Newly diagnosed. Not sure what to expect

[joelh]

Hi everyone. I am newly diagnosed with UC. I now realize, and my visit to the GI confirmed, that I have had this disease for many years. Typically, I have battled diarrhea and needed 4 or 5 bathroom visits a day. This spring things got much worse and I started bleeding. My doctor ordered a colonoscopy and that showed a fully involved colon.

I was referred to a GI and saw her today. I am now on a 4 week prednisone dosage as well as 4800 mg of lialda .

I am wondering how quickly the prednisone will start to help symptoms?

On a side note, Shire has a program that reduced my copay from $40 to $10 for lialda, that was the best news of the day.

 

[sickinlk]

hi Joel and welcome to the forum.
usually you should see an improvement in the 1st week of taking pred.
as my GI once said "if you don't get better on the highest dose ie 40mg you certainly wont get better as you taper" makes sense. My UC is refractory and steroid resistant.
what dose did he start you on by the way.
ju

 

[joelh]

30 mg prednisone dosage. 2 days on it and my bathroom visits are slowing down.

 

[sickinlk]

good stuff. the pred will treat the flare and the lliada will maintain remission. fingers crossed.
ju

 

[FrancisK7]

Hey Joel!

Prednisone, like all steroids, are fact acting. They will provide acute relief to your colon, while lliada will serve as a long term stabilizer. The 4 weeks course should work great at reducing the symptoms and since it's a short cycle the side effects will be temporary and fade away quickly as you taper off.

A fair warning: prednisone can affect your mood. I had an extremely short fuse on it. I was easily irritated by other people and everybody was a moron as far as I was concerned. You should not be alarmed if you feel like this and try to plan around it.

 

[joelh]

Yes, I can barely stand myself let alone anyone else. My wife is on am extended trip and I told her today that is was good timing. For the first few hours after the dose, I feel that if someone were to touch me that I would shatter into a million pieces.

On the plus side, I went to work at 4:30 this morning. Why not if I am awake?

 

[FrancisK7]

Your sex drive can also decrease (or disappear altogether) while on steroids. It will return once you're off the meds.

 

[VitaD]

Your sex drive can also decrease (or disappear altogether) while on steroids. It will return once you're off the meds.

Isn't that the same for those who are on Mezavant as well? I remember my sex drive ended up decreasing quite a bit when I was still on it.

 

[embersglow1]

I'm in week 5 of prednisone and starting to taper. Once I got on my Lialda (4wks now) I really saw improvement.
But now I've gotten some symptoms back. Also have gotten major headaches since starting lialda.
My doctor is having me taper my Pred now and I reduced my Lialda due to cost ($200 copay for me)

How have you been feeling?

 

[joelh]

Go to lialda's website for copay assistance. There is no income qualification. Just started tapering on prednisone. Fingers crossed!

Feeling pretty good. Symptoms are reduced and no bleeding. Not sure if prednisone or liadla is working, but I am thankful for the relief.