How long does it take for meds to kick in?

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis February of this year. The doctor (or physician's assistant actually) just told me to eat more fiber and I'd be ok. I'm guessing you all know that didn't work. That was away from home, up at school. When I came home for the summer, I called my primary care doctor and he referred me to a specialist who was blown away by the other doctor's suggestion. He prescribed Lialda 1.2 GM, 2 pills, 2 times a day. After a week I was miserable. I had a bout of diarrhea a week to the hour I started the pills and then the next day I had diarrhea all day long (I'd say about 10-15 times) along with fever and chills. The next day I had all that, plus vomiting. That lasted the rest of the week until I could get to my primary care doctor. He told me to stop taking the Lialda (he talked to my GI specialist on the phone to make sure) and prescribed Prednisone. 10mg, 3 times a day for a week, then 10mg 2 times a day, then 10mg once a day, then 5mg once a day. I am currently on 10mg once a day for a week and on Saturday I'll start 5mg. At first it seemed like the Prednisone was working, but now it's like I've become immune to the affect or something. I was able to get to my GI guy last week and he prescribed Canasa suppositories which I have been using for 3 days.

When I go to the bathroom now there is what I'd say a lot of blood. Bright and runny. Sometimes it's just blood that comes out with no stool and it turns the whole toilet red. I also feel like I might be a little constipated which is unusual because ever since I've had UC, it's been diarrhea. But the past 2 days, when I go, I feel like I can't or when I do, I feel like I need to go more. I've also been having cramping on my left side.

Has anyone else had this experience with Canasa? How long does it take to kick in?

I am taking 10mg a day. I know it's not a cure, but it's a corticosteroid which should reduce inflammation, thus easing colitis symptoms.

I know the doctor I went to up at school was an idiot, but the one I have now I feel isn't doing anything wrong really. He's only known me for a couple months and right now he's kinda experimenting with meds which is all you can really do until you find what works. He said we might try Lialda again in a few months just to make sure that's what made me sick and I didn't have the flu or something. I read on the Canasa website that people usually find relief in about a week, but some find relief in as little as 2 days. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes. But then it says you only do it for 3-6 weeks so I'm not sure what comes next.

Something needs to always be done as you can't take prednisone forever. Ideally a game plan should already be in place so that you can stay in remission once the prednisone is withdrawn. You don't taper the prednisone without a maintenance plan and it has to be a forever maintenance plan. It's not a good idea to do this for a few weeks and then that for a few weeks and then something else for a few weeks. That's begging for another flare up, another round of pred, and a new maintenance plan.

I realize that you know that you can't be on prednisone forever. I was referring to the fact that you mentioned that on the website that it says you only do Canasa for 3-6 weeks, which means that you have not only stopped the Lialda (maybe for good reason) as a maintenance med, but in 3-6 weeks you will also have stopped the Canasa as a maintenance med, and don't even know what the game plan will be after that and at that time you won't be on the prednisone anymore and you also won't be on any regular maintenance med, or a changed maintenance med, or maybe no maintenance med, or put back on Lialda, knowing that the first time around it was bad news. This is a recipe for another flare, after which your doctor will probably put you back on prednisone all over again and mix in Imuran, meaning you will be on prednisone for a few months until the Imuran kicks in. This is the most likely scenario. To me that is not a good game plan.

Yeah that makes sense. I've kinda been in a constant flare for the past month or two though. And seeing as the prednisone isn't really working, if he tries to put me on it again I'm gonna say it didn't work the last time so there's no use. I'll just deal with the flare up until something kicks in. Probably not the best scenario but I don't know what else to do.

I haven't really learned how to deal with flare ups yet or what to do. I've read all sorts of things about being careful about what you eat during a flare up and it's like there's nothing left to eat. Have you found anything that helps? Like food wise or pepto bismol or anything? I'm afraid to take anti diarrhea stuff cuz I don't know how it affects colitis. This current flare up is different. Usually when I have what I consider a flare up I rush to the bathroom and poop out the entire length of my small and large intestine it seems. Sorry for the gross visual but it's a lot. Also blood and mucus. This time it's a lot of cramping with a lot of blood and hardly any stool and I have to go a lot. I'm not sure if this is the canasa starting to do its job or what. It's really annoying though. I wish ulcerative colitis didnt exist.

Yeah I had one in February. It starts around the distal sigmoid colon and goes through to the rectum. The first doctor I had only performed the colonoscopy and didn't talk to me after that. The doctor I have now is trying to deal with deciphering what the other one wrote. Turns out he didn't take detailed notes and the pictures aren't the best. He talked about possibly doing a colonoscopy next year so he can get an idea but he understood it as left sided colitis but very distal.

I'm not sure why your doctor is waiting so long to do another colonoscopy, or at least do a sigmoidoscopy. Like I said, if your inflammation is more than just rectal (easily determined with a sigmoidoscopy), Canasa isn't going to be nearly enough.

As an aside, this illness REALLY sucks to have during school. Sorry :(