sleepy. I'll get 8 hours of sleep @ night and then a few hours after I've been up, I'll fall asleep again for another 5 hours of so. I'm always so tired!

CHANGES that I've made to my lifestyle lately:
- I started eating seeds (sunflower, pumpkin ect) and corn nuts -__-
- I had a quesadilla the other day (maybe it's the cheese? and the quesadilla had taco mix in the cheese)
- I started eating olives (black & green)
- Every night I like to drink some hot water with 1/2 lime and honey (maybe 1/2 lime a day is too much?)
- I've noticed that I enjoy do enjoy the taste of acidic foods (olives, limes, grapefruit ect.)
- The fact that I'm down to only 30 mg of Pred (this is sort of when all of this started)
- it's EXAM WEEK D: - although I don't find myself getting very stressed from exams, I always get sick around exam time!
- my sleep schedule is a little whack; i get enough sleep; just at weird times during the day (cause of exams)

The thing that has me the most worried is the fact that I'm tired ALL OF THE TIME! What does that have to do with the UC? I'm afraid it's something else D: I still have an appetite but I'm afraid to eat. I'm eating enough (I think) but not nearly as much as I know I'm capable of eating ;) (when in good health)

I think maybe I tapered off the Pred too fast. I was going down 5 mg every 6 days! My GI had told me to taper down every week (so every 7 days) but I thought that if I tapered every 6 days, I wouldn't get the moon face and all of those horrible side affects.

PS - I missed my period for the past couple months. My GI said that it was because I was underweight. Since then, I've regained my weight and my GI said things will get back to normal. Could these be menstrual cramps?

PSS - The only thing that really helps the pain is a HOT bath or if I put a heat pad over my abdominal area. I hope I'm not causing any damage by doing that.

Post Edited (Baggravation) : 2/16/2012 12:14:24 AM (GMT-7)

Baggravation,

When was the last time you had your vit.d and b 12 checked?

I agree with the others - you need labs. They should be monitoring you pretty closely if you just started Imuran - as in weekly labs for the first month.

Imuran can make you tired and nauseous, but what you're describing sounds a little more serious. Best to let your GI make the call. Good luck - hope you feel better soon!

Corn not dorn

I would really suggest you make some dietary changes and adapt to a plan that will help you stay focused on getting to a healthy state again. Alot of acidic foods are not good for when you're flaring, I dont even bother with them and I just finished prednisione.

I would suggest looking into supplements, Fish Oil, L-Glutamine, and some herbs that will coat and dull pain in your stomach.

I can't even eat a quesadilla right now, so I can see where the problem with that could lie, hope your doctor helps you a bit.