Shall I up my Pentasa again?

The on off way Colitis behaves is a terrible thing for those of us who are anxious. I'd finally made peace with my anxiety and my colitis when I decided that:

1) 3+ BM's, mucus, blood, normal softer stools and urgency = Colitis
2) Less than 3 BM's, normal firm stool, speck of blood on outside of stool, anal soreness = Haemorrhoids

So for me the frequency + urgency = Colitis.

I got into remission in early January after stopping Rectal Medication (supps and enema) - to be honest this was probably the rectals inflaming my Haemorrhoids!

Today, there is blood on outside of stool like point TWO of above - yet here I am still fearing it's Colitis and thinking of upping my medication to max dose Pentasa again. (I'd gone down to 3g - maybe I went down too soon)

Any advice guys?

Exactly, the worst it can be is a mild flare, and the best is Hemmies - Max dose Pentasa for another 6 weeks then! But treat hemmies with water and Metamucil! Was doing so well - this sucks - but can't let anxiety take over.

I didn't go down on any meds until a year after diagnosis. I think you may be jumping the gun. Just because the symtpoms are lessened or gone away doesn't mean the inflammation has completely and cutting back mean not enough medication going where it needs to hence why you start to get symptoms so quickly. Some people can never cut back.

I had no symptoms after diagnosis after a month of being on my meds, I still did not cut down. That is not to say I never forgot a dose but for 99% of the time I stuck to what I was originally prescribed.

are you not considering the Proctocedyl? as I remember, they helped you.

q

I agree that you should stay on max dose a good long while. You could actually stay on max dose indefinitely. If you backslide every time you try to reduce just stay at max and don't even think of reducing for at least a year.

you do know that the Pentasa will do nothing for your hemmies...
and you didn't seem to have that problem with the proctocedyl ?

try them now and see how you do....if the bleeding is only the hemmies.

q

keep us posted,
q