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5 month flare blood/mucos no D & pregnant (medication question)

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 11/7/2007 2:00 PM (GMT -6)
Hi there. I'm a 39 yr old female and have been in a flare for 5 months with blood and mucos daily but, no D thank goodness because I am currently pregnant. My colitis is on the left side and extremely low down. I've only had one MAJOR flare 4 yrs ago that left me 89 lbs and hospitalized so totally trying to not have that happen here. My dr had me up my colazal to 8 pills a day and put me on steroid suppositories. I've been doing this all now for 6 weeks and and kind of just staying afloat with the same symptoms but, not getting better. My dr is happy that it isn't progressing into a worse stage but, I'm concerned about being on these meds while pregnant. I really want to clear this up while pregnant so I can go off the suppositories for the baby's sake. Today I was wondering if anyone that had this type of a mild flare ever used the foam instead of the suppository and had better luck? Any advice would be appreciated...ALSO- any moms out there that had to take meds for this while pregnant and have healthy children please share because I gag everytime I swallow the pills and put the suppository in at the thought of what I might be doing to my unborn child. :( thanks!
Posted 11/7/2007 2:14 PM (GMT -6)
Welcome! I am currently pregnant with my first child and have been taking Asacol and Rowasa throughout the pregnancy. In my first trimester, I had a flare, and I ended up on a four week course of Prednisone. Thankfully, that put me back into remission. Both my GI and OB have been telling me all along that it is better for me to be in remission and to be on the meds. There is more danger in being in a flare. So far, I am 25 weeks along and am doing well! The baby is perfectly fine.

I think you will find a lot of women on here who have taken various medications during their pregnancies. Also, if you search the posts about this, you will find quite a few previous posts on both here and the Crohn's board about the same and similar issues.
Posted 11/8/2007 1:04 PM (GMT -6)
Don't worry at all about your medication! It's probably more dangerous to worry, causing stress which will make you worse. I have a 2 1/2 year old and an 11 month old. I took asacol religiously during both my pregnancies (pretty much the same as colozal) and did steroid enemas and prednisone when it got really bad. My kids were and always have been perfectly healthy. My doctors told me that many people take steroids while pregnant for different reasons (asthma, etc.) and it is safe. Also the suppositories or enemas stay mostly in your colon and only a minimal amount gets into your system anyway. It is absolutely more important for you to stop the bleeding than to worry about the medications affecting your baby. Good luck.
Posted 11/8/2007 1:47 PM (GMT -6)
I think those meds are pretty ok. I'm not sure when I started feeling this way b/c I was super paprnoid with my first children too. You shouldn't have any problems though, just try and take your prenatals and eat well (or as well as you can).
I never took the suppositories but I did the foam. I found it irritating and did nothing, so I didn't take it long. With my last child I took no meds, but did vitamin e enemas and it really cleared up all my minor flares quick, like 3 days (better with one dose, totally well in 3 days). I always suggest doing them to anyone who has minor stuff or just at the end of the colon stuff going on. They didn't work when I had my last major flare (baby was 9 months old) since I didn't use them to try and prevent before it got bad. After it was super bad nothing worked to fix it, BUT the enemas still helped a TON. More than anything else I've tried with this horrible disease (and I've tried a ton of stuff!!).
Anyway, I did the vit e when I was pg b/c I figured it was just a vitamin and it wouldn't hurt him. And it didn't. He's the smartest, wittiest, most perfect, happy little 13 months old you could ever know now! Since it was topical, I figured it wouldn't be absorbed, like they said the prednisone wouldn't that way. Well, I can usually tell the first day I start taking the enemas (kinda headachy and wierd the first day), so I seriously doubt the prednisone wasn't being absorbed from that end.
If you are interested, I did about 10-20 1000iu pills of the -ol (not -yl ending) vitamin e tablets squeezed into a children's enema bottle. Nothing else. Doesn't run or anything, and very soothing.

Sorry, baby's pulling on me and I've got to run, so I hope that made sense!
Posted 11/9/2007 9:49 AM (GMT -6)
Im not a mom..(im a dad) but I was put on Cortafoam (butt mousse) when I was first diagnosed and had heavy mucos/blood/urgencies and it seemed to really help quite quickly, (probably within the first few days - week)
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