There's been an interesting change, and it is a good thing.
Two weeks ago, I was at my recent G.I. follow-up appointment. Since the Rinvoq seems to be MOSTLY working, my doctor suggested I start tapering down the mesalamine. I was surprised.
I was taking four 1.2g pills a day, and he recommended I drop to three pills for three weeks. If I'm still okay at that time, he wants me to drop to two pills a day for three weeks and so on.
I was getting over a head cold that had thrown me into a mini-flare (see my last month's health update post), so I waited a few days to try to get my stomach back to normal. My first day of three pills was March 1. (An easy date to remember.)
Tomorrow will be two weeks taking three pills. And I am happy to report, so far so good!
As a matter of fact, something unexpected happened. My stool has actually firmed up since dropping to three pills. Even in the past few days, it has improved again. I haven't a clue why. But I'll take it!
My urgency is getting better and I think it has been for a few months. But there is still a lot of needing to get to the bathroom sooner than later. Sometimes when I first feel that urge to go, I purposely wait as long as I can to see how long I can hold it. I've had a few times of being able to hold it for ten minutes.
This is all really good news.
In a week I will drop to two pills a day and I am very curious how my body will react.
My next health update will see me either very excited because of being able to drop my mesalamine dosage or depressed and discouraged because symptoms started up again.
For those of you too young to remember (actually, it was before my time, too), back in the 1950s, and some in the 1960s, there were radio programs and black and white (some colored) television shows called serials. They ended with what were called "cliffhangers," because each episode ended with a dangerous situation in which the hero/heroine was in a perilous position . . . sometimes literally hanging over the edge of a cliff. You had to wait until the next action-packed episode to find out if our brave protagonist lived to fight another day or would fall to the dastardly schemes of the devious villain!
Well, sometimes as I am writing my health update posts I feel like I am in one of those serials, ending my update with a "Stay tuned and join us next month for the exciting conclusion!" Although, of course, there is no "conclusion" with ulcerative colitis, it just goes from episode to episode, with the hero/heroine sometimes overcoming and sometimes the villain prevails.
Nevertheless . . . stay tuned to "the same bat-time, same bat-channel!" (If you don't know what this means, click here and scroll down to the first paragraph under "Episode Format.")
Next update: April 2024, Down to Two Pills! (And the Rinvoq)
Previous update: February, 2024, A Cold Coming On
© Colitis Senioritis 2024
Posts
