Prednisone working for me...

I would guard any improvement carefully. Eat anti-inflammatory foods. Watch your vitamins. See to fiber. .. and if using 5asa, keep up with it.

Prednisone may not work as well the next time.

enjoy the honeymoon !

but like db sorta said : prepare now for a potentially long marriage -

Just remember that prednisone does not cure you. It only weakens your immune system enough to stop the attack and give your colon time to heal. Once you taper to a lower dose or get completely off your immune system will renew the attack on your colon and it will only be a matter of time before you are back to square one all over again. The amount of time depends on how well your colon was healed in the first place. The only thing that can stop it is some kind of remission maintanence plan. Are you doing anything else to keep in remission? If so, make sure you keep it up FOREVER. Don't let your guard down just because you are feeling better. If you aren't doing anything else you really need to have a remission maintanence plan in place or you will be very, very sorry as future flareups get harder and harder to treat. Good luck.

MaxMilian said...
Have you ever considered immodium or lomotil for your urgency? Even 1 tbs of slippery elm takes all my urgency away.

I have not, although my GI has said I am free to experiment with using Immodium to deal with my morning urgency and commute to work issues.

soystud said...
enjoy the honeymoon !

but like db sorta said : prepare now for a potentially long marriage -

I've been enjoying it quite thoroughly. Frankly I've been eating like a pig and mixing it up.. lots of variety and lots of foods that would normally have me bed-bound.

MaxMilian said...
What are your symptoms without pred dinkydonuts? How many BMs? Blood? Mucus?

Abdominal cramps, urgency, mucous/gas, very thin stool due to narrow rectum, occasional nausea, some blood. I'm one of the few that doesn't have to deal with diarrhea. Mine is closer to constipation in the sense that I have to strain to defecate, but the stool itself is formed and solid.

garylouisville said...
Just remember that prednisone does not cure you. It only weakens your immune system enough to stop the attack and give your colon time to heal. Once you taper to a lower dose or get completely off your immune system will renew the attack on your colon and it will only be a matter of time before you are back to square one all over again. The amount of time depends on how well your colon was healed in the first place. The only thing that can stop it is some kind of remission maintanence plan. Are you doing anything else to keep in remission? If so, make sure you keep it up FOREVER. Don't let your guard down just because you are feeling better. If you aren't doing anything else you really need to have a remission maintanence plan in place or you will be very, very sorry as future flareups get harder and harder to treat. Good luck.

Thanks for the insights. I can't say I have a remission plan in place. Then again, I can only say that since I was diagnosed with UC, I have only been in complete remission for a month following a long trail of antibiotics to treat an upper respiratory infection. During that time it felt like I had zero inflammation of the colon and I was able to have complete, solid, and satisfying BMs on a daily basis.

My "normal" (non-remission) state is around 80-85% functional, with me dealing with the urgency issues and constant bloating/gas as I live my life. I often find that I'll have 1 or 2 days per week when I have to batten down the hatches and go into "restore mode" following some post-BM pain that puts me in the 40-50% functional range.

I finished my last taper dose of prednisone today. This morning I noticed that my BM wasn't so great, and there was a slight return of the gas/bloating around dinner. Then again, I went all out last night and ate a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have.

We'll see how the next few days are. I doubled up on my Metamucil in hopes of purging things out, but I may be back to the old times. It was still nice to feel normal again and to be able to run errands without anxiously worrying about the bathroom.

dinkydonuts,

It's good you were able to get better on prednisone.

The big picture is: how will do you once you wean off it?

I would recommend you become proactive in putting in place some things which may help you: certain supplements, probiotics, diet modification, etc...so that when you get off the prednisone entirely you have something to fall back on. JUst a thought.

There are things IMO that you can control, which will have a direct impact on your disease, the symptoms you experience and their severity.

I was able to control my UC into remission through various supplements, probiotics, diet modification, and LDN , low dose naltrexone.

 

For more info on the protocol which has put me into remission, please go to this link: https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=1666318 , and look at the 11th post.

I hope you feel better and let us know how we can help you.