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Posted 4/14/2009 7:45 AM (GMT 0)

Hi my name is Kim and I was diagnosed originally with crohns in october 07. It started in august when I started having blood in all of my bm. My bm's were fairly normal except there was always blood and not just a little bit. So I had a colonoscopy and was said to have crohns. I started taking Pentasa and Canasa and it didn't seem to help to much...but I was only on it for a month or 2 because I became unexpectently pregnant. My dr told my OB that my case wasn't too bad and that I didn't need to be on any medication at all until after my son was born. I continued to bleed with every bm from october of 2007 - present. I have no D but when I have to go...I have to go now. Usually around 3 times a day or so. I switched gastro dr's and he told me that he believed I had UC instead of crohns and that I should have been on meds the whole time I was pregnant because they don't affect the baby and my issues have been going on way too long. I am currently taking asacol 4 x 2 times a day (400 mg) and canasa supp at bed time. IT doesn't seem to be working. Besides the blood and abdominal tenderness when pushing on stomach I don't have many more symptoms. I guess im just wondering if everyone started having D right away and there UC started out bad. Im wondering if mine wil continue to get worse over the years i guess. Also I am wondering why every time I go in my Gastro dr. asks me if my joints hurt. Is that a symptom? My joints do hurt sometime but I figured it was from carrying around a 7 month old. Thanks for all of your guys help. Its nice to be able to read about some of the same issues Im having and relate to someone!

Kim

Post Edited (lovemyboys09) : 4/14/2009 1:52:16 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/14/2009 12:23 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, welcome to Healingwell :) My Uc started as mild diarrhea. It would come and go and after it stuck around for a while I started having a little bit of blood and then came the abdominal pain. I truly thought I had a stomach bug with hemmeroids - I was so naive! Lol But it can be possible that your Uc has spread - when was the last time you had a scope?

As for the joint pain, IBD'ers have a high incidence of getting arthritis. Also too, there is an arthritis that doesn't harm the joint and it mirrors the extent of inflammation in the colon. You can go to www.ccfa.org for more information on the common types of arthritis's associated with an IBD. However, some people have joint pain with no arthritis - it's called an extra intestinal manifestation. Taking Tylonel can help with the pain from that but do avoid taking Nsaids such as Aleve, Advil etc. This can make you bleed more.
Posted 4/14/2009 2:31 PM (GMT 0)
I had my last colonoscopy in october of 07. The dr. said that if the asacol and canasa doesn't work then I will have another one and we will schedule it after my next appointment which is thursday. I guess I'll have the joy of having another one
Posted 4/14/2009 2:59 PM (GMT 0)
It seems everyones UC started off differently. Taking that into consideration and knowing that everyone's body reacts to drugs differently that's why UC is so hard to treat. My UC started after a night of binge drinking. I had D the next day and it got worse until i started bleeding and thought i was dieing. I was diagnosed with UC when I had a colonoscopy a month after the drinking event. Maybe I would have ended up with UC eventually given my eating habits and genetics but I totally 100% bellieve I wouldn't have got it January 2005 if I didn't daink until daylight....
Posted 4/14/2009 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
I stopped smoking in 2000. Got UC in 2003. Doc said it was more than likely due to my stopping smoking.

I started with D and urgency. Blood came later. I am on Asacol(doing nothing to help for years, but he insists I stay on), and taking Rowesa nightly. Hardly ever have D anymore, but extreme urgency when I do have to go.
I am going to ask to be put on Cortifoam, as the urgency will not go away, and it has me housebound.
Posted 4/14/2009 4:47 PM (GMT 0)
I am also new to the site. I had been treated for hemmorhoids for years..rectal pain, some bleeding and occasional diarrhea. 2 yrs ago I started with the heavy blood in BMs. I had a colonoscopy which revealed ulcerative proctitis. I do not have diarrhea as a sx, but like you, when I have to go, I have to go. I am on canasa supp @ bedtime. If I stick with them, they seem to work. I've tried to go off but with a week, I'm right back to the pain, discomfort and backaches. I'm having another scope tomorrow to see if it has progressed. Everyone on this site is awesome, so helpful. They all have different experiences with food, meds etc. Sorry too say, but it looks like it's trial and error to get what works for each of us. Good luck.
Posted 4/14/2009 4:48 PM (GMT 0)

