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Enemas or No Enemas

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/28/2016 11:41 AM (GMT 0)
Been doing a lot of thinking recently.

I am currently taking mezavant (3600mg), salofalk enemas nightly, asacol suppository in the morning and 35mg of pred.
I started seeing blood and increased bms 3 weeks ago and increased my pred from 20mg to 40mg on the advice of my doc. I am supposed to stay on 15mg of pred as maintenance if I ever get there. Due to other health problems aza and biologicals are out of the question at the present time.

This brings me back to enemas. I have been using them religiously now for three years. At first I thought they worked but not sure now. I have on occasions manged to reduce them to every other night and then shortly to every third night.

My consultant wanted me to stop them when not flaring but I persuaded him otherwise. But I am now wondering whether I should. They may be helping a bit but it seems that they don't keep me in remission as I have been having flare after flare over the last year. Is there a possibility that they are irritating rather than soothing. Part of me thinks stop and see what happens and part of me says NO.
Posted 10/28/2016 12:00 PM (GMT 0)
Sure, I'd try skipping the mesalamine enemas for 2 days and see if your symptoms improve. The enemas do have sulfates in them which is a known allergen for some. An allergic reaction could look like a dramatic worsening of your uc symptoms. If you get dramatically better within 24 hours then you know it's infact an allergy.

If you get worse symptom wise without the enema then you know it's doing something.

Certainly the odds of an actual sulfate allergy (or mesalamine allergy) are low (less than 5 percent of patients encounter one) but it's worth a couple day test.
Posted 10/28/2016 12:43 PM (GMT 0)
I've recently been wondering the same thing.

The last flare I had, adding rowasa helped significantly within a week. this time around, I've been using them for 10-11 months straight and I just seem to be inching further into a flare.

Before pumping myself full of vedolizumab, I think I too will be giving the rowasa a couple of days off.

Good luck!
Posted 10/28/2016 1:20 PM (GMT 0)
I used Rowasa during my last flare for about three weeks in conjunction with Uceris.

I showed no improvement.

I still have a weeks worth left after doc told me to stop using.
Posted 10/28/2016 1:23 PM (GMT 0)
Cortenema-works great for me
Posted 10/28/2016 2:16 PM (GMT 0)
ya, that's not a bad idea there champ - certainly give the mesalamine a rest there MM and maybe have the cortenemas on stand-by ---------- nothing wrong with shaking things up a bit when the current stuff aint working -
Posted 10/28/2016 4:44 PM (GMT 0)
Absolutely try another type...such as steroid.
q
Posted 10/29/2016 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
My issues are in the rectum area,the oral ASAs usually don't do much. Cortenema always has worked well for me-good luck
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