Back pain and aching joints, is it a flare of UC?
Posted , 2 users are following.
I was diagnosed with proctitis and UC in April 2016.
I started taking pentasa 1g twice a day and it helped everything.
The last few months I have had achy joints, knees, hands, legs, and back pain all at the bottom and the feeling of prods in my back.
I was told to up pentasa to 4g a day as the IBD nurse thought it was a flare but it didn't help too much so iv lowered it back to 2g a day.
Is it a flare up as I don't have bloody stools? Apparently you don't have to have blood with a flare?
Am I immune to pentasa now?
My blood results have come back normal.
Many thanks.
0 likes, 4 replies
cjb106 Bexcd111
Posted
What did they test for in your blood? Did they test ESR and CRP levels - both markers of inflammation? These are, however, only general markers of inflammation so won't tell exactly where the problem lies.
What I have come to learn about UC - I was diagnosed with UC and proctitis a few months after you - is that inflammation has a tendency to occur in other parts of the body too particularly the joints.
Pentasa specifically targets the colon and rectum so isn't going to help with inflammation in other parts of the body.
It's possible that your colon could be inflamed again but not bleeding hence my question about what tests were done. Do you have diarrhea?
Fingers crossed, my UC is under control and I am not longer taking any meds (I was on Prednisolone for flares plus 2g Pentasa per day ongoing). I still get intermitttent joint and back pain but find walking helps.
Bexcd111 cjb106
Posted
Thank you for your reply. I had a full blood count, liver and kidney function, ferritin and ESR I think. Yes my pains are better when I'm active and in a hot bath/ using a hot water bottle etc.
Maybe I need to call my consultant as dr doesn't really know what to do.
cjb106 Bexcd111
Posted
Bexcd111 cjb106
Posted