When did you figure out something was wrong?

I was just thinking back to the sudden, odd turn of events that brought on UC. I was constipated for a year, and had some anal fissure from straining, I guess, no other reason for rectal bleeding. The medication I was on that has a side effect of constipation was Strattera. I decided I couldn't take the constipation anymore so I stopped taking the drug for ADD and anxiety. That was July 26, 2009. I was thrillled when my stools returned to normal, but then they became too normal, runnier, runnier, then pure liquid (never blood). Thought it was the drug withdrawal! Within two weeks I had slid into 15 to 20 BMS a day, then the ER visits and hospitalizations. One month later, after an erroneous CD=diff diagnosis, came a scope and UC.

Was wondering how a UC diagnosis came about for you. Sudden? Over time? False leads?

It was pretty sudden for me.  I'd never had IBS or upset stomach problems or anything, just occasional D when I was on my period.

One day I had pebbles of white (mucus I now know), this went on for a few days then came the blood.

I realized it was not just a hemmie so I went straight to the doc, got scheduled for a colonoscopy and here I am.

I've tried to think back if things changed or came on slowly and I didn't realize it and I just don't think it did.  I had normal stools until that day of the white pebbles.  I hate that day :(

very sudden for me...one day was eating homemade oatmeal cookies Mom sent, and immediately I had to #2. Until Asacol and Rowasa put me in check nothing I ate would stay down. Ironically enough oatmeal cookie is something I can eat now.

Thinking back when I was in Elementary school I would have violent stomach pain late at night. Remember my parents coming in to console me, heating pad seemed to help. I wonder if that was my body telling me something is wrong in the colon

I think a bad case of stomach "flu" virus triggered it, soon after I had taken Accutane. I recovered from the stomach bug, but then I remember going to dinner party (she served spagetti) and suddenly needing to poo like every 10 minutes. I don't remember if I noticed the blood before or after that, but it was when I noticed the blood that I made the appointment with the doctor. I was in law school, and they also had a med school so I had access to a really good GI.
That was 1985, before the Internet!!

I was about 5-6 months pregnant with my third child and i started having D it wasn't urgent and I kept thinking it was milk or something i ate. I even said something to my ob but she said you are probably lactose intolerant and even if something is wrong you are pregnant so they can't do anything. I didn't think anything of it but after I had my daughter in June 2008 I started getting worse. I took her to the doctor one time and I was at a stop light and there was a taco bell like half a mile up and I had to go. I couldn't hold it and I went in my pants, I was soooo embarrassed. My two older boys were in the car and we just laughed it off. Anyways, I had about three accidents and my D started happening more. Don't ask me why I waited so long to go to the doctor. But I kept thinking it was something I was eating, like dairy. But I was standing by the garage one day and I had to go to the bathroom and I couldn't even make it in the house. So in March 2009 I made a doctors appointment with a Gi and here i am. I was diagnosed with severe uc throughout my whole colon. I wish I wouldn't have waited so long but I'm allergic to all 5 asa's and imuran and 6 mp so I don't think it would have mattered.

I noticed something was wrong when I started seeing smears of blood on the TP frequently. I didn't have any other symptoms so I thought it was a scratch or hemmie. Months later I went to a GI and had a sigmoidoscopy where she found and biopsied a small patch of inflammation that came back as UC. I also had a polyp...

Thinking back, I remember a few incidents when I was younger where I had to run for the toilet or had awful, painful gas and I wonder if it was normal or if it was a sign of what was to come.

In early 2010 I started to notice small smears of blood on the toilet paper. This was the only symptom that I had right up until my 1st colonoscopy (30th September 2010) which diagnosed my UC (though the bleeding did gradually increase over that time but was still confined only to the toilet paper). It took me a while to reach my diagnosis because like notsosicklygirl, blood was the only sign. I too thought it was simply a case of hemmies (and so did my GI and GP) so I more or less ignored the bleeding but did intermittent hemmie treatment (which oddly almost stopped the bleeding) till my GI convinced me to have a colonscopy.

The jury is still out on what caused my UC. I had a 3 year stint of the antibiotic Bactrim DS for my acne but during that time I also was consuming a large carton of protein milk each day (for my gym workout) which would always cause diarrhoea afterwards but I just ignored it and kept drinking. I also had a fairly unhealthy diet but I doubt that was the cause.

Post Edited (MaxMilian) : 1/23/2011 6:37:14 PM (GMT-7)

Thinking back I had more D than usual for more than a year up until my diagnosis, but I just thought it was due to stress and unhealthy eating. Prio to my diagnosis I always had D with me periods, and at other times in the month too.

