I have been hit with escalating diverticulitis since summer. I had blood work, CRP now 30, then a CT scan, a week of Cipro and Flagyl, which quieted it all down. A week later it started up again, now on Augmentin for 2 weeks, ending a week before the colonoscopy Jan 15. Maybe the infection is gone but not the inflammation? The defect is very low and the swelling could cause a failed colonoscopy.
I'm down to 2.5 prednisone, still symptomatic but not bad. My idea is to increase the prednisone the last week of antibiotics, to 10 for a while, hoping it will shrink the swelling in my colon. I understand that being on a slow taper for 2 years could well have weakened my inside skin as it did my arms and legs. I don't want to weaken it further. This started when I got down to 3.5 pred.
I would drop back down after the colonoscopy. Maybe a week on 10, before or after I finish the antibiotic? I'll bet surgery is in the cards as this has become unrelenting.
One week of 10mg wouldn't require another slow taper would it?
Any insights? I don't have a gastro to ask yet.
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Sandmason
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One week of 10mg wouldn't require a slow taper - you can drop back to the previous dose straight away.
Just a warning since they gave you Cipro - watch out for any soreness or stiffness of your Achilles tendons. Both corticosteroids and the class of drugs to which Cipro belongs can cause achilles tendonitis and both together increases the risk. It makes the tendon very delicate and it can easily rupture - and even break which is a right performance to sort so prevention is far preferable to cure!! If it does happen - see a doctor quickly and you may get a boot to support it while so delicate,
Thanks, yes Cipro and Flagyl are quite toxic. What I did was a penicillin allergy trial, as most childhood rash people are not allergic. Daughter is an ID doctor and they trial people with one dose all the time. Penicillin is needful in so many situations, as I get older no reason to continue avoiding it. Plus I learned that even people with a severe allergy, outgrow it in 10 years!
That's right - so many people think being sick or itchy/a rash means serious allergy risks. So inconvenient - and I do hope you escape the Cipro curse!!! When it happened to me, the GP said "Oh, I've heard of it but never SEEN it!" Thank you very much - it hung around for a YEAR and was a total pain.
Not convinced it CAUSES the rupture - I suspect it masks the signs the patient is in trouble until it is too late. But still - the result is the same and very undesirable.
Asked my daughter, she said no pred, Dr. husband said yes. My doctor said yes to 5 extra for a few days. Yesterday 15 bathroom trips, today after 5mg pred, nothing. PMR is put back down. I knew 2.5 wasn't enough but I'd have stuck with it, except for being sick. Also worried abt subclinical GCA. Tender left scalp now and then, sore left jaw, then ear pain. No headache. One day early morning I had a shadow in my left eye that was gone soon. I kept it to myself.
BTW I cannot find the FAQ with sick rules and such, not even on my laptop.
General advice on finding posts etc … note FAQs is also a Pinned post -so various ways of finding them. Maybe save the overall post if you are an infrequent user (explained in link)
I think your greater problem at present is lack of adrenal function and not being on enough to manage the PMR - which may be solved at 5mg. And managing the inflammation better reduces the risk of GCA developing.
Apparently 2.5 was not enough, but I stayed at 3.5 for several months. Fantasy of just stopping it soon, coming up on 2 years. I haven't felt tired or anything so I figured my adrenals were caught up. Nope.
The extra 5mg yesterday eliminated my div symptoms! Maybe I'll do 3 days of 7.5 and go to 5mg and stay there. I can still feel the PMR this morning though.
If you were good at 3.5 you could eventually try tapering back a bit from the 5mg. At 3.5 you really are on enough to act as replacement therapy - and we know that Prof Dasgupt often kept patients at 2-3mg long term to avoid the risk of relapses of PMR/GCA. Which I take as a tacit admission that they truly DON'T go away as quickly as they try to tell us. Quite why he won't fight our corner on duration is beyond me!!
What does your GI consultant feel about pred as symptom relief in div? I know there are some who say pred causes perforations - I suspect it is more that pred masks the symptoms so a low threshold of suspicion is required. I needed more pred for a long time to help manage atrial fibrillation which was always worse when the inflammation flared. And the cardiologist was fine about it.
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