steroid free again again

And now we enter that phase of hope that everything will remain as it is or better yet, get better. Other than Isaac's sulfasalazine and azathioprine (and folic acid and probiotics), he and his colon are living a healthy life.

Some of our latest exploits can be found on Bonnie's we talk dinosaur blog. What we're looking forward to this weekend is our first boys-only camping trip into the wilderness of a yet-to-be-determined Texas state park.

One thing I want to mention as a sort of follow up to our last post is that when everything is going well with us, we really appreciate it. Our prayers and thoughts remain with those with IBD who are suffering, that each sufferer finds remission or at least some relief or peace soon!

Also, for those of you just stumbling on some IBD blogs, I point you to the right of my blogspot, where you can find other IBD stories which may interest you.

the latest latest

Our doctor wants to

a) increase the sulfasalazine
b) start Imuran
c) hit the steroids

And of course we're torn. We want to do whatever it takes for Isaac to be at his optimum health in his condition, but we also want to do the least drastic thing. Bonnie is more at peace with the meds. I am less.

Two more stools today with blood present. We need to do something. Something I wanted to check is why not try another 5-ASA drug other than sulfasalazine. We also still have the SCD to try out instead of our vegan efforts. We also have a battery of other things to try, but we don't want to waste too much time trying things that won't work. And that's exactly the doctor's perspective I think.

Here is a graphic so you can see our stool report since we started taking careful records in February. Sorry it's so non viewer friendly. The lightest are caution #6 stools. The bright red are #7 stools, and the dark red cells indicate blood.

2/24	5.5
	n/a
	3,6.5
	3,4
	n/a
	3,4
	n/a
	3
	n/a
	n/a
	3,4
	4
3/8	4,7
	7
	5
	5,6,7
	4,5
	n/a
	n/a
	3,4
	3
	4,5,6
	5
	n/a
	3,4 5,6
	5
3/22	6,7
	3,4 5,6
	3,6
	4
	4,6 4,5
	n/a
	3,5
	3,5
	n/a
	3,5
4/1	6b 6b 6b
	4,6b
	6,7 5
	5,6 5,6b
	7b
	6b
	6b
	3,6
	6,7 6,7
	4,6(b)
	7b 6b

more poop, and probiotics

Well, the day after that last post we had another poop incident. On one hand, we were thinking even more about it being a potty training issue, but then we drew a conclusion that seems obvious. Since Isaac was having that episode of vomiting, we haven't been giving him that probiotic capsule (s. boulardii). First, it was because we didn't want to upset his touchy stomach, but then when we all went to the in-laws' we did so without those probiotics. This morning I ventured out and found some Florastor at Walmart and we'll let that do for the next couple days until we get back home. Today his poop was looking better but let's see what happens in the next few days.

If Isaac's poop has a dramatic turnaround, we have even stronger evidence in his case of regular probiotic use correlating with good stools, and not giving probiotics correlating with bad stools. I'll want to tell the doctor if that's the case, and see what he thinks of experimenting a little with reducing the sulfasalazine. (I can't help but think the antibiotic Sulfa drug compromises in part the probiotic impact. We talked about this with our doc, who assured us the Sulfa is not impacting the good bacteria in the gut. I want to know more.)

Through all this, Isaac's had great spirits. How nice it was to toss him up today and play some with him. On a blog like this, I want to focus more on all the positive things about our family situation. I am also thinking about incorporating a "poop scoop" report which hopefully might help encourage others to keep a in/out diary, and might help others of you notice any patterns or similarities or anything else of note.