Prednisone and bleeding

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Aug 31, 2011
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Hi everyone,

My husband was diagnosed with pre-ulcerative colitis. For the last two years he has been on and off medications for various reasons such as financial, etc. After the summer began and stress of work, school, and vacations his health really began to decline. He was having a lot of bleeding for quite some time but it really started to get BAD.

We finally had to go into the ER because he was having intense rectal pain which he couldn't stand any more. To make a long story short he had lost so much blood that he was critically low, his hemoglobin count was down to almost below a 4 (normal is 13.5-18) and they ordered a blood transfusion right there in the ER. Over the first 24 hours of the 3 day hospital stay he was given 6 units of blood. At the hospital they started him on steroids, antibiotics and some other medications for pain, etc. When he was released three days later they prescribed him Prednisone. He'll take 40 mg for 4 weeks, and then taper down for another month. After that he'll be prescribed Sulfasalizine.

He's now been on the Prednisone here at home for 11 days. We're very concerned however because although his bleeding was starting to improve for a while, the last few days he has been bleeding really bad again. We thought the Prednisone should be working by now. I'll be contacting our doctor today but we're debating on taking him back into the ER. Does anyone have any experience or advice for us?
 
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I'm so sorry to hear of the hardships that you and your hubby are going through. It's scary, I know!

I was given 60mg of pred on a 6 week taper, as well as mesalamine (Asacol HD) to take along with the pred. It worked well for me. I suggest asking his GI to prescribe both drugs at the same time. Maybe it would work better??? Everyone is different, but it's worth a shot, perhaps.

Good luck, hun! :hug:
 
Thanks Jessi!

We actually decided to take him back into the hospital because that's what the doctors said to do if the bleeding got worse. It sounds like they will prescribe him some Asacol suppositories along withe the Pred. They may even increase the pred dosage because he was only on 40mg and when we went into the ER they assumed he was taking 60mg. We're hoping this will be the answer and we can get things under control.

Thank you for the advice, it's very appreciated!

-Mackenzie
 
I am so glad he's getting care. It looks like he has a wonderful caring wife!

I hope it works out for him. For you both...
 
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