Medication: Success with second or third attempts?

[JDTM]

Quick question for all of you out there; has anyone ever failed or not seen results from a certain medication, only to have it work for you later on?

(For me personally, I'm starting to wonder about budesonide -- I "failed" it at first because I thought I had major psychological side-effects, but now I'm starting to think that I might have just been depressed because of the diagnosis and it might not have been all due to the corticosteroid. Wondering about giving it another shot at a higher dose in an effort to induce remission.)

 

[CLynn]

Jesse, I can't say that I, personally, have had this experience. But I do know our bodies can change at any time, and over time. Like how people become allergic to things they had never been allergic to before, etc. And you could be right about the depression. Heck, with all we go thru, we can feel that way with or without meds, you know?

 

[JDTM]

My thoughts exactly -- I had an initial wave of relief at first after getting off the stuff, but even then I still had some really bad bouts with depression. I'm managing it more now, but today I'm starting a low dose of an anti-depressant to see if it works for me and/or offsets what's been going on lately. (Even during the past couple of weeks, most days I am fine; things are only hard every now and then.) With all that said, the very low dose of budesonide I'm on doesn't seem to affect me one way or the other, whereas it did seem to have an initial effect on the physical symptoms during the first week that I took it at the full dose.

Maybe I'll ask my doctor about trying it again at the full dose and tapering off. It seems silly to just keep taking such a low does every other day -- I don't know that it's doing much, really.

 

[CLynn]

I upped my vitamin D dose to 5000 a day, and went from tablets to gel tabs. We are most likely low on that as well, and the can affect our depression too.

 

[JDTM]

Me too! Well, my primary care doc just told me that my vitamin D levels were really low, and he suggested I start by taking 2000IU daily to start. I got the tablets, but I'm taking them in a spoonful of peanut butter which will hopefully help with absorption. I've heard that boosting your vitamin D can certainly help with depression as well, but I know that it's more of a gradual process and it's going to take a while to get my levels up. If subsequent blood tests show some improvement in my levels, I plan to step up the amount a bit and/or switch to gels.

 

[CLynn]

I am not certain my D level has ever been tested, to be honest. I just know that living in Missouri cuts out alot of sunshine in the winter, etc. And having had the ileum resection and malabsorption, figured had to be low.