Prednisone As Treatment?

[pturse]

Lib

Thank you for your response. I guess everyone is different in terms of reacting to certain drugs. If I could handle a small does such as 5mg then perhaps I my be interested in talking more with my doctor about it. I never like taking drugs. But I am seeking some relief. First I plan to try the scdiet . . . see what happens and then when I have to go back to my GI in about 1.5 months we'll talk.

I appreciate your honesty and response.

pturse

[pturse]

Hey everyone, thought I would give an up date. I have really been feeling awful lately for no apparent reason. I know I have not had any gluten intake and yet the cramping & "D" has become out of control some days. I actually had to stay home from work one day because of it and that has never happened. Before going gluten-free I never really had cramping problems just "D" and bloating. Lately, the cramping is terrible and the distenstion and bloating are way out of control.

My doctor said according to my last blood work, my Celiac is out of control. We may do a biopsy (it has been over a year since my last) to see if my villi is even responding at all to the diet because he said that I may be one of those few that the gluten-free diet just does not work. In which case, the next step is steriod like Prednizone. He is against going that far as am I.

So my question and toughts lately have been, if I am nonresponsive to the diet, i.e. my villi are not healing at all, then why remain on the diet? I am sticking with for the time being and waiting until I get a biopsy which will probably be in January but that is what is running through my head. I do not want to take steriods and have to deal with those side affects. The side affects of Celiac are fine enough right now. I honestly feel like I am getting worse and feeling worse compared to when I wasn't gluten-free. Some days are good and some days are bad but lately it seems like the bad are out weighing the good.

[lovegrov]

I can't keep track of what everybody's looked for so I'll just ask -- have you considered other intolerances and have you checked for bacterial overgrowth?

richard

[pturse]

Yes. I have checked for bacterial growth. There was none. As for other intolerances, I am lactose intolerant and already avoid dairy. What foods seem to bother me the most are vegetables. All vegetables. I do not eat meat so my options are limited.

[Canadian Karen]

First off, you sound so much like me.....

I was in your shoes not too long ago, thinking for sure that I had refractory celiac disease, as my system was just not responding to the gluten-free diet. Even when I was gluten-free, lactose free, sugar free, caffeine free, the diarrhea just continued to be uncontrollable.... It has literally been years since I have had a solid b.m....

My GI sent me to a celiac specialist here in Toronto. He did a colonoscopy and they found collagenous colitis. It is quite rare, so most GI's don't even consider it. Only 2 out of 100,000 people get it apparently. If they are doing another colonscopy on you, make sure you ask your GI to take several biopsies to test for collagenous colitis, which has to be identified by a special pathologist under the microscope. Collagenous colitis does not show up while doing a regular colonscopy as it can only be viewed through a microscope.

I have started the first treatment, and I am 4 weeks into the 8 week treatment. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no change. So it looks like the next step: steriods..... I go back to see him the beginning of January.

Good Luck!

Karen

[Canadian Karen]

Here is the link to the thread when I thought I had refractory celiac.....

I think you will find much of it very familiar to what you are going through.....

Open Original Shared Link

Have a great day!

Karen

[FreyaUSA]

  pturse said:

So my question and toughts lately have been, if I am nonresponsive to the diet, i.e. my villi are not healing at all, then why remain on the diet?

I think that, especially in your case, remaining on a gluten-free diet is more than necessary. By eating gluten, wont you be doing more damage to your already damaged intestines? And, since you do not heal, you would be doing irrepairable damage.

Btw, what is the SCDiet?