I'm wondering....

Had a GI appointment yesterday. He was two hours behind - again. When you ask he apologizes but he continues to run his clinic this way. My shortest wait in two years was 40 minutes

Anyways I asked him if we could discuss my treatment which I've been on for two years. My symptoms are substantially worse than from before my diagnosis. I had an 8 day stint in the hospital last year which included a blood transfusion. I've also spent a year on prednisone. Also tried azathioprine unsuccessfully. I tried Salofalk enemas too. Those made me feel nauseaus with a slight worsening of symptoms

Before any treatment I was having around three bloody D stools per day. Mostly in the morning. I could still go for hour long walks without wondering if I could, I could still travel.

Back to my appointment. I'm at 6 to 11 BMs / day now including night time wakings. I recently started adding l-glutamine (5 g 3/ per day) with some improvement. I asked if it would make sense to try for awhile to be off the mesasal or try a different drug

He wrote a prescription for Mezavant with instructions to go back to Mesasal if I have worse side effects. He also wants to do another colonoscopy in March to see what's going on

I looked up Mezavant and I don't see how it is different.

Some other concerns I have is that I've likely developed osteoporosis. (Bone density test in March) and I'm not getting back to normal iron levels though I use supplements and eat red meat

If someone can tell me how Mezavant is different I'd appreciate it. And thanks for reading my vent.

To me it sounds like your GI is not doing a good job :( Are there any alternatives?