Prednisone always makes flare worse

I know prednisone is supposed to be some miracle halt your UC drug, but every time I have been put on it (3X) my flare has got worse. I think it is due to the fact that I am so sensitive to it that I don't sleep (at all!) when on it. I also vomit and get shakes during the taper.

In a pretty bad flare now. My doctor recently said I either must go back on Prednisone or try Remicade next. When I explained that Pred makes my symptoms worse, he said that was "impossible."

Does anyone else experience a worse flare on pred? I can't even take the enemas without symptoms getting worse.

Thank you for the reply. I am still sort of new to this because all my flares have been relatively mild until this one. (20+ painful bowel movements a day, mostly just blood and D.)

I am not familiar with imuran/6mp other than the google search I just did. I am confused as to why my doctor did not suggest that if it is another option before Remicade and removal of my colon?

That seems like kind of a defeatist approach to me. From what I have researched, Remicade is a pretty serious drug. Not something to be taken lightly. I will make another appt with my doctor and ask about 6-mp. thank you

if your current flare is bad, Remicade may have been suggested because it can work 3-4x faster than 6mp.

ElpisUnbreakable said...
That seems like kind of a defeatist approach to me. From what I have researched, Remicade is a pretty serious drug. Not something to be taken lightly. I will make another appt with my doctor and ask about 6-mp. thank you

Not defeatist, just proactive. Trust me, its better to get this disease under control before it gets out of hand. The consequences of uncontrolled disease are FAR worse than almost all problems with drugs.

I would actually argue that 6MP is LESS safe than Remicade. People get scared of biologics because they are given by IV, but they really arent anything to be scared of

Your doctor was right on suggesting remicade. If you cant get stable on prednisone, then biologics are the choice because they work faster than 6mp/imuran. Those can take many months to work and with your symptoms like this now, are you willing to live like this until possibly july when it kicks in? It just gets worse the longer you wait. Id go for remicade if i were you.

@prisioner: irritation form physical insertion of an emema (and its buffer solution) and pill are not even in the same framework.

@Elpis: I had 3-4 different IV antiobiotics as they tried to save my life. I know one was Flagyl, because they continued with pills for 3 weeks after IV. It was very unpleasant, causing nausea, and metallic taste in mouth.

Going straight to biologics is not defeatist, but a proposed best practice, especially in pediatric UC, where case history comparisons show better 3 year outcomes for young patients placed on biologics first, compared to others who went up the meds ladder.

These qualified findings need to be replicated and extended to adults and to different levels of initial severity. But it is not just a doc having a defeatist attitude. While imperfect, and occurring in fits and starts, medical best practices are based on evidence.