Just Diagnosed-General Questions

Hi..welcome to the forum!

The rotten in the gut feeling is probably because the inflammation is now in a much less state and lower in the rectum.

Is your UC limited or throughout?

Are you still taking the Canasa? Remember that once you feel much better...to taper them down rather than stop abruptly. What did your doc suggest you do?

You might consider to take probiotics to help keep the gut flora balanced.

I would suggest you get to like 5ASA meds...I've used them for over 19 years...although I prefer to use the retention enemas rather than the supps.

The suppositories can be used twice or up to thrice daily.

The uneasy rotten feeling could be reflux? By your gut do you mean nausea or cramping or urgency?

quincy

Hi and welcome to Healingwell. Not that I know of can exercise induce a flare. It might make you more uncomfortable if you are already flaring. But usually I am pretty active and when I'm in remission, being active has never been an issue. Uc can be a highly confusing disease so I recommend you go thru all the old posts here, look at the resource section of this forum and also visit www.ccfa.org to educate yourself. We have a saying around here that knowledge is power - the more you know the less scared you will be and the more active you can become in managing your own health.

As for progression, not everyone has their disease advance. Some who have been diagnosed with proctitis will always have proctitis. It depends on genetics really........maybe even med compliance. The more faithful you are to your meds, the less likely you are to have your disease advance. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone. I for one was not very compliant with my meds and what started as Proctitis spread to Left sided. Lesson learned! Plus by being compliant with a 5-ASA med (Asacol, Colazal, Pentasa, Lialda) it helps reduce the chances the of colon cancer - though our chances are ONLY slightly higher then the normal population. More the disease colon, higher the risk.

Anyway, please read up on Uc and please don't hesitate to let us know if you have further questions :)

I was fine for the first 16 years since my diagnosis and then had to quit my running routne because of a back injury. Soon after, I had my first really scary flare. I am now running again, and all is well so far. In my experience (and everyone is different), I feel much better if I stay active. The asacal never made me feel bad at all, in fact I never felt any different at all. I would start keeping a food journal and see if certain things you eat give you that feeling. That has really helped me a lot. The older I get the less I can tolerate. I wish you luck and I hope you continue to very few symptoms

I find it interesting that people I have talked to have had a problem with Asacol.  Its weird because before I was only having bleeding and after the Asacol everything got worse.  At one point I was going to the bathroom 15-20 times a day.  I could not go to school or work.  Thankful things are much better.  Hopefully everything works out, it seems that everyone has something that works best for them.  I hope you find it. 

This disease is very individual - what works for one person may not work for another. Finding the right meds is a game of trial and error. For example, I started on Colazal - which did nothing for me, and then moved to Asacol - which started working for me w/in a week. Many others have had the opposite. Some do well on Pentasa - which releases higher in the intestines.

Some people do well on the 5ASAs - others can not tolerate them. Some people do well with Imuran or 6MP (the next step up in drugs) - others have negative reactions. Some people can use rectal meds and don't need oral meds - others of us need both. Still other are able to only use natural supplements because they have reacted to every other option.

I suggest making a list of questions for your doc. Start a UC notebook and write down what you think of - take it to your appt and show it to your doctor. A BM calendar is also a good idea - then you can see how things improve - or don't. A food journal allows you to see what foods could cause what symptoms.

That's probably enough info for now! Keep reading - ask questions as you need to. Feel better soon!

Jake IA said...
I guess some questions I have are - Does exercise induce flares? (have not had one yet) My symptoms are minimal now, and since I just got on some meds, can I stop or slow the progression? What are some good natural ways to control this? Pretty much any helpful hints/tips/tricks/info would be greatly appreciated. I am visiting my doctor next week to see how the initial treatment has been working and will receive further information then.

Exercise has never been a problem for me. In fact, I think it's been very beneficial - maintain a level of fitness, improve mood, feel more in control of your body, reverse bone loss from steroid use.

You're in a great position to work to heal your body before your condition worsens. I'd highly recommend you check out Jini Patel Thompson's book, Listen to Your Gut to learn about all types of alternative healing methods. Things that have worked for me personally are a good high potency probiotic to restore gut flora, l-glutamine for gut healing and fish/flax oil to reduce inflammation.

Here's a link to Jini's site:

http://www.jinipatelthompson.com/index.php