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Why is the morning the worst time of day for Crohn's?

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Posted 12/19/2009 5:53 AM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone.  Does anyone seem to have a problem with the morning time?  It's so annoying.  I am so jealous of people who can just get up out of bed, get ready for the day, have breakfast and then go about their day without a care in the world.  Wouldn't it be great just to get up and get ready and go about your business without wondering when the hell you're going to have to go to the bathroom and where the bathroom even is?  I try to think back to the time in my life when I didn't have to worry.  It was great.  Just get up and go.  You don't know how lucky you are until it's taken away from you even something as "petty" as not knowing where the nearest bathroom is or timing out your meal so that it doesn't interfere with errand you have to run.   Or even not going out to dinner with friends because you don't know how your stomach is going to react to the meal in an hour.  I'm sorry.  I'm just venting.  Sometimes it's just so hard and it sucks.  I've had this disease since I was 19.  I'm now 28.  My whole teenage and young adult life has just totally sucked.  But getting back to the whole going to the bathroom in the morning thing.... I just think it's wierd that after going to the bathroom many times for like a 2 hour period i'm fine and usually do not have to go again until the next morning granted in that 2 to 3 hour window I have like 6-8 bm on good days.  sometimes more if something didn't agree with me.  Thanks for letting me vent guys.
Posted 12/19/2009 8:18 AM (GMT 0)
I used to be one of those people, got up, relaxed, got ready for the day, could walk to the bus stop, wait for the bus, take my long bus ride to work or shopping, work/shop all day, have an "urge" to go to the can usually around noon, but if there was no toilet around, no biggie, just held the urge back for a second or 2 and poof it would be gone, then later (usually a toilet around) the urge would re-appear and I'd go, a nice normal healthy (I'd even say beautiful) specimen of a poop and then spend the whole rest of my day, evening and night with not another thought of having to poop...yup, those were the days.

Mornings, seem to be the nature of the beast for IBD, some say it has to do with the bowels waking up when we do in the morning, I don't know if I competely buy into that, like I said, I wouldn't have my first urge to "go" until around noon and that was on days that I woke up at around 7 am.

It's always good to vent once in a while, afterall, we can't hold our poops in like we used to, so why should we have to hold our feelings in about this god-awful disease.


:)
Posted 12/19/2009 9:00 AM (GMT 0)
cause crap has all night to build up? :-)
Posted 12/19/2009 12:07 PM (GMT 0)

Bella, that could have come straight from my mouth. I was diagnosed when I was 18, and I'm 28 now. I'm one of those people who used to just be able to get right up and I loved mornings. I am still a morning person more than a night person, but I have to get up 3 hours before I go somewhere just to make sure I'm ok. Sleepovers and houseguests and living in an apt with only one bathroom are just things that I now have to worry about that other people don't have to worry about. I hate it. I just want things to be the way they were. It's hard not to think that way. People just don't appreciate how great they have it.

I try to be positive because I know a negative attitude does NOT help, but it's hard. I try to think of the things I can still do that some people are thinking "she's so lucky because she doesn't know how good she has it" like just walking if I see someone in a wheelchair. It's hard, for sure, and it sucks, for sure....just wanted you to know that I TOTALLY know how you feel. I dread the rest of my life knowing I'm going to have to live it differently than everyone else.

