Longterm prednisone

[needtofindanswers]

My wife and I are looking for advice in finding the correct type of doctor to diagnose her current condition. Here is a synopsis for the last 13 years:

Currently she is a 42 year old female with three kids. At the age of 29 she was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Treatment was Asacal, ten years, Age 39-40 Asacal + 40 MG Prednisone, age 40-41 Azulfidine + 40 mg Prednisone, age 41- May 2012 Remicade & Azulfidine + 40 mg Prednisone, In May 2012 she had Proctocolectomy with ileostomy in the future once the Prednisone taper is completed.

In July 2012, taper completed and she developed rash on legs with blisters and serve itching. We canceled Ileostomy and started 10 mg Prednisone, itching continued not as serve. We visited dermatologists, Biopsy and nothing conclusive. Dr. thinks she has some other type of autoimmune disease.   Until found they will not do surgery. Recommend seeing Rheumatologist.

August 10 mg Prednisone started again and she started a Gluten Free Diet. She has been on for 8 weeks, then started a 2.5 mg taper. Itch started one week after taper is complete.  
They want her to go back on Prednisone, this is too easy of an answer or am I missing something? Here is how we see this: Go until we can think of something to try then start a taper for 10 weeks and lets see if this helps.
We feel like the medical community does not know who we should be seeing or more like grapping at straws. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[maatson]

I would like to rule out 'Adult IgA bullous dermatosis' by looking for findings on immunofluorescence  to look for deposition of linear IgA at the basement membrane zone.
Do consult your Doc.

[needtofindanswers]

Thanks for the reply, We will look into the tests.

We have seen Immunologist but he deals in Allergies. Is there specialist that deal only in Autoimmune Diseases?  

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
It is very strange that a rash has appeared all of a sudden. But given your wife’s history of ulcerative colitis, the autoimmune factor should be looked into. Some sources list ulcerative colitis as an autoimmune disease.

Get her ESR, CRP and ANA(antinuclear antibody ) tests done and consult an immunologist for further evaluation.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.