I was like you and every bm had a lot of blood, then I started having "accidents in my pants" my first scope they told me nothing is wrong, see me in 10 years, but the blood got worse. Please don't stress yourself, that's the worst you can do. Take camomile tea, get on xanax to get over the nervous hump. I wish I would have taken xanax, but I was against all medications, now I'm totally the opposite, I welcome them. I'm on 10 mg of pred right now for 14 days and LDN. Since eating bread yesterday, I had better poop today, it's a weird thing. Maybe the pred is beginning to work, even though I skipped one day, but I can totally tell a difference when I'm on it now, b/c I don't go bm durning the day and feel pretty confident. I went the last four year mainly medication free, in pain, crying and depressed, I don't recommend it at all. I tried every, every, diet and supplement you can think of, "there are no true cures" yet, if there was I would have found it. I spent over $30,000 in doctors (14 different ones to be exact) and supplements, don't keep buying and buying, you'll lose out. I would recommend checking into LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) to see if it helps.

Relax and do things to get your mind off your butt!

Posted 4/14/2009 6:52 PM (GMT 0)
Hello and welcome
I was dx'd in 1999...I was working at a factory and was a cyclist at the time. It's interesting how it all transpired for me. The area I was working in at the factory had alot of lead exposure possibilities, so we were blood tested every 6 mos. My lead was never high but a couple of metals that they flag in the report were high. On my own accord I started asking questions as to "why" do we check for this element? and when it is high why is no one concerned? Well I found out that my body was absorbing these metals to replace what I was apparently losing through blood in my stools. My BM's were still normal. So I made n appointment with my family doctor, he did a blood occult and found blood. He said not to worry because sometimes there are arteries in your gut that can "leak"...what???? So I said fine...a little while later I went on a cycling trip up north and got sick right after it with mucuss type BM's and felt like the worst flue ever; fever, diarrhea etc...I think I may have a more mild episode previous to the bike trip....anyway I went back to the doctor and they found blood in stool again and he decided to order an upper and lower GI. After that we did a colonoscopy and they found UC. I just say it's interesting that I read the lab reports at work about the metals, and seen this coming on, ALTHOUGH I had no idea what I was in for. SOON after the dx from the colonoscopy I was introduced to my first? flare, which in retrospect was not really my first BUT the intensity and severity escalated quickly. Also in retrospect, I have an aunt and uncle that I have seen with their colostomy bags for years and all my life I just kept thinking "I don't want Colitis and have to go through all that!"...well I have it...ARTHRITIS> also before my official dx I would have TERRIBLE arthritic episodes at work mostly. It acted like RA because it would do the same thing on the other side of my body, but not necessarily simultaneously. I had arthritis in my feet and wrists that was CRIPPLING!! It would come on as if my feet were "falling asleep" and progress to the point that I couldn't even touch my foot to the ground without extreme pain, and my wrists have done the same thing with coming on gradually, and it would go away gradually, just like the onset. Aspirin, heat packs, ice packs etc did nothing for that pain. My doctor, who is no longer my doctor, was not good at putting any of this together, even my GI at the time didn't seem to give a rip about my arthritis pain or have much to offer...The arthiritis pain has subsided almost completely since then. My GI at the time said that the Asacol would help with some of the arthritis pain...???
D
Posted 4/14/2009 7:19 PM (GMT 0)
Kim, your symptoms are just about exactly the same as mine. BM about 2 to maybe 3 times a day, usually blood, but can be completely dry at times as well. I first had luck with Asacol for about month and a half then it gave me side effects and didn't seem to help anymore. Now I'm on Colazal, can't seem to get the blood to stop completely either. I never really had diarrhea that much, just urgency, mucus and blood.
Next I have to try is Sulfasalazine with all its side effects, or no drugs at all.
Posted 4/14/2009 7:24 PM (GMT 0)
For me UC started slowly. Just urgency, cramping and several BM's everyday, but really nothing I was concerned about until I had a particularly bad day a couple of years later and found mucus and blood in the stool. At the time my colonoscopy showed only mild disease and I was put on Asacol. It did nothing to help so I quit and did nothing for two years. Then I realized I was spending several days a week chained to the toilet and most bm's had blood. Second colonoscopy showed moderate disease and I landed in the hospital for three days! Asacol and now Entocort have failed so I have an appointment Thurs. with a specialist my GI referred me to.
Posted 4/14/2009 11:01 PM (GMT 0)
My Colitis started as diarrhea. I had bad diarrhea for many years due to antibiotics and poor eating habits. I ignored the diarrhea. I kept eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages, not realizing that my condition could get worse. After all, UC is supposed to be a genetic disease, not something that I could get. I kept getting diarrhea and I kept eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages. Well, one day I started getting blood with the diarrhea. I immediately stopped eating chocolate and drinking HFCS beverages. I started eating fiber. Gradually, I stopped getting blood and diarrhea, and my flare went away on its own. That was my first flare. It lasted three months.
Posted 4/15/2009 12:26 AM (GMT 0)
I started with Proctitis when I was 24. I had always been constipated but noticed blood mixed in with my stool and then mucus. When I asked the first doctor I went to (primary care) what it could be,
he said "cancer, but you are a little young" and referred me to a GI. After upper GI, lower GI, and sigmoidoscopy, I was diagnosed with proctitis. A few years later and I had my first bought with urgency and explosive bloody diarrhea, that's when I found out it had become UC!
Posted 4/15/2009 12:48 AM (GMT 0)
In 99 I started having D. It eventually became all blood and I was going 10+ times a day. Never went to a Dr. b/c I didn't have insurance. This went on for a year, thinking back, I was pretty darn sick. I don't know how I managed working 2 jobs and having a social life! Then one day it just stopped. Was pretty much normal with little blips of D here and there over the years when I would get stressed but always went back to normal, never saw blood. Then I went through a stressful couple of months in a row in 07 and the D came back with cramping. Finally went to a GI and had a colonoscopy. Became pregnant shortly after diagnosis (surprise!). Went into remission while pregnant. A week after delivery I had to take anti-biotics and that stirred up my UC (gah!). Now here I am getting ready to start 6mp.
Posted 4/15/2009 2:32 AM (GMT 0)
Boy, aren't we all different:
Daughter was on acne antibiotics for about three months in the summer of 07, and the in Dec, had bloody stools- went quickly to a GI and the colonoscopy showed UC. Long road from there to here, and still no real relief. We have this in our family tree, but perhaps this was the environmental trigger they speak of. No one seems to care it's orign at this point--when you have it, you have it.
Hope you journey is short and sweet.
Posted 4/15/2009 1:20 PM (GMT 0)
Mine started many years ago when I quit smoking. Within a year I started to have bloating and alternating extreme constipation and days when I went 10 or more times with urgency. Then mucous and blood started, and a full-time feeling of cramps, and going and producing only mucous and blood. Things eased up over a year and a half, I refused prednisone after the first round of it, and let nature take its course. I was more or less in remission for years and then in 2000 after several rounds of antibiotics for sinus infections went into a flare. Pred took me out of it, a year later it all came back and I did pred again. After some years of more or less remission I am now in a state of chronic diarrhea without blood. Nothing seems to help this latest problem and it is almost 2 years, all test come back OK and it is not lactose or celiac either.

