How do you know if your meds are working

[ash7752]

I take pentasa (3 pills in the morning and 3 at night by mouth). I have not notice anything different since starting it. I the only thing that has changed is i have been getting more and more tired. I have told my doctor this and she just says its nothing to do with the Pentasa.I am currently on pentasa, vit d, b12 and fish oil. They did give me bentyl for the stomach cramps and that does not help so i don't take that anymore. I bloat all the time and i have to use the bathroom more then 5 times a day and its only diarrhea. lol sadly to say. So my question is how do you know if the meds are working?? what what can be causing this tiredness?

ps i just did blood work yesterday so waiting for the results now.

 

[Clash]

How long have you been taking the pentasa? 5ASAs are widely px'ed for CD but aren't as effective for CD as they are for UC since they work more as like a topical on the first layer where UC is found. CD inflammation is transmural meaning it inflames the entire depth of the intestinal wall. So sometimes stronger meds are needed.

If you have been on the meds for some time and have seen no improvement then you may want to discuss this with your GI and possibly ask for some testing to see where your inflammation stands. Good luck.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

It can be tricky to know if meds are helping. The best way is monitoring symptoms to see if you get better, blood tests are only so accurate but colonoscopy or imaging tests can show the difference medication may have made on unhealthy bowel that hopefully heals.

 

[ash7752]

I have only been on it for year. I have made a doctors appt on june 20th. Thanks for the help.

 

[ash7752]

So i got my results back. My C-REACTIVE PROTEIN 5.79
It use to be 16.17 so that is good it went down (I think). I got an email from my doctors and she said "Your labs actually show improvement in your inflammation. We can still keep the appointment you have and discuss different medications for Crohn's disease.
Best wishes".

 

[wildbill_52280]

How much vitamin d are you taking? during the summer months, no more then 400iu should be taken maybe 2x that on a cloudy day though. Feeling tired could be from taking too much vitamin d.

Around 25% of IBD patients suffer fatigue despite having disease that is well controlled with meds. So there are many reasons for fatigue or tiredness. magnesium is another mineral that coudl help, but also taking a multistrain probiotic or a good b multi vitamin.

 

[greeneyes1079]

It seems like no matter if I'm flaring or not, I get tired easily, definitely more so when I'm flaring though. It's a very common symptom of Crohn's. Unfortunately, Pentasa did nothing for me, but I think that was because my disease was already pretty well advanced. It did reduce the amount of pain, but didn't get rid of or stop the already developing stricture. Just listen to your body, if your symptoms are still there, even if they are lessened, you might need something stronger. Better to have the discussion with your doc than you think it's working and you wind up worse.