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Staff member
The past several weeks I've been having significant pain from my ulcerative colitis, and last week it got bad enough that I finally messaged my doctor, and he got me in to see him today.
(TMI warning: If you're squeamish about bodily functions, you might not want to keep reading!)
Long story short, I seem to be having a flare that's different from what I'm used to - no bloody diarrhea, just pain, cramps, and intermittent diarrhea with lots of mucus alternating with constipation. Lots of nausea thrown in just to keep everything fun. Everything looked good on my last colonoscopy last May, but this has cropped up just in the past few weeks.
I'm already on mesalamine (oral and enemas), so the doctor is switching me to steroid enemas to try to calm everything down. He offered oral steroids, which I'll take if I absolutely have to, but anyone who's been on prednisone will tell that it's not much fun, so I wanted to try the topical stuff (enemas) first and see if I can avoid the systemic stuff (pills).
Unfortunately, it turns out that my insurance won't cover the cortisone enemas without a prior authorization. My doctor is trying to get that pushed through, but we'll see. I'm irritated that my insurance has put the brakes on the treatment that might get me feeling better. Hopefully they'll be quick to approve once the extra paperwork is in.
Meanwhile, the doc upped my antinausea meds (ondansetron, with promethazine as a backup) and adjusted some of my other meds. He also scheduled me for an upper GI endoscopy in September because I sometimes have things get stuck in my esophagus when I swallow; I've figured it's due to one of my meds that makes my mouth dry, but he wants to make sure I don't have scarring from my GERD, or esophageal cancer (which my mother died of).
The worst part of the appointment was that the doctor was right on time for once. That goe me out early enough that I had to call into my weekly staff meeting, which I was looking forward to skipping!
(TMI warning: If you're squeamish about bodily functions, you might not want to keep reading!)
Long story short, I seem to be having a flare that's different from what I'm used to - no bloody diarrhea, just pain, cramps, and intermittent diarrhea with lots of mucus alternating with constipation. Lots of nausea thrown in just to keep everything fun. Everything looked good on my last colonoscopy last May, but this has cropped up just in the past few weeks.
I'm already on mesalamine (oral and enemas), so the doctor is switching me to steroid enemas to try to calm everything down. He offered oral steroids, which I'll take if I absolutely have to, but anyone who's been on prednisone will tell that it's not much fun, so I wanted to try the topical stuff (enemas) first and see if I can avoid the systemic stuff (pills).
Unfortunately, it turns out that my insurance won't cover the cortisone enemas without a prior authorization. My doctor is trying to get that pushed through, but we'll see. I'm irritated that my insurance has put the brakes on the treatment that might get me feeling better. Hopefully they'll be quick to approve once the extra paperwork is in.
Meanwhile, the doc upped my antinausea meds (ondansetron, with promethazine as a backup) and adjusted some of my other meds. He also scheduled me for an upper GI endoscopy in September because I sometimes have things get stuck in my esophagus when I swallow; I've figured it's due to one of my meds that makes my mouth dry, but he wants to make sure I don't have scarring from my GERD, or esophageal cancer (which my mother died of).
The worst part of the appointment was that the doctor was right on time for once. That goe me out early enough that I had to call into my weekly staff meeting, which I was looking forward to skipping!
