The blood won't stop

I was diagnosed with colitis about a year ago. My doctor could not decide what the inflammation was from in the colonoscopy and called it just colitis. Unlike must, I suffer from constipation...I was put on lialda, 2 tablets a day and I had a follow up colonoscopy and he said it was all clear and he stopped my medicine. about two months later it all started again. Well for the last 5 months the bleeding has returned. Fresh, bright red blood, it's so much it soaks the toilet paper and toilet with just red. I also don't even have stools, they are just floating circles with mucus. I have to be careful passing gas because sometimes mucous comes out. I have been completely exhausted lately too. I can sleep about 10 hours and still be exhausted and weak. I'm falling asleep in my classes. I made an appointment with my doctor awhile ago and my appointment is this wednesday. My doctor upped my dosage after calling him to 4 lialda a day and it has made my mucous worse. Now after suffering from constipation, it's almost like it's hard to pass stools, but when I do, it is floating and loose. Does anyone have similar symptoms? It's so hard to see so much blood and be tired all the time...I'm just looking for some support and advice on maybe foods to avoid or something. Any meds out there that could help with my blood better than lialda? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks soo much!!

Yep, I agree. Call your GI this morning and ask for stool cultures so see if you have an infection.

Even if you have UC, the mesalamine meds are fairly hit-or-miss as far as how effective they are.

If you've been bleeding for months, you need help. And probably more help than Lialda is going to be able to give you. You may need a course of steroids. They may talk to you about starting one of the biologic medications like Remicade. I have Crohn's Colitis (Crohn's disease, but the active disease just seems to affect my large intestine) and have had two bad flares in the past 5 years. The first was stopped by Prednisone. The second time, I went on Remicade and it was honestly a miracle for me. The bleeding stopped within 48 hours, and I haven't had a real flare since (almost 2 years now).

Don't let this continue, and don't be afraid to go back to the doctor and ask what the next step should be. You do not need to live like this for months and months waiting and hoping that Lialda is going to do something that it just might not be strong enough to do.

You may also want to ask about getting your iron levels checked - not just your circulating iron, but your iron "storage" as well. After bleeding this long, they are bound to be very depleted and you may benefit from an IV iron infusion (or a few). The doctor may tell you to take oral supplements, but if you are already constipated, doing IV iron infusions might be a lot easier on you.

I wish you the best!

Post Edited (colie75) : 11/24/2015 6:44:04 PM (GMT-7)

Never go by just the color of the blood, always go by the amount. I almost bled to death in just a few days of bleeding bright red blood (coming from TI, just came out so fast it didn't have time to turn dark).

You sound anemic, you really need to get this checked out. You could need a blood transfusion. Bleeding like that isn't anything to mess around with.