Letters from the SCD support group: Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 08:47:39 EDT From: B4FL@aol.com To: SCD-list@longisland.com Subject: Re: MP's Flare Up Dear Partridge family, In response to your post: << 1) Has anyone had a similar experience? where one day you are fine the next the symptoms are worse? (major flare-up) My son, after two years on the diet and no drugs, had a major flare - out of the blue. One day he was fine the next he was passing pure blood 4-5 times a day. I couldn't believe it! 2) If so, how long did it last? The symptoms lasted for about a week to a week and a half. He had cramps, increased frequency, blood in stools and by itself, decreased appetite but no nausea or mucus. 3) Any comments on how long the mucus lasted? He did not have any mucus to speak of but then he never really had that symptom to begin with. By the way, my son is 13 and has Crohn's that affects his entire digestive tract. 4) Did anyone have to increase meds? or were they able to get over it without increase to the meds? Since he wasn't taking any meds at the time, and hasn't taken any for at least 1 1/2 years, we put him on 40 mg. of prednisone for a week and then started weaning him down. The doctor wants to do it really slowly, much more slowly than other doctors I have dealt with, so I am using my own weaning schedule and currently have him down to 5 mg./day. So far so good, no symptoms. Now if we can get him completely off the drug with no symptoms we will be doing great. I didn't change his SCD diet any during the flare, which may be an option rather than going the drug route. They were talking hospital if we didn't get things under control so I went with the drugs to get a more immediate response to avoid the hospital. I also knew I would wean him down as quickly as possible (and safe). Although I'm not really sure what caused his flare, I think it may have been a combination of a little cheating on the diet on our family vacation (although we always stay where I have cooking facilities to try and stay as true the diet as possible), school was starting the next week and his sister was moving away from home to go to college, so maybe some stress there. Don't know if this helps any. Hope Martine can overcome her flare and return to a more normal SCD state. Barb (FL) >>
|
