Started remicade...no longer bleeding...still have diarrhea

Wondering if any of you have dealt with liquid diarrhea as you heal from a bad flare.

I am healing from the worst flare of my life- hospitalized, lost 40 lbs, wound up on remicade. Good news is the remicade seems to be working, no side effects, no more bleeding. But I am dealing with diarrhea still. This is unlike anything I’ve ever had with Colitis. I’m having liquid diarrhea several times a day, typically during night and in morning, later in day I have loose semi formed stool but still somewhat like diarrhea...I’m going about 5x a day.

I’m still tapering off prednisone which gives me all sorts of terrible side effects and in my opinion does nothing to help me or improve my symptoms. I’ve had a lot of gurgling and epigastric pain while on it . I’m kind of hoping it’s the culprit but who knows.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this either with remicade, prednisone, or just while healing after a bad flare? What do you do to get over the hump? How do you reduce the diarrhea? I’ve tried pepto, I’m trying psyllium husk fiber capsules.


Also taking asacol, multivitamin, Zantac (prescribed with prednisone). Also still slightly anemic. Can’t take iron pill because it doubled the diarrhea.

I’ve only had 2 infusions...started in late Dec. I’m trying to be patient and I have had big improvements...this is just not like anything I’ve experienced in my 20 years of dealing with UC. Typically when I recover from a flare my stool returns to normal, if anything I see normal stools with traces of bleeding. This just seems really odd and unlike my Colitis symptoms of the past. Additionally I’ve been off work for 2 months and I have a lot of work ahead to get physically ready to return to work, so patience isn’t my strong suit right now. Right now I’m trying everything I can to correct what I can correct so I can get my life back.

I get my 3rd infusion in a little less the 2 wks...hopefully things change.

Thanks Spring.

I’m tapering the prednisone, I’m at 10 mg (started at 40) I’m not sure how much I was on in hospital), tomorrow I go down to 5mg. I used to take florastor (probiotic), I was told it is a yeast, I worry it will increase Candida but I’m not sure if that’s right or not. I could start taking it again. Do you recommend a probiotic ( I hate to pay for vsl3 when there’s so much conflicting reports on whether it’s effective). I’m taking psyllium tablets, they are 0.52 grams, I am taking 2 pills 2-3x a day, I’m really not sure how much to take for diarrhea. My GI is not very helpful when I make suggestions, if it’s not his protocol he typically just tells me why he thinks it’s not effective, a waste of time, or says ‘ you can try it.’... I’m doing yogurt smoothies with collagen and gelatin and taking a multivitamin.

Thanks for the advice

The fact that you feel like you've seen improvement is great. Two infusions is still very early, you may want to hold tight on the pred reduction until things stabilize more. the fact that you're not bleeding is great. As for the probiotics, it may help, may not. It never helped me, but sooooo many people need them to keep their UC at bay. Have you had stool tests? How about imodium? Has your doctor ever said you could take some? You could also try a restrictive diet.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!