remission with fingers crossed!

After being on balsalazide for more than a month after stopping asacol hd (which did nothing) and doing the hydrocortisone enema for a 3 weeks and then alternating days of hydrocortisone and mesalamine enemas for another two weeks then stopping hydrocortisone enema and now solely on mesalamine enemas nightly I think I am in remission. I am very superstitious so I am keeping my fingers crossed as I type this. I was bleeding for over a year on the asacol hd and finally told my old gi I wanted to switch to colazol so he prescribed it, but insurance only covers generic version, but i think it did the trick. I am also drinking wheat grass juice powder mixed with a teaspoon of qing dai each morning and night and vsl ds #3 half a packet in morning and half a packet at night and one align probiotic in the am. Also take 3 bosweilla pills in the am.

I have a new gi now and am hoping I made the right move in changing gis, as the second time I saw her and I told her I had no more symptoms she kind of rushed me out of the office, but i might be a little over sensitive. She told me to continue with the 9 pills of balsalazide and try to reduce the mesalamine enemas to twice a week, which I haven't tried yet because i am a little nervous to reduce them right now.

I must say that I think the hydrocortisone enemas definitely did the trick, but I think that I was stopping short of getting the full effects after stopping them after two weeks earlier this year so i read on the internet some doctor said that most patients should do the hydrocortisone enemas for 21 days even after seeing improvement because some inflammation still lingers even after all symptoms are gone so I went against docs orders and did this. Also, after coming back from Aruba I think that the sun as a definite effect on the uc so I continue to get at least 10 minutes a day of sunshine for vitamin d although my vitamin d is not low and doctor just did blood test and it went from 40 to 57 in a month. I also bought a vitamin d lamp to get it on rainy days.

I thought I would post this to maybe help others as this is what got me better after a year of misery.

That's great. I'm a strong believer ins mixing what the doctors say with other stuff. Most doctors are OK with you doing this, as long as they're helping. They know they have limitations as to what they can do. Keep up the good work and don't be a stranger.

Mad martha, yes sometimes my bms are mushy but I have no pain, cramps or blood so I don't worry about it and i do think it has something to do with the mesalamine enemas as I tried using less a couple of nights and I did not have the mushy stuff. I also forgot to mention I stopped using the metamucil pills and opted for the psyllium seed powder that i ordered over the internet and take one heaping teaspoon in the evening and it works great.

I try to get too excited because I know it can come back at any time, but i am hoping that I can control it now if I see any changes.

Thanks Gary, I have been lurking in the background for a little while, like I said I don't want to jinx anything. lol

Hi,

I intent to reduce my enemas exactly how Quincy says. In the past the gi said stop the meds and I did without tapering and look where that got me. My symptoms now are no blood, no pain but I still go about 4-5 times. Have got some physillium in the cupboard and wondered if this would help firm things up. Is that why you are taking it. My gi also said I could take immodium. I just have to play about with the dosage. That's handy to know when I need to go out and there is no toilet. I am ging to Spain in August so am not going to taper the enemas until I get back. Before my GI would let me use rectals as maintenance but I am going to go behind his back like you and use them even if it is only twice a week.

Good luck

That's great to hear you feel better! From personal experience I believe that UCers with left-side inflammation stand to benefit more from Colazal (balsalazide disodium) than from Asacol. A while back researchers also found that Asacol does not dissolve properly if the patient's colon acidity measures less than 7. Good luck with maintaining remission. Quincy definitely gives better advice than many doctors. / Old Hat (33 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)