Rowasa or Cort enemas...can they exacerbate symptoms?

When I had a small flare almost a year ago, I had a big problem with mesalamine rectal meds - Canasa and Rowasa. When my symptoms first started, I immediately started using Rowasa nightly instead of my usual twice a week. After visiting my doctor, he went ahead and gave me an Rx for hydrocort enemas, and told me to fill it in a week or two if I wasn't 100% better, with the instructions to use a hydrocort in the morning and Rowasa at night. Things weren't better, so I filled the Rx. I was having trouble retaining the hydrocort enema during the day, so started alternating between hydrocort and Rowasa at night, and noticed that the day after I used Rowasa, I had a more BMs and looser stools. So I called my GI and requested a script for sulfate-free Rowasa, thinking it was the sulfate preservative, as hydrocort enemas doesn't have it. In the meantime (my pharmacy didn't have the sf Rowasa in stock), I used some Canasa (which also has no sulfite), and realized it was giving my similar problems as the regular Rowasa. I called my GI and told him what was going on, and he agreed it sounded like I had become intolerant to the mesalamine rectal meds, to quit using them, and just use hydrocort enemas instead.

My flare quickly subsided after I quit using mesalamine rectal meds.

So anyway, I haven't tried the mesalamine rectal meds since, and am maintaining remission just fine. No symptoms. I have thought about giving a rowasa a try, just to see what happens, so I know if I'm still sensitive to it or not. I'd definitely like to have it in my arsenal for future flares. Maybe the sensitivity was a one-time thing.

And I'm glad to hear that your flare is calming down! Yay!!!!

I've had good times and bad with Rowasa and Canasa. I remember a decade or so ago, Rowasa (I was using a generic) made me have awful cramps and diarrhea. I asked my pharmacy for a different brand and then I was fine.

Recently I've had a recurrence of rectal inflammation (after many, many years of remission, dang it) and I started using Canasa. While things were fairly bad (blood daily, some mucous), the Canasa seemed to exacerbate some of it (additional gas, additional mucous) but as I used it daily that subsided.

So I am not sure. I think being 32 weeks pregnant might make it hard to retail a 4g enema - have you tried using just half of the Rowasa bottle? I also think that using hydrocort enemas will make it harder for you to taper off the prednisone, but I totally get it that you just want to get better.

I'm glad that you are seeing some improvement - are they going to give you another remicade infusion before birth?

Uc is anything but consistent when healing, and it's darn frustrating. Try to look week-to-week, rather than day-to-day for improvements.

And regarding "You gotta learn to dance in the rain" in your sig... It was a rainy day in highschool, everyone was glum, and my English teacher burst in the classroom beaming. She said she loved the rain as she met her husband on a rainy day like this, and she went into a brief story about it. She picked everyone's mood in an instant. Just made me think of that...

I don't know about the rectals, seems like it's always a bit of trial and error for me, but my opinion on the tapering is that; you've only had one dose of remicade, you should give yourself time to heal and wait until after your next loading dose to really start to taper maybe. That will give you time to see where things are headed and if remicade is going to work for you. It can take quite a few doses before people see a response so you don't want to taper too low and let things get more difficult to control before giving the medication time to work.