Then I started to have blood on the TP (which I'd had once or twice before, but only in small amounts, so I figured it was a small tear)...and one morning I woke up with a fair amount of blood in my underwear, which I thought was my period (since I was also having stomach cramps), until later in the day when I realized that's not where the blood was coming from, and at the same time realized I was bleeding enough to turn the toilet water bright red. I actually made the realization that something was not right when I was at work and it really freaked me out. I immediately called my doctor (it was a Friday), who scheduled me for an appointment the following Monday. That weekend I had bloody D several times (which was mostly blood), but I was still thinking in the back of my mind the worse case scenario was a hemmie or maybe some sort of tear (I had done a little online reading). I had a colonoscopy about a week later (in the meantime the bleeding and D had at least calmed down a bit, not completely, but I was convinced I Was getting better). I knew something wasn't right when after the procedure the nurse told me the doctor would need to see me in a week, when I had just overheard her tell the person on the other side of the curtain from me that everything was good, and they didn't need to have any follow ups. I didn't know it was UC until I met with my doctor, and that was the first time I had ever heard about UC, and my doctor gave me practically no information about it. He basically said you have UC, and I am going to prescribe you these medications. He didn't tell me it was a forever thing, or anything else about it.

Thinking back I definitely had minor symptoms for more than a year (probably even more than that), but it wasn't until I was bleeding quite a bit that I really knew something wasn't right.

I started having digestive issues at 12 with lactose intolerance and IBS. The summer before I started high school I was away at a camp for a month and I was having constant diarrhea, no blood or mucus. We (my parents and I) thought it was just nerves because I was starting HS because I'm pretty high strung. After I started school the D wasn't going away so I went to my dr and he kept saying "oh its just IBS, you're fine". We went in again for like the 4th time but my primary wasn't available so I saw someone else. I ended up having an h-pylori infection. I was given flagyl to treat it. We were camping and I had HORRIBLE D (still no blood or mucus) so I saw the doctor again and I ended up killing all the good bacteria. A couple months later I was still having problems so I saw a GI and they went through all the tests and concluded I had UC. I never have to this day seen blood and I haven't ever had a c-diff infection. It all just kind of built up.

pretty much overnight...was completely fine the day before and the first BM of the morning was bloody. I instantly knew what it was as my sister had UC....then it was off for a scope.

My long-term IBS started giving me much worse bathroom issues over the summer. I went from morning diarrhea to lunch time and dinner time. It started making me late for work and was more annoying than anything else. By August I decided to get checked for IBD, celiac, parasites, etc. so I saw a GI late-August and she thought the same, that it was IBS. 2 weeks later, sudden bloody diarrhea that got worse and more frequent for 2 weeks. GI scheduled me for last-minute colonoscopy and here I am, a new UC patient.

Post Edited (el greco) : 1/24/2011 1:57:15 AM (GMT-7)

I had a diarrhea attack for a week and had lost a lot of weight even in that time. My primary doc just gave me lomotil....helped the diarrhea, but was stoned on that stuff so didn't see the purpose in taking it.

Eventually, my weight loss equalled 17 pounds...109 pounds on a 5'8" frame was horrific.

It continued for almost 3 years and one day..normal urge to explode ended up with a toilet full of blood. NO blood before that day...
Bms increased steadily. 

My primary sent me for an undignified barium enema and nothing showed. She suggested that I was so very lucky to not have UC since they suffer complete hell.
Her ONLY good move was to send me to a gastro doc....who took a look the first day showing friable inflammation extended past the rigid scope, He suspected UC but did all the tests for elimination first, but he still put me on asacol that day.  My symptoms did improve over the few weeks when I had the c.scope..  15 inches of moderate inflammation and rectal meds became my friend from that point onward.

The most bms I had were up to 20 times a day which lessened once I was on the asacol.  Once on the rectal meds...bms lessened markedly, but it took a long while for the bleeding, etc to lessen. 

I think if my primary would have had me do the stool samples 3 years prior, I would have at least had an idea if it was a gastro invader or not.

For the record...I did lots of food changes and kept a food/ingestion/bm diary. Nothing jibed.

q

After I had my child in my 30s - started to bleed when he was around 3-4 months old - don't really remember the exact time, everything was a busy blur back then. Assumed they were post delivery hemmies, didn't get a colonoscopy until he was 2 and didn't really use any medication until he was 2 1/2 years old when he stopped breastfeeding.
Never had a stomach bug in my entire life or any digestive problems. No family history of AI diseases, was breastfed for over 1 year, grew up in a developing country with little to no IBD history. I've always been a very healthy eater (whole foods only, organic, no soda, fast food, smoking, drinking etc). Ate yogurt and fermented veggies all my life. Love to cook, never a prepackaged / processed food type person.
But I've always had a very stressful life - working 12+ hours/day, little sleep etc including while pregnant. I'm also very type A.