How long till this Pred kicks in!? (can't remember)

After a failed Uceris attempt, I started 60mg Pred last Thursday. I still feel crampy/bloated/gassy/nausea/fatigue. I figured 60mg would at least be masking these symptoms by now. It worked last year during my first flare but I don't remember how long it took to kick in. I'm in pain and it's starting to get the best of me (mentally)

No, they haven't lessened. :( my gut feels like its gonna explode and is gassy/crampy. And I just feel kinda' "sick". Also, I've been meaning to ask. I have a thin frame but look pregnant. Does UC cause the gut to bulge out like this?

Please go get checked for cdiff. Even if they did one stool check request another and also get your white blood cell count checked (elevated counts could mean you're fighting an infection).

I thought I was flaring after being in remission for 2 months. It mimicked my flare symptoms and instead of checking me they started me on 6mp. Since that works slowly I requested prednisone to knock down the flare a bit but they did their due diligence and checked for cdiff. It came out positive. I'm assuming it kicked off a flare as well but of you do have both the infection takes priority.

The reason I'm pushing hard is the emaciated stomach you mentioned. Yes we bloat during a flare but no relief on 60mg's of prednisone for several days and no relief seems like a sign.

Check in and let me know what you find out. Good luck...

Sorry for any grammatical errors in using my cell phone.

"I figured 60mg would at least be masking these symptoms by now"

This irks me a bit when I read it, and I read it often. Predinsone or any other medication DOES NOT MASK symptoms. They treat the cause and then the symptoms of said cause dissapears.. In the case of predinsone, it reduces the inflammation in your colon and it turn your colon heals and then you experience less symptoms or none.

The fact that the symptoms come back after tapering a med is not the med's fault, it's because the disease has resumed it's course and your colon inflames again.


Now, I will give you an example of a med that is actually masking the symptom. When you go to the dentist and they freeze a section of the mouth so they can operate on your tooth. That it masking the symptoms.

with 60 mg you should be feeling better withing a few days, assuming its working for you

For me the longer it was since I since I last was on pred the faster it kicks in. Most often I notice a significant difference in 2-3 days. Going from 15-20 bowel movements with blood to 4-5 with no blood.

One time it took 7-8 days or so until I reached that state.

Machina12: Were you taking any maintanence meds after your first round of pred? UC is a disease where you have to take maintanence meds while in remission or you will fall out of remission into a flare and future flares always seem to be harder and harder to treat and often what worked before either doesn't work as well next time or sometimes doesn't even work at all.