Prednisone resistant flare after traveling? Parasites?

Hey everyone,

I’m hoping someone out there has had any experiences similar to mine and can share some insight/support, cause I’m really struggling while I wait to hear back from my overbooked and hard to reach GI.

A little background: 30 year old male here - had my most severe flare last fall which led to my diagnosis after years of symptoms and nearly passing out on toilets. Once I was diagnosed I was put on prednisone 40mg which almost instantly healed me with no more pain, solid healthy stool, weight gain, etc.

I’ve since been on mesalamine 2.4g a day, which has been mostly fine (just occasional pain or diarrhea) - that is, up until two weeks ago when I suddenly started having moderate flare symptoms (6-8 BMs a day, urgent watery diarrhea, yellow/green color with mucus but no visible blood).

Also having a lot of new low back pain and mobility issues there, which I’m scheduled to get an MRI for in a couple of weeks. I’ve always had very poor flexibility and a weird body (6’4” and 140lbs) but this pain is on another level.

These flare symptoms all began a few days after returning from Mexico, which was a lovely vacation overall, albeit stressful at times with dealing with airports, scams, etc. I also got badly sunburnt which may have triggered some immune response as well. Not sure if that’s a thing.

Anyway, doc put me on 4.8g mesalamine and 40mg prednisone again while trying to get me approved for Humira - since this started it’s been a rollercoaster.

The pred kicked down my diarrhea and urgency within a couple days, but I am still having breakthrough diarrhea some days, and far from pain-free, especially in my back. I’m also having strange pain in my upper left abdomen that’s new and seemingly getting worse.

What’s worse is that I somehow caught COVID in the middle of this, too. Been on Lagevrio to treat it and haven’t had any side effects that I’m aware of - no COVID symptoms today after 5 days of rest.

Tested negative for C Diff as well and I’m waiting to get results back for Giardia and one other parasite (can’t remember).

I’m pretty concerned over the possibility of it being parasite related since I’m on prednisone and my immune system is suppressed, which could make an infection worse. Does anyone have experience with parasite infections aggravating UC?

If it’s not parasites, is it normal for prednisone to just not work like it did before? Seems like my gut would be much better after two weeks of high dose steroids…? Maybe COVID just complicated my recovery? I also was in my off-season last time I flared (I’m a wedding photographer) so maybe having time off from work helped me heal faster…

I don’t know, just frustrated and worried over here, trying to stay calm and trust that my GI is ordering the right tests. I’m kinda surprised she didn’t order a full stool pathogen test to rule out other types of infections. All I know right now data-wise is that my calprotectin is around 1500 and I’m negative for C Diff.

Would appreciate if anyone has any advice here - or maybe just some encouraging words lol.