HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Mild UC flare back, advice ?

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/24/2019 1:29 AM (GMT -5)
Hey guys,


Last 3 weeks I got the usual stomach rumbles and gas. That horrible feeling knowing the UC flare is rearing its ugly head again. Was in remission for about 7 months beforehand. The flare come back about a week ago.

Thankfully touch wood, it doesn’t seem like a big flare at the moment. I’m only going roughly roughly 3/4 times a day at the moment and strangely it will be Colitas like diarrhoea symptoms in my 1st stool in the morning, then my 2nd trip will be fully formed stools ( remission like stools) then later on early evening another trip which is back to Colitas type stools. No blood at the moment, just the brown liquid. No bad gut aches at the moment, apart from when I have my solid stool which slightly hurts when it passes through.


Certainly nothing major, especially when I compare to previous flares. I don’t usually speak to ibd nurse until I get to roughly 1 month stage and I haven’t got rid of the flare on my own. Currently upped my Azathioprine meds to 200MG a day. Full dose mesalszine now and back on the Pred foam enema’s. Just wondering on any advice. You think I should take the pred foam once in morning and once at night ? Been initially taking it twice at night, but like I said, the symptoms keep coming back later on in evening. Hoping I can get rid of this flare myself, without the need to go back on pred oral, as my last flare 7 months ago I used pred oral to get rid and I don’t particularly want to go through another course in such a short space of time. I’m 34 years by the way.
Posted 8/24/2019 6:15 AM (GMT -5)
I don't think it's a good idea to play around with the dosage of azathioprine. That's a med that needs to be monitored. If you are supposed to take 200 mg then stay on that dose all the time -- even in remission. It takes a while for it to reach therapeutic levels and dosage is weight based.

Full dose oral mesalimine and rectal meds are good. Doing the rectal meds in the AM & PM are a good idea and you should see some results within a couple weeks (or less) if it's going to help

Since you just had a flare 7 months ago you may need to talk with your doc about switching to a biologic instead of going on pred again if this doesn't get under control quickly. Unless of course you were supposed to be taking 200 mg of aza and had dropped the dose when you were in remission. If that's the case then you'll have to wait for it to get back up to the therapeutic level that got you in remission.
Posted 8/24/2019 8:50 AM (GMT -5)
Hey. Yeh I was on 200MG Aza with my last flare. I dropped down when I was in remission. I get regular blood tests every 3 months so I monitor it. But now I have upped my Aza to combat this flare. Seems to have worked so far using foam enema this morning as I feel a lot better at the moment. Going to continue to that now.
Posted 8/24/2019 12:03 PM (GMT -5)
Are the blood tests just to check your blood counts? When was the last time you had a test to check the level of Thioprines? My guess is that you may have fallen out of the therapeutic range when you dropped the dose.

You can drop mesalamines to a maintenance dosage when in remission, but I don't think you can do the same with aza.
Posted 8/24/2019 10:18 PM (GMT -5)
Talk to your nurse/doc now while the flare is mild and early. Don't wait until it gets worse.

As others have said, aza is fairly serious with the side-effects so definitely don't mess with it by yourself.
Posted 8/26/2019 8:04 AM (GMT -5)
Boosting your azathioprine will not have an effect until about 6-8 weeks from today. Boosting your aza dosage is not an effective way to combat a flare, due to it being so darn slow acting.

I would not delay contacting your gasteroenteroligist, due so asap.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply