HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

What caused the onset of your UC? Mine was onset by antibiotics.

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
1 2
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/10/2010 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
Mine started during pregnancy. My latest flare I think started from taking ibuprofen for a back problem. Antibiotics never effect me either way.
Posted 3/10/2010 3:30 PM (GMT 0)
Contrary to GI's belief, I know why I got UC b/c I was fine up until one day in January 2005. There may have been some other factors conributing to the onset, but I know what triggered it. I was freshly out of college and was hanging out with an old hometown friend I grew up with and his wife. We drank beer all night long. The next day I went out to eat at a restaurant and couldn't even eat. I got D. Then a week later blood and mucus. Then I thought I was going to die. One month later I had a colonoscopy and found out I had colitis. Like 3 days on prednisone stopped the bleeding completely and I underestimated the severity of the disease until I used Antibiotics and they turned my world totally upside down again a year after my first flare...
Posted 3/10/2010 3:34 PM (GMT 0)
I really believe that Mono caused my UC.
Posted 3/10/2010 3:53 PM (GMT 0)
I think mine was caused by too much Advil.  I had shin splints and was popping at least 2 Advils every day for a month to get ready for my marathon.  A week after my marathon, I started seeing blood.
Posted 3/10/2010 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
I've used tons of antibiotics over the course of my lifetime, but I believe oveuse of NSAIDS is what caused my colitis. I picked up rebar that was too heavy and even though I only lifted it a couple of inches and then put it back down, it was enough to cause sever tendonitis that lasted nearly a year. It started in my shoulder then seemed to spread throughout my body, mainly affecting my knees and shoulders. I took NSAIDS extremely regularly, as nothing else seemed to help for the pain. I eventually wanted to stop taking them and had about eight acupuncture treatments. It was expensive, but I haven't had a problem with tendonitis since. I've cried over it and kicked myself mentally for taking NSAIDS so much, but I realize that what's done is done, and I can only move forward.
Posted 3/10/2010 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
I am pretty sure mine was triggered by postpartum hormones and hormonal changes after stopping breatsfeeding. My UC symptoms started about 7 months after delivering my twins and right after stopping to breastfeed. I have a strong family history of auto immune disorders though and have always had ibs symptoms.
Posted 3/10/2010 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
I think mine was caused by Accutane diagnosed for acne - I think I had immune problems after this and then when travelling I caught amoebic dysentry then the rest is history!!
Posted 3/11/2010 5:10 AM (GMT 0)
It seems that by age 6 my immune system was already kind of wonky-- because I got a bad reaction to the then-required smallpox vaccination. Some months later I caught rubeola and really felt sick & weak from a couple weeks fighting that off. Then the following two winters came tonsillitis, treated with Aureomycin because I was allergic to Penicillin. In my teenage years I started to swell enormously at the site of mosquito bites. Tonsillitis returned in my 20s, when I was treated with Tetracyline & Keflex 500. That propelled me toward UC. It started for real with expulsion of bloody mucus. I also got an intestinal amebiasis that required treatment with Flagyl, which led to severe proctosigmoid UC. Yeccccchhh! / Old Hat (30 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 3/11/2010 3:01 PM (GMT 0)
I think I've actually had really mild UC for years. Off and on throughout my 20's I'd just feel icky for a few days at a time with no viral cause in sight. It would happen once a year once every other year... never got to bleeding, just I'd have a lot of what I thought was crazy gas pain and be constipated few days and then poopy for a few days. The real trouble for me began during pregnancy. I had a lot of constipation and bleeding that I thought was hemmies. The first GI doctor I went to actually banded a few hemmies and seemed pretty sure that's where all the bleeding came from. I delivered my daughter via c-section and thing were just never the same. I had a lot of bloating and irregularity. Some bleeding and just kind felt yucky. My GI thought I had IBS and gave me an Rx to try. I just never felt great. Then July 2008 I got in to see a GI. He did colonoscopy and saw very mild UC in my sigmoid. So I was on Mesalamine enemas every night. He said as things improved I could lower the dose but they never did, really. I felt fine most of the time but had a few days every month where I was actually doubling up. At the time it didn't occur to me it was probably spreading but it was. So, then current super gnarly flare came after a month combo of: super stress + terrible cold + stomach bug + ANOTHER stomach bug back to back. By the time my system had been through all that I was shot. My doctor was also a little slow to get me on heavy meds because up until then I was a mild case for him. Well, now I'm a whole colon not 100% sure it's not Crohn's kinda gal.

So, in a nut shell, it came on gradually. This flare was caused by my system be extremely taxed in December.
Posted 3/13/2010 1:11 AM (GMT 0)
It could have been any number of things for me:

1. Two courses of Acutane

2. Quitting smoking

3. Being on antibiotics for acne for over 20 years.

Pick one, your guess is as good as mine! I think the odds were stacked against me after all of the above.

Posted 3/13/2010 2:21 AM (GMT 0)
I think my UC was kicked off by a nonspecific viral infection. I had all the symptoms of mono but blood work did not confirm it. I started getting better on my own so decided not to get more bloodwork done. A year later, the same viral mono-like symptoms came back ... slowly, US symptoms started adding up. First it was having to run to the bathroom sometimes when I drank coffee. It started getting bad when drinking my revered Sonic Dr. Pepper (I swear they put addicting drugs in it), I would have major burning and cramps. Add stress I was going through at the time and I was ripe for the UC picking!
Posted 3/13/2010 9:32 PM (GMT 0)
I started getting symptoms when I was pregnant with my third child.  I think that did it.  I did have my gall bladder out because I would get upper right sided pain and had polyps in it.  That was in 2003.  I wonder if I had UC before or the start of it and then something (my pregnancy) triggered it.  Before my UC I went to the bathroom maybe once a day if not everyother.  All I know is it sucks.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
12