My current ulcerative colitis meds: Lialda and Prednisone. Lialda is a beacon of hope in my ulcerative colitis quest for remission. It is a delayed release mesalamine tablet, at a whopping 1.2 grams per tablet. The beauty of Lialda is that I only take it once a day.
Prednisone, the menacing steroid, threatening to cause my face to explode in chubbiness, continues to fester and strengthen my hunger. I am never full, never satisfied. I have stared this beast in the face before, and it is a very hard battle to fight.
I did an awful thing the last couple days. Twice I have been to McDonald's and indulged myself in 2 McDoubles. Whugh. Not only is the Prednisone causing me to eat more, it's causing me to eat more crap as well.
On a brighter note, it has been almost 3 years since I have had to take ulcerative colitis medications more than once a day. I take my 7 pills (3 Lialda, 4 Prednisone) all in the morning, and then I am done.
My biggest flaw taking previous UC meds was that I would miss doses becasue of how often I needed to take them during the day. When I was on sulfasalazine and asacol, I was taking those 3 times daily. Often, I would miss doses becasue of my schedule. No good excuses there, but it's the truth.
Thankfully, Lialda cures all. So long as it keeps me in remission, taking meds has become that much easier.
Interesting stuff - I've never been offered lialda here in the UK (perhaps it has another name) but I've had mesalazine and salazopyrin, both of which made my UC much worse, as did the immunosuppressants (man, they made me sick). Weirdly, prednisolone has been the ONLY drug that has been any use for me whatsoever. Side-effects are bloody awful though, I managed the food cravings ok, and was blessed with acne on my head rather than face, but jeeeeesus did I suffer from the steroid-rage!
I take Mezavant. It looks exactly the same as Lialda and I take it the same way. I do like that I take it all at once but I have had some slightly annoying side effects with this med. When I take the full dose, my hair falls out in handfuls and my teeth become so sensitive that I just give up on eating anything frozen because the pain is terrible and lingers.
Pred was not nice to me at all. I had so many side effects. The worst part was how crazy I was. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't think and I was just plain mean (and sad that I was mean). I hope to never take pred again.
I am considering taking Imuran along with my Mezavant since I am in a flare and the Mezavant doesn't sem to be enough for me.
Hoping Lialda turns out to the answer for you and that you stay away from that drive through!
Yeah msmachine, Prednisone does have some nasty side effects. The roid rage is definitely one of them. Not to say I was mean, but my temper and patience both had very short fuses.
The biggest challenge is curbing my appetite.