Time before treatment

Hi folks,

I just wanted to see if some of you have noticed flare-up severity differences depending on how fast you treat a flare up.

I've been 99% in remission since 2011 after a couple years of moderate to heavy colitis and non-smoking. (Went away when I started smoking again.) But once in a while, during life transitions or existential worries, I get a tiny flare-up.

For the past 6 years, as soon as I've had a tiny amount of blood (happenned 3 times or so), I up my smoking to 10-15 cigarettes a day and immediately take 25mg of prednisone for 3-4 days. And poof, it goes away.

Colitis seems to me like a big headache. If you pop 400mg of ibuprofen quickly enough, the migraine won't even start. But if you let it hurt bad, then that same 400mg won't be enough.

The problem is, where I live I'd usually need 3 months to see my GI, or have to go to the emergency room to get pred, so now, every time I go to central america, I bring back a bucket of pred.

Do you have any similar experiences?

Thanks!

Actually, I use Mezavant too, so I up the dosage on that too. I didn't mention the mezavant cause I don't feel it makes such a difference. The heavy smoking + pred is really the sweet spot for me.

There's no rhyme or reason to flares, in my experience. It's just randomness on whether it's a small, medium, or large flare.