Frustrated at my GI's Prednisone Games

i'm downright angry and feel like my GI completely mismanaged my prednisone dosage.

we started at 20mg to see if that would get me out of my current flare, gave it a week or so and was not successful. he then bumped it to 30mg and subsequently 40mg and both have largely been without results. now he's talking about 50mg and honestly i think if we had done the larger bump to begin with, i would see results. i refuse to bump it another 10mg and would rather go on uceris (which i have 90 days supply of). He doesn't want me to to start uceris and would rather keep bumping prednisone which makes absolutely no sense to me. I'd rather take 9mg of uceris than an extra 10mg of prednsione (which probably isn't a big enough bump)

i've brought it up plenty. every week i insist that we should try uceris and he wants to get me to taper prednisone to 10mg before considering it. it makes no sense to me. just thinking about it is upsetting me. i'm in substantial pain and he's not using prednisone properly.

Yeah if he had started you at 50 you might be down to 20 by now. What a dummy.

Find a new GI. A lot of docs these days can be very dismissive, and any doc that treats me that way is often shown the door.

My super awesome GI (#2) went back to Ireland in August, so I had my last appointment with him in early August. I was switched to another GI in the same practice, a very respected doc (#3), and was told to make an appointment with him for as early as possible. The soonest he could see me was in mid-November! And then the same week of the appointment, his office called me to reschedule because he was not going to be in the office. When I finally got to see him in December, it took 45 minutes till I saw him, and he dismissed every concern I had. By January, I was much sicker and couldn't work, so he put me on Cortifoam. When I got bad insomnia from the steroids, he told me that it was impossible to get that side effect from such a low dose.

After having my second scheduled appointment pushed back another month from February to March, I called the office and switched to another GI (#4). The practice is an excellent one, probably the best in the state, so I wanted to stay with them if I could. So far, I love my new doc, and he addresses every one of my concerns. In less than a month with my new GI, I've seen him multiple times, had a flex sig, and am starting a bunch of new treatments that are very promising.

So, switch docs. No doc should be so dismissive!

I don't know what the ramifications are with taking higher dose pred and Uceris at the same time. My gut feelings think it probably wouldn't matter but steroids have to earn a little respect. You may want to ask a pharmacist for their opinion. In the meantime I would try switching doctors if you are not happy with the current one. Sounds like your old doc may just be afraid to try something he is not used to. Ultimately it is your choice so if your doctor won't go down the road you want to then you should try to find someone who will. I would just make sure you get a new doc that will go where you want him to.

I totally feel you jac. I have never had pain with my UC until this flare. My doctor made me wait almost two weeks for a c-scope. Then told me to take my Humira and see if that helped. I did that and felt a little better but still am not great. I am only on 10 mg of prednisone. I feel he should have done something else by now. He knows I am in tons of pain because I was in the hospital twice for a total of ten days. Until this flare I have never asked him for pain meds the whole time he has been my doctor (2007). I am not having a lot of BMs but I would rather be having 30 BMs than having severe pain. The pain is constant.

thanks, email sent Liz!

so tired of my doctor's office. doctor covering takes 2 days to return a call, only for her to basically says "uceris is new and we should taper you off steroids before you start it". Then she proceeds to call in a steroid enema. Suffice to say if she was concerned with steroid levels, uceris would be the safer route than the enema.

just hope the enema gives me some relief, the pain levels are off the charts lately. once i get my colonscopy i will be seeing a new specialist for a consult, that's for darn sure.

i'm beyond angry. i'm definitely going to switch GI's in the coming weeks. It's nice to know there's a good amount of fantastic GI's that specialize in UC in the NYC area.