3 month flare? what to do?

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I've been on SCD 3 months for CD with severe joint pain and the first

2 months were great, now I'm having a flare-up with gas, no D, skin

eruptions (pimple like on legs and arms) and bad joint pain. I've

been good on the diet, no nut flours yet, no beans, etc. Just meats

and veggies and fruits and yogert and cheese. I've been weaning off

prednisone which I suspect caused this (down to 11mg daily), but what

to do now? I have three choices, increase the prednisone, which I

don't want to do, try the cipro/flagyl combo which has worked in the

past, but my white cell count is not up, it's down from two months

ago, or just restart the diet and wait and see. What has been your

experience? My sed rate has gone up from normal to 61 and crp up to

8.6, both very high. My blood volume and iron are down a bit so I

suspect bleeding but have no signs of it.

Should I eliminate some foods such as dairy and fruit? Go back to

intro? I'm very disappointed right now. Any advice would be

appreciated. Thanks again.

Ann

SCD 3 months

CD

RA

weaning off pred at 11 mg now

[Guest guest]

Ann

Symptom flares at 3 months are typical for most of us on SCD. We can also get another one at 9 months and around 12 months. It's part of the healing process. Of course tapering off prednisone will also contribute to a flare, or so I've seen in emails.

I can't speak to tapering off prednisone, but I can suggest a few things to help with your symptom flare. Goodness knows I've had plenty of symptom flares since being on SCD. But remember that the longer we're on SCD, the faster we recover from symptom flares, and the less severe they become...

Most of us handle symptom flares in a similar fashion. We drop back to the intro. diet for a few days, to give our digestions time to calm down a bit. Then we move to the easiest-to-digest foods for several weeks, or until our symptoms have almost disappeared or have diminished completely. We don't reintroduce the more advanced foods until we feel our flare is over.

Since you're also tapering off prednisone, I'm guessing you may need to work again to find those foods that your digestion can handle at this stage of your healing. Prednisone masks a lot of the body's reactions, so you have to start over finding the foods your body handles best at this stage. So when you start adding foods back after your day or two of intro. diet, then treat each food as if you hadn't had it in years. Pay attention to your body's signals.

If your body isn't handling dairy or fruit well, then you do want to cut back on these foods, or find alternatives that your body will tolerate better. Stick to the softest, easiest-to-digest foods for your body for at least a few weeks, until you feel you're out of this symptom flare.

And you might need to stop tapering off prednisone; maybe it's too soon. You might need to stay at one level for several more months before trying again to taper off.

Hopefully others who have used prednisone will reply and offer suggestions. You can also search the message archives, as I'm sure we've discussed this topic before.

Kim M.

SCD 5 years

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.................Should I eliminate some foods such as dairy and fruit? Go back to intro? I'm very disappointed right now. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again. AnnSCD 3 months