Hey guys,
I'll give you a little history about
myself if you don't mind the long read ;) I was diagnosed with the horrendous ulcerated colitis disease around about
7 years ago. I'm only 31 now so obviously I was young when diagnosed. I ignored it for a while when I initially got the symptoms which was a stupid decision as I ended up getting severely ill.
I was admitted to hospital twice during this flare with one partucular time being in hospital for 2 weeks. I am a slim athletic guy as it is, but I lost a lot of weight and looked like a concentration camp victim. 20/25 daily toilet visits was a norm and the horrible pain in the stomach was unbearable at times and actually made me nearly vomit on a few occasions. It was such a horrendous lonely place despite having close family, friends and my partner to keep me positive. I was on the hardest meds you can think of including Cyclosporine which we're injected into my system through a tube , plus the obvious pred, Aza, mesalazine etc etc. Anyway finally after 6 months I was in remission and had it under control.
I come out the hospital and it took a good few months to get my weight back on and get back to normality. I then went 6 years total symptom Free and in total remission. I was only on 100MG of Aza a day plus 8 mesalazine tablets a day. I eventually come off the Aza and 6 months later ( this august ) I woke up one morning to go toilet and that dreaded feeling of "it's back "... suddenly had the usual symptoms and loose stool ( blood etc ) ....after 6 years of nothing I was gutted.
This flare whilst being extremely frustrating and not nice has not been anywhere near as severe. 3/5 times daily loose stools with the occasional hard stool but blood/mucus pretty much all the time. Tried all the rectal meds which helped but I just couldn't get rid of it completely. This was until 4 weeks ago, just before I was about
to go Costa Rica on holiday with my partner. I had a sigmoidoscopy which showed I had moderate active flare and we decided on 30MG starting pred again and tapering down every week. I'm pleased to say I look to have finally got this flare under control. I'm still tapering down on the pred ( going to 10MG this Saturday ) so obviously I have that slight worry that when I come off the pred, will it come back ? I'm on 150MG of Aza still and 10 Mesalazine a day plus pred enemas nightly for now. I'm hoping the Aza and Mesalazine keep me in remission like they did the last time. I'm hoping for another 5+ year remission period because right now it feels like heaven to be going my normal 1 compete solid BM a day with no pain, blood , urgency or mucus. I feel totally normal right now and eating what I want without any consequences. I didn't have any symptoms from the pred this time apart from the horrible spots on my chest which I still have at the moment. No moon face like last time thankfully. Hoping you all achieve remission and get rid of this horrendous disease we all have. If it means being in remission for years then I won't make the same mistake of coming off the Aza unless I need to. It worked wonders for me without any side effects.
Post Edited (Tblock1985) : 6/22/2017 1:32:21 AM (GMT-6)