Posted 12/19/2009 2:22 PM (GMT 0)
Oh, I really know how you feel. I got sick at 16 and am 17 now. It's the morning time here right now, and I'm in so much pain. This semester in college I had several classes at 9 in the morning and had to wake up by 6, at the latest, just to make sure I could get over the majority of the pain in time to catch the train to get to class.
This disease is so depressing. I never thought that I would be the one to be sick, and now for the rest of my life I'm going to have to deal with this monster. Also, it sucks because I haven't been symptom-free since I was diagnosed, not even once.
Even on the weekends when it would be nice to sleep in, my body gets me up by 8 because I'm in so much pain.
I can empathize with you completely.
Posted 12/19/2009 2:25 PM (GMT 0)
A perfect description of my mornings! I hate the lack of spontaneity in the mornings, hate how I have to figure out whether I can eat anything or whether I need to leave the house with an empty stomach--which usually doesn't help much, either. I hate having tea at Barnes & Noble--and then not being able to just get up and go to my next errand, because I have to run to the bathroom. There have been days when I've been stuck there for an hour and a half--leaving the store, making it to the parking lot, turning around and going back in, using the bathroom, and trying to head out again. And if you're in a relationship, romance in the morning is SO out!
Posted 12/19/2009 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
So true about the romance in the morning. Just isin't going to happen. I say to my husband the day doesn't start for me until after i've had my bm. It does really suck in the morning and I do get jealous of people like my husband who can get up and do what they've got to do and not worry about it. I recently had a small bowel ressection in August of '08 and they took a foot of my small intestine and my appendix (which is funny cuz my appendix never did anything to me lol) then i was left with a temp ileostomy for about three months. the surgeon and the gi do kept telling me "after we reconnect you'll have formed bm's and no pain" excuse the language but what a crock of crap. Since I had reconnection surgery in Oct. of '08 i've not had on formed bm. So i don't know. I mean i guess i'm "better" because before i had surgery i was constantly running fevers of 103 or 104 and I couldn't even get out of bed. i was getting iron infusions at the hematologists office because of the internal bleeding i was severly anemic. my hemoglobin was 7.2 . I was in the hospital every 4 to 5 months with fever, severe D, and dehydration to the point where i would constantly pass out. i was losing weight at a rapid pace. In a one month period i lost 27 lbs. i was bones. i wasn't eating and then there was the PAIN. Omg. Never had i had pain like that before. and i've given birth. i know what pain is. I've been on every med out there for this horrible disease. I started on pentasa, then colazol, azulfadine, rowasa enemas, remicade , steroids (constantly), humira, currently on cimzia and apriso, and 6mp. The only thing left is methotrexate. Husband doesn't want me on that. Get this....he wants to have another baby. HA! aint gonna happen buddy. leave me alone. I don't know..sometimes i wish i could go back to the days when i was "healthy" and take advantage of it. but this is what we have and we have to live with it. hopefully in the near future they will find a cure for this disease. hopefully....
Posted 12/19/2009 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
I have the perfect solution I just sleep until 1pm hehe.

But this really sucks when I do get up in the morning and make the stupid mistake of eating breakfast, I have to run to the toilet 2-3 times just while eating breakfast.

But If I wake up in the morning and don't eat anything until 2 pm I am fine. So to feel ok I just have to starve myself.
Posted 12/19/2009 10:11 PM (GMT 0)
I know exactly how you feel about mornings. I've been dealing with this for 20 years since I was 17. Every morning is a struggle to get my kids to school and get to work at a decent time. I am constantly late. Life would just be so much easier if I could get up and go. The rest of the day isn't great, but I get by. It's just mornings suck no matter what I try. Get up 2 hours early, eat, don't eat, take immodium the night before or when I get up. But nothing seems to make a difference. It is so darn frustrating.
Posted 12/19/2009 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
Only you guys could write a post that hits so close to home.

I've been so frustrated lately. Trying to run errands around the toilet trips just stinks!
Posted 12/19/2009 11:05 PM (GMT 0)
I was strictly a morning person, a couple of hours 8/9 trips, but at least i was generally safe the rest of the day. Not so much
anymore. It's tricking me now with the odd afternoon, and more and more evenings. Arrrgh!!
Posted 12/20/2009 3:17 AM (GMT 0)
What a way to start the day, eh? I am lucky I have a job with flexible hours and can sometimes work from home. Otherwise, I'd be in the bread line. But many days it is so hard because I am tired and don't have much left for my job. At least most of our symptoms are consistent. We do that so well.
Posted 12/21/2009 8:42 PM (GMT 0)
I'm another one that this hit close to home with...heck, used to get up at 4:30 am every morning for a run of 3-6 miles...got up to put a bit of coffee (yuppers on an empty stomach of all things) and maybe a banana...would clear my head like nothing else...the sense of feeling free...oh, and so much cooler (I live in a desert...get's REALLY hot once the sun rises)...
It's so quiet so early...man do I miss that...now gotta take the meds (so my joints can move, find the bathroom...)...can't even run 50 yards without pain (the jarring on the tummy, not so lovely)
Posted 12/22/2009 12:24 AM (GMT 0)
I notice in the mornings that I do "go" many times, but it's also the only time I don't have that extremely full and bloated feeling. By 5 pm, I am so bloated and gassy, I can't take it.
Posted 12/22/2009 12:41 AM (GMT 0)
Ughhh, mornings. I'm nauseated from the time I wake up until about 9, 10 AM, and I vomit pretty regularly when I'm flaring. Pregnancy should be a breeze, I'm thinking!
Posted 12/22/2009 4:33 AM (GMT 0)
For some reason I usually feel great in the morning, not bloated or gassy yet that comes as the day goes on. The nausea is bad in the morning but not the BMs for me.... oh well
Posted 12/29/2009 12:11 PM (GMT 0)
 I hear ya! That's y I am up so early blush I couldn't have put it any better myself!  You just vented for ALOT of peeps out there! I can't tell ya how many times I think of the same stuff! Do u set ur alarm way way early too to get it all out of the way before ur day has to start? I'd like to snooze instead but can't or I'll have troubles later! Maybe it won't be that way for us forever! good luck to u!
Posted 12/29/2009 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
Ahhhhh yes. I know the morning madness that you speak of!
And it's usually right before I'm about to get in the car & drive to work. (Which is a 35 mile trip). Sometimes it's about 2 blocks down the road after I leave.... so I have to turn around & go back home, because there's no way I'll make it to work.

