Enema newbie - tonight is the night!

I am starting hydrocort enemas tonight to try to get this flare under control. I read the Mesalamine enema tips under the Resources section, and I'm sure that will be helpful. I have a little anxiety about the retention piece. I know it's unlikely (from what I read) that I will be able to hold it for too long tonight - my concern is that I won't receive the benefits of it if I can't keep it in for long. Any additional tips or reassurance are much appreciated. My GI doc is giving me through the weekend for the inflammation to subside and open things up a bit - if not, I start Pred on Monday. I'm so miserable and desperate at this point that I won't put up a fight if that is the case, but I'm still hopeful for some good results that will stave it off.

Also, if I am unable to retain it, could I give it a Canasa chaser just to have something in there tonight to soothe things a bit?

Thanks in advance!

It might be easier to try and retain half for the first few nights, just an idea.

CGK1998 said...
Thank you -it really wasn't as bad as I thought, which is good news. I was able to hold it for a few hours so hopefully it is doing what I need it to!

That's good to hear. Even when I have quite a but of lower inflammation, I still can usually retain it for the whole night. A few hours is a good start though, it should only get easier.

CGK did you use it just before bed? When I was really sick and needed to be on rectals I could only use them at night right before getting into bed (those were the times when I didn't have nocturnal poops but I was still flaring terribly with proctitis and crohn's colitis).

Glad you managed to keep it in for at least a few hours though....hopefully before too long you'll be able to retain them even longer and get that proctitis under control!!