Probably not a flare. The hallmarks of a flare would be blood and non-formed stool....
Gastros for the most part prescribe meds and perform colonoscopies, in my experience. Mine has never talked diet with me and never done bloodwork....
Ha! Looks like he got what was coming to him....
I thought this was pretty much spot-on, and I thought you'd enjoy it. It's from health.com. 11 Things Never to Say to Someone With Ulcerative Colitis http://bit.ly/1LMlB7e...
Garylouisville, Where's my "Like" button?...
I saw another article on FT not too long ago. I've never tried it, but interesting concept: Inflammatory Bowel Disease 'Cured' With Fecal Transplant http://bit.ly/1GVwfmW...
I'd work under the assumption that you're going to be on mesalamines (oral and/or rectal) for the rest of your life. And then you might experiment slowly and conservatively with phasing them out and...
Missing a few doses of my meds is my main trigger. I wonder about alcohol -- have not had a drink since before my diagnosis....
It's great to hear that you are doing so well. Very encouraging for the rest of us....
Have you tried rectal meds? Suppositories or enemas seem like they could be helpful for you. Sounds like your inflammation may be pretty low? Did you doctor tell you the location of the inflammation...
Very unlikely you'd have side effects from Asacol. They can happen, and some members here have them, but usually Asacol causes no side effects whatsoever....
There was this study recent about the possible role of emulsifiers: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-science-emulsifiers-idUSKBN0LT26S20150225 The study was only in mice. In the mice who...
I wouldn't go for surgery yet. One of the reasons to do surgery is that when colitis is throughout the colon, there can be increased risk of colon cancer. With proctitis, the risk just isn't there. I...
There aren't any known steps at this point that a person can take to prevent ulcerative colitis. It seems to be kind of a mystery disease, as far as science is concerned....
Flare and remission are pretty good words for some people, but I don't think they fit every case. At any rate, I don't know if there are strict definitions. You're either having problems or you're...
As for what you say to people, it depends. It's good to be careful about saying too much at work, as it's possible your company will think you're making their insurance premiums increase. (This is...
I would be sure to get as much sleep as possible. Some people have trouble since they have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. But if your gut is willing to take a rest as you sleep,...
I enjoyed this article; thought you all might, also. World IBD Day: How One Teen Found 'Light at the End of the Tunnel' ...
garylouisville, I differ with you a little bit there ... I tend to think it's going to do what it's going to do, in terms of moving upward in the colon. My doctor says that once it's established it...
I have always thought the horrible smell is probably dead cells decaying, sloughing off from the ulceration. Not normal digestive gas. Just a guess....
I'd say that remission is just a word ... it can be defined in many ways. You could see remission as: -Very low-grade symptoms that don't interfere with your life. -No symptoms, but possibly evidence...
Aspirin and all of the NSAIDs give me a similar symptom -- extremely sensitive hearing (and sometimes ringing). Because of the chemical similarity, I would think the mesalamines could do it too. (But...
I found this sentence interesting: "VirScan works by screening the blood for antibodies against any of the 206 species of viruses known to infect humans." I had no idea the number of viruses...
I'm not sure that anyone could ever tell you for sure if there's a relationship or not, but they're so common with age (both floaters and cataracts) anyway that it would be hard to pin down. I never...
Do they give any specific reason? Is it because it's bland?...
Maybe your body is still recovering from the flare before this remission? These things take a lot out of us and even though the BMs are back to more or less normal, maybe other aspects of the body's...
I have heard that it is possible to use two Canasa at once. That might help knock out rectal inflammation....
Sounds a lot like what I'd call "breakthrough symptoms." I get them any time I start forgetting to take my Asacol. Why did the doctor want you to reduce your dose?...
Different people's UC can vary greatly. In my case, I've never noticed diet or any other lifestyle factor affecting my UC in any way. I have to be on mesalamines or my symptoms come back like...
I wouldn't assume it's UC until a colonoscopy confirms it. Anyway, UC has huge variations as far as how it affects people and how hard it is control. I was diagnosed in 2011 and was on here a fair...
I have colitis but it is limited to a pretty low area in the colon -- almost just proctitis, but goes a bit farther than that. If I don't stick to my medicines, the first symptoms that come through...
I'm will run out of Canasa before my next doctor's appointment. Still have plenty of Asacol. But Canasa is what I depend on -- can't tell that Asacol does anything. Does anyone know if I could use...
The bleeding means that your condition is no longer fully controlled by the meds you're on. You could call it a flare or breakthrough bleeding. The concern is that this low level of bleeding builds...
I am a male, so I can't help with the pregnancy issues. But I do have twins. My advice for anyone with twins, but especially someone with UC and twins, is to structure your life to be as free of...
I have proctitis, actually a bit of the sigmoid too. I have to use Canasa every day otherwise the symptoms start to creep back -- namely, blood. I used to get away with every two days, but no more....
Can you correlate specific symptoms with specific areas of inflammation in the colon? Is there a pattern like, "If it's just blood I know it's the rectum only, if urgency kicks in then that's the...
I made a mad dash this summer it was not really uc related, but something I ate just hit me wrong and I ran to the bathroom and while I emptied my entire colon in rapid bursts into the toilet some 3...
Canasa is a godsend for me. Great for low inflammation. Easy to use. I highly recommend it....
I don't know why he shouldn't be optimistic about the pred taper. Plenty of people have success. Anyway, like others, I can't emphasize it enough, you should try the rectal mesalamines. I credit my...
In my case it's not migraines but more like tension headaches. I have neck pain/strain, and when it gets aggravated, it sometimes brings on a throbbing tension headache. Either ibuprofen or...
Not sure. This is what I always tell myself: Any day your a** isn't bleeding, is a good one!...
I recently had some neck/headache problems and took quite a bit of ibuprofen for days on end. It didn't seem to affect my UC at all. I have proctosigmoiditis, so it is not a terribly severe case. The...
Just based on a bit of Googling, it looks like the herpes-induced version usually also includes perianal and anal sores/blisters....
So, I had taken ibuprofen and found that it didn't affect my UC at all ... but then I read that it can harm the kidneys, and since mesalamines also have that potential, I didn't want to combine them...
For those on mesalamines: When you have a headache or similar, what kind of pain relievers do you use? Ibuprofen? Acetaminophen? Aspirin? I am on 3,600 mg of Asacol daily plus a Canasa (1,000 mg)...
How high does the inflammation go? At any rate, rectal medications might make a big difference. Mesalamine enemas/suppositories. I have a lot of success with Canasa suppositories, but if the colitis...
Can you go into more detail? If I am undertreating, what would be proper treatment? Are you talking about adding the enemas?...
When I started, I was on one Canasa per day. Then, after about eight weeks of remission, the gastro said I could go to one every other day. That worked for many months. Then, lately, on my own I was...
I have been doing very well on 3600 mg of Asacol a day and one Canasa every other day. For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to taper down a bit and had settled on 2800 mg of Asacol a day and...
Pain relief is an issue for me too. Because I take a lot of mesalamine, I am afraid to take NSAID too often....