Posted 4/15/2009 1:59 PM (GMT 0)
I started showing symptoms as early as 1992 I think, I was 10 or 11. They were just symptoms. When I was out of highschool I had some normal days which was good, so I just ignored it. Then when I was 25 it hit me, and it hit me HARD. In December of 2006, I was sleeping a lot, and then in February 2007, I started going to the bathroom more. By the end of February I went onto Temporary disability. I was just getting worse. By the end of March I was hospitalized because I couldn't keep anything in. I was in the hospital for 25 days. I kinda think it was the pills I was on Asacol makes me go backwards, none of us even my NP thought of that. I ended up getting a blood transfusion in the hospital. By about July or Aug, I was in complete remission.
Posted 4/15/2009 2:50 PM (GMT 0)

Mine started 9 years ago, when I was 24. 

I took an antibiotic called Doxycycline - and I suffered a massive flare. Was in hospital for 4 weeks with severe blood loss.  I have never been the same since :(

Posted 4/15/2009 6:56 PM (GMT 0)
Gave up smoking last january symptoms started feb dx with left sided u/c in may up untill i gave up smoking i was fine and healthy so i thought.Now in bad flare since feb.
Posted 4/15/2009 8:14 PM (GMT 0)
      When I was a kid, my family dr prescribed antibiotics for EVERYTHING.  My UC symptoms started in the fall of 98.  I first noticed mucus in my bowel movements.  My symptoms worsened very quickly....whenever I passed gas mucus would come out (gross I know), diarrhea, blood, tenesmus.  Within two months I had lost almost 20 lbs and was running to the bathroom 15 times a day and passing a LOT of blood.  Had a GI appointment set up but he couldn't see me for three months.  Finally had my husband take me to the ER in the middle of the night when my temp went to 102.  Hospitalized for eight days, had the colonoscopy which revealed UC basically confined to the rectum.
Posted 4/16/2009 1:26 AM (GMT 0)
I was just diagnosed with colitis in January. For 20 years prior, I had bad episodes with my colon-pain and cramping with certain foods. More recently ( past 10 years)  I had constipation regularly but would have episodes of severe cramping, diarrhea, narrow stools, mucus and blood. Finally, after the 2nd colonoscopy in 4 years, they said it was colitis. My first colonoscopy found nothing 4 years ago despite a CT scan that saw inflammation. Now I take colazal that seems to be working. It took several weeks for it to work for me though. The doctor told me to give it at least 4 weeks to start working and he was right. Hang in there! These discussion forums are very good. I have learned a lot these past few weeks. People are very supportive. Good luck to you.
Posted 4/16/2009 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
I was first diagnosed with pseudomembranous colitis associated with c. diff about two years ago at 19-I had been on antibiotics for a UTI, which had recurred, meaning I was on two courses in two weeks. Started off as urgency (and a lot of poop) then progressed to urgency, cramping and blood and then bloody diarrhea. Was told by the doctor at my university's health center that it was 'just stress' and spicy food. Went home to see a GI who gave me a flex sig and told me my colon was inflamed. Presence of c. diff was never confirmed, my mom refused to throw me a trash bag so I could get a stool sample (the GI I visited was near my parents' house). I was given metronidazole but it made me dizzy so I was switched to vancomycin. Symptoms cleared up after 4-5 days but the cramping during bm's never went away and I still had to deal with some urgency (though not as bad as many others, I've never had an accident).

Six months later I started getting diarrhea and went to see my GI again, was told it was gastroenteritis and given probiotics.

Had a few more flares between then and now, mostly pain, urgency and some blood. Went to the ER for one, was basically told by the triage nurse I had Munchausen's. She kept asking me if I wanted to 'talk to someone' (answer: yes. a doctor.) and telling me i wasn't actually sick. I was again diagnosed with gastroenteritis.

In February I started having bad cramping and blood in my bowel movements, eventually progressed to the point where I was pooing nothing but blood for many of my bm's. Health center referred me to a GI, was given a full colonoscopy and diagnosed with UC. Symptoms went away immediately after starting pred (beginning of march.)
Posted 4/16/2009 2:19 PM (GMT 0)
My situation was similar to yours and in 2007 as well. I began seeing a little blood in the toilet after a BM. Mostly on the stool, not so much in the bowl. There would also be blood when I wiped. I made an appointment with a GI and we assumed it was hemmhroids. I went for a sigmoidoscopy and they found a little inflammation in my rectum. The doctor put me on Canasa. I was doing great but I lost my insurance and I couldn't afford the medication. I used them for as long as I could afford and then I started skipping days. my condition deteriorated. I went a few weeks without any medication because my doctor wouldn't represcribe since she hadn't seen me in over a year and I couldn't afford an appointment. I started having worse symptoms, bowls of blood, cramping, gas, D, accidents, on the toilet 10x a day, couldn't hold it at all... I finally had to see a GI and she put me on Asacol. This was after I lost 15 pounds and became anemic. I am now doing pretty well. I hope you are able to keep your symptoms under control.
Posted 4/16/2009 2:43 PM (GMT 0)
It happened during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Seriously.

I remember it well because I went through a couple of days with slight urgency and a small amount of blood, and I was wondering whether I would make it to a date that I had to watch the games with.

I had quit smoking a few months before that. Also, I never was much of a drinker, so I'm not sure if a month of World Cup football when I was drinking a couple of beers every day could have made things worse.
Posted 4/16/2009 5:30 PM (GMT 0)
My UC started about a year after the fall of apartheid as immediately after apartheid we had McDonalds open it's door in our country and I consumed a lot of their junk. My doctor who is from India told me that UC became a problm in India after fast foods like McDonalds started operating in India. McDonalds is a menace to health
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