Jojo,
A few months back, I wrote up a description of how the enteric coatings on various meds used for IBDs work. You can find it quoted as the fifth post in this thread:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=46285
For the Asacol capsules to make the complete journey completely unscathed, the pH of your entire digestive tract had to be lower than 7, which is somewhat common for people with IBDs. IOW, the coating used on Asacol is a rather poor choice, IMO. It works fine for normal people, but it doesn't work worth a hoot for people with IBDs, (which seems kind of ridiculous, since it was developed to treat IBDs, and normal people have no use for it). I've heard it said that it is only the empty capsule that you are seeing in the bowl, but I believe that in most cases, just as you verified, it is the complete "pill", in it's original form, unaffected by the digestive process.
Anyway, that implies that your pancreas was not releasing enough bicarbonate into your small intestine, in order to neutralize the acid level of the contents of your stomach, as they entered your small intestine. MC seems to affect the pancreas in many patients, but medical science has apparently not discovered this connection, so far. In fact, some of our members have been told by their doctors, that their pancreas has a serious problem which needs to be addressed, but the problem always goes away, as the MC goes into remission.
Anyway, that's why the Asacol didn't work for you, and the Colazal does work.
Entocort often takes longer than two weeks to work, so your doc may not have given it enough time to work.
You're right, of course, in saying that gluten is very tough to completely avoid. If you do all your own cooking, it's not particularly difficult, and we have a "world-class" collection of mouth-watering GF recipes, in the
Dee's Kitchen forum, located here:
http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=7
If you eat out very often, though, maintaining a GF diet can be very tough to do, and it requires a lot of diligence.