Pred & Poo

[Mehita]

As usual, I'm probably just being impatient, but I'm going to ask anyway.

DS was on 1/2 dose of pred last week and a full dose this week. BM's are down to 1-3 a day, which is an improvement. Every other BM is formed, which is also an improvement. Half the BM's are still mushy messes though and the GI nurse wants me to call tomorrow to discuss a taper schedule.

Q1. Pred should be reducing inflammation which in turn should be leading to more solid BM's, right?

Q2. If he's not having solid BM's, shouldn't he stay on pred a little longer?

He's also been doing 1/2 cap of Miralax daily and consistently, but I realized that I never really clarified with the nurse whether we were supposed to stick with the Miralax when he started the pred. I'm confused.

We have a GI appt on the 20th and I will be asking all this then, but just curious if I'm thinking of this the right way.

 

[Farmwife]

The GI nurse said to tapper Grace of the Miralax after she had 2-3 days of normal poo. She said don't stop cold turkey because that could cause a back up again.

Always ask the GI though.:hug:

 

[Catherine]

Sarah's last course of pred which seems to have keep her in remission the longest was 50mg of pred for 4 weeks, then a taper of 5 mg a week.

The taper was started when her inflammation markers were in normal range.

My feeling is it would be better to do a longer taper with the hope of not needing to pred for a longer time.

 

[Johnnysmom]

We stuck with the miralax even after the Pred, but Johnny has constipation issues.

The Pred will reduce the inflammation quickly but the healing took a long time in Johnny's case. It was slowly getting better with ups and downs.

His GI nurse was asking him about his stools at our last appointment and she said something I hadn't heard before. She said that the consistency should be anywhere from peanut butter to applesauce.(I would have thought of applesauce as too loose) She also said that the frequency is more important than consistency.

I know too that if he gets dehydrated or if he gets too much miralax is does make a difference.

Johnny also had his inflammation markers in normal range before he started to taper.

 

[Mehita]

Oh, that's very interesting Johnnysmom. We've definately got the applesauce thing down!

 

[my little penguin]

Yep we were told the same except pile up like pudding .
But DS has prolapse which could be a factor.
When things are good even too much miralax just produces one to two loose bm's a day.
When crohn's is bad 4-7 a day regardless of miralax since it just affects consistency not frequency .