Then there are the days when you go 3-4 times within the first hour of waking up. You think, "Yeah, it's all good now. I'll be fine. Only to discover 20-30 minutes later your assumption was incorrect!
LOL!!!

It makes me want to buy a motor home..... so no matter where I am, I have access to a bathroom at a moments notice!! Hahahaha!! smilewinkgrin

I've actually started making breakfast my biggest meal, & trying to make dinner the smallesty.... almost like a snack. That way the mornings are a little less crazy. (But the evenings sometimes end up being an adventure!!)

What's weird for me is, it doesn't really matter WHAT I eat. Sometimes I'm fine, and other times the same food causes total chaos. It's just a hit or miss thing. So trying to avoid certain foods in the evening doesn't really matter..... I just try to limit the amount.

It's not a perfect fix, but it HAS helped a bit.
Posted 12/29/2009 7:47 PM (GMT 0)
I bought a minivan and put one of those camping port-pots in the back (I took the back bench seat out) the seats behind the drivers seat are bucket seats as well as the front seats so I can walk (hunched over of course) from the front to the back and use my potty...sad but hey it works. It's better than crapping my pants or pulling over on the road and doing it outside.

It's amazing how at the same time this disease takes so much away from us yet can really bring out our creative side...I hate this disease.


:)
Posted 12/29/2009 8:12 PM (GMT 0)
LOL!!!!
I've often thought about those "camping thrones".... but I have a small sedan. So at the moment it wouldn't do me much good.

Creativity & humor are definitely very essential when dealing with Crohn's!!
Posted 1/5/2010 3:19 AM (GMT 0)
Mornings are my worst too!
I had a 78 mile (one way) commute for 3.5 years every day. I know which gas station, restraunt, buisness opens at what time, if they are closed on any day on the week and which way to turn as I walked in the door. I think most of us know how you feel. I think the thing I dislike the most is when I have keys in hand, all bundled up, car running and now I have to go back inside for the 3rd time! Just begging my body to wait till the next bathroom so I can at least make some progress with my day. But I can usually count on my big problems ending near mid afternoon.
Good Luck.
Posted 8/4/2011 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
Heya,

Sure the thread is a year or more old, but I was searching for "morning" in the titles and came across this, no doubt there are simmilar threads, but this thread summed it up quite nicley, ditto friends..

Never the less, this has bothered me since the beginning, every morning the pain wakes me, could be 4 am, 7am, somewhere in there. I havent slept a full night in 11 years. I don't even know what midnight looks like, cause I pass out at 9 pm every night.

Typical day...(Disabled, SSI, no job, blessing)

Pain wake at 6 m

immediate br bm, lots of pain, hemerhoids bleed or not

think Im done

5 mins later bm, pain

think Im done

1 hour later bm, pain

Eats small handful of grapes

Do any errands you can, cause when I have to eat lunch, cause my stomach is eating me, Im ruined for the rest of the day. Pain from eating, pain while it digests. Can't have a bm anymore even though there is constant pressure like I want to. SPend most the night inthe bathroom, wiht nothing happening but pain.

Go to bed

Morning Start Over

Yeah this sucks, but I have a great woman and Ive stayed out of the surgery room for almost a full year now.

But overall, if you picked the one thing that bothers me the most about Crohns or any other simmilar disease that causes this, I would say "Mornings".

Thanks

Jon

Posted 8/4/2011 4:53 PM (GMT 0)
Jon,

You would be better served in starting a new post. Many of our members tend to avoid these older posts thinking they have already responded. Instead of bringing up the old posts, I suggest you start a new post and ask your questions. Even if they have been asked before, its okay to ask again:)

Hugs
Gail*Nanners*
Posted 8/4/2011 5:22 PM (GMT 0)
Great thread! I missed it the first time around, so I'm glad it got bumped. Mornings are my enemy, too. I'm usually done with the bathroom part by noon and just deal with the pain and nausea the rest of the day.
Posted 8/4/2011 7:01 PM (GMT 0)
I remember this post! So true